21 Days to Baghdad

 

 

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This is a very good documentary even if the content is too liberal. What I enjoyed about it was the stunning visuals. True to the character of National Geographic the photography was simply excellent. I would recommend this video for that reason alone.

Documentaries are by nature presenting a point of view and this one is the typical liberal media outlook on war - any war - and very poor in its overall analysis of the results of achieving victory and what that will mean for the war on terrorism. Few documentaries I have ever seen go very deeply into what the causes and results of wars may be. Nothing is mentioned of the disruption of the flow of large sums of money to the terrorist or the denial of a large bureaucratic structure to the terror organizations etc. Typical superficial view of war and the practical realities behind the fighting.

But you can't beat the visuals. And what, after all, is the main reason for watching something on the screen? Visuals. The pictures are what this video is all about and worth every dime to see the footage shot.

The filming and narration is handled well. Tight and well edited all the way. I wish other documentaries would edit and control the flow of the documentary as well as this one. Good job.

While not a complete disappointment, this documentary could have been much better. Admittedly the filmmakers manage to cram quite a lot of information in the rather brief running time (1 hour), but it is too short.
After a very brief introduction about the reasons that led to this military conflict, 21 DAYS TO BAGHDAD shifts aboard carrier
vessel USS TARAWA, where we see marines training for the upcoming combat. The US strategy focussing on high tech, flexiblity and special forces is explained. Officers explain weatherforcast for military purposes. Then 21 DAYS TO BAGHDAD
details the story of this successful military campaign in day by day form. While we get to see all the familiar aspects of the conflict (the "shock and awe" aerial bombardments starting the war on 20/3, sandstorms delaying the advance of the Allied troops, the ludicrious antics of Iraqi "information" minister
Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf, Jessica Lynch's story, special forces operating behind enemy lines) a lot of the proceedings focus on an embedded journalist advancing with marines and a National
Geographic film team in Bagdad secretely filming the aerial bombardments. I was particularly impressed by this footage. I was also impressed by the combat footage, where marines fought for a bridge with Iraqi soldiers.
Again, there is a lot of information in this documentary, but in my view it lacks depth.
Extra features are impressive, but, once again, lack depth. There are bonus interviews with the journalists, which are quite interesting. They comment how they managed to film the aerial bombardments on the sly from the balcony of their hotel and the experience of being in the field together with the marine unit. There is also a feature called Interactive War Zone Map (= a day by day account of important events of the war with troop movements shown on a map.) Sounds interesting, but I wish the map would have been more detailed. An option to zoom in would also have been welcomed by me. Then there is a Tools of the War feature (files on war vehicles and weapons). It is divided into 3 sections (air, land, weapons). The e.g. weapon section consists of files on the following:
* GPS-guided bomb
* laserguided bomb
* cruise missile
* Javelin anti-tank missile
* bunker buster bomb
However, do not expect too much. Each "file" consists of a single image and a very brief description.
Rounding up the extra section of the DVD are three trailers for other National Geographic DVDs: INSIDE THE PENTAGON, VIETNAM`S UNSEEN WAR (about the conflict from the Vietnamese perspective; this indeed looks quite interesting) and LEWIS AND CLARKE: GREAT JOURNEY WEST.

This DVD had very little new information about gulf war II, and was essentially just summing up the major events.

It was also very low in technical content and veeery us-centric.
The battle of Basra was scarcely mentioned, let alone the british use of Alarms to loiter above Baghdad, knocking out AA radars as they came online.
I would have liked to see something more about the use of the B52's as cruise missile platforms, or more about the in-flight retargeting of planes. Something special about the conflict was the astonishingly low time from target aquisition, to coalition planes being able to put steel on target.

The dvd is also high on interviews, and low on action footage.

This is probably a nice dvd for military fanboys with low technical knowledge...but for the rest of us this is a thing to avoid. I bet anyone having served or serving in the armed forces will find this dvd shallow and superficial.

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5.0 out of 5 stars 21 Days To Baghdad
The minute that I started watching this I wouldn't stop until it was over. It had me very interested. Read more

Published on Sep 29 2003 by aco_70th_en_bn

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling look at Operation Iraqi Freedom
National Geographic has done itself proud in its production of the three most critical weeks of military action in Iraq. Read more

Published on July 31 2003 by Kyle Tolle

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