"No End in Sight" (Documentary) (2007) - Movie Review

“No End in Sight” title cannot be more appropriate and descriptive of the situation in Iraq and the film has in it too as per its conclusive element. As it says, it does not promise a solution but an iterative step wise presentation of things done perfectly and ill mannerly wrong are structurally given. The documentary sketches its first dot on its screen from the day Saddam Hussein’s regime got overthrown. The Iraqi civilians welcoming and thanking the US forces and then the procedural exercise of post war debacles are explained in detail from the people who were part of it. The film is neither pro-war nor anti-war but a calculated study of how tasks were set upon the post war Iraq and how bad it got done.

Charles H. Ferguson had interest in films for over 20 years and learning upon no film being taken upon the policy fiascos in Iraq by the US, he made this movie as Wiki says. That explains a lot about the systematic approach of the documentary. There is never a screen moment which goes in circles or mainly uninteresting. It is points and points of terse things taken in a route which still poses detrimental results in a country which is pretty much in a state of anarchy. So is it a blame game? Perceiving on that fact it might give an opinion of that sort but these are the people who served and are been in that state of affairs in it and in Iraq. Some of the people curse themselves for not speaking out loud and make the situation better. The agenda out here does not have a conclusion or solution. If there would have been a solution or solution been heard, it would not have resulted in this documentary.

Brushing aside those doubts over the neutrality of this exercise, it candidly shows the current status of shambled, desolated and rubble filled streets of Baghdad. People afraid to have a social life and get locked up in their houses for a country of prison only that prison wars are more and takes up lives of innocence. It is a focus on the leaders who failed to pierce through the long vision of settling up a government of peace and purpose. It is a provision for the key players who were disregarded or excluded from the key decisions without any consultation or discussion of any sort. The film does not beat around the widely debated and vehemently criticized act of getting into war but how the next step was not even brought into the attention of the architects of it.

“Lions for Lambs” could have shown this movie as its preview. A documentary precisely is to document the events. True to its nature the film shows us the detailed nature of the people who witnessed the inability and improperly planned stay in the country. Every one who tell their stories of how bad things got worse, bring their frustration not alone for their outlet but for a purpose to be seen upon. And the only person who literally showed an inconsistency of information and not looking eye to eye with the screen is Walter Slocombe, a senior advisor for Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad. The only member in the documentary who struggles to clear out the names and is not able to give a concrete answer like others does.

There is no fancy game or sarcastic tone. It is failure to listen and mainly understand the ground reality of how people are involved in mistakes which now cruelly facilitating the chaos in Iraq and providing a source of hatred, mainly being helpless of seeing a country going into grounds. The music of Peter Nashel echoes the concept of what the film emits. A series of mistakes and the tragedies are rightly backed by his score which is not promoting to be sympathetic but a feeling of hopelessness of the situation.

What can be done? The film does not answer as I said previously. Then what is the real nature in producing the documentary? Does a documentary need to provide answer? Yes but not in the open clean way but as any film dealing with a dead lock situation. It ignites strong discussion and inspires action in people. “No End in Sight” chronicles the disasters and unfortunately which still goes on in floor level basis. It gives us how an average civilian life of an Iraqi gets butchered out of the misleading techniques and thoroughly messed up process of post war stabilization.