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232 out of 341 people found the following comment useful :-
Is it really anti-semitic manure?, 3 February 2006
7/10
Author: eat_more_chikin from United States

I liked this movie.. I know it was a big deal back in Turkey, since it had a soap opera and all but I didn't have any knowledge about that when I watched the movie. If you think this movie is anti-semitic or brings up the issue of raising anti-American spirit, I'd like to remind you the midnight express movie. Americans shall be as well very familiar with the effect of a wrong assumption/judge-mental movie... You see it here in the United States every day, on TV, on movies and etc. I don't understand what is the big deal when another country does the same to the US? We should have the same criterion's for any movie not depending on their nationality but their qualifications. So overall, I suggest this movie not only because it is a perception of another culture also because it is a fun adventure type movie..

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160 out of 244 people found the following comment useful :-
Turkish addendum to how our world has gone out of control., 19 February 2006
10/10
Author: azrailangelo from Austria

In times of "Syriana", "Constant Gardener" and "Lord of War" this movie is the Turkish addendum to how our world has gone out of control. It is more right than ever to say that those who have power want more power those who have money want more money in any circumstances without any morals. So I wonder why some people complain about these facts, when this movie shows them to the viewers, if those people are for democracy, freedom and equality between all humans. Almost every mature man and woman knows and understands why the US has gone in to Iraq. After it has been covered up, what had been obvious to most of the Turkish and middle-eastern people, it was only a question of time, when such a movie would come out.

While "Syriana" reflects the dirty business of oil and corruption, while "Constant Gardener" reflects the dirty business of pharmaceuticals and corruption and while "Lord of War" reflects the dirty business of gunrunners and corruption "Kurtlar Vadisi Irak" gives a little bit insight what is going on in a country, occupied by those who want more power and more money, whatever it may costs in human-lives and human-dignity.

About the events shown in this movie, we have been aware of through various media before, haven't we? So what changes our minds as mature and righteous human beings, when we see those events in a movie, played by actors? We should condemn them in the same way we did before no matter if it is a bombing of innocents by the occupiers or if it is a bombing of innocents by suicide-attacks.

Is this an anti-Us movie? No this is an anti-war, anti-corruption and an anti-imperialism movie. "Kurtlar Vadisi Irak" does not condemn a whole nation like once "Midnight Express" did in the most shabby way, it damns those who know no ethical standards and show no respect to other cultures, religions and nations.

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105 out of 162 people found the following comment useful :-
This movie can help us understand how many Turkish, Arabic or Muslim people feel and think, 20 February 2006
9/10
Author: cb-71 from Germany

Most German newspapers (e.g. www.spiegel.de) said the film is anti-American, anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, and is bad because it deepens the existing "culture clash" even more.

I don't agree. Well, of course the movie is one-sided. With a single exception the Americans in the movie are unscrupulous, dead-heartened and bloodthirsty. They humiliate people of other countries/cultures/religion, don't care about deaths of innocent civilians, maltreat prisoners, etc. Of course most Americans are not like this, but as we know from the pictures and videos from Abu Ghureib and from several other incidents, most of these things did really happen. Why should it be not allowed to show these things in a movie? One scene remind me strongly of holocaust movies: captives are transported on a long journey in a container on a truck. One guard says to the other: they might suffocate in the container because there is no fresh air supply. The truck stops, the (American) guard gets off the truck and fires with an automatic gun hundreds of bullet-holes into the container and creates a bloodbath among the captives. Well, if a holocaust movie shows German Nazis committing terrible things, I don't object too. OK, I don't really know if something like this container incident did really happen in Iraq, but we know that many bad enough things did actually happen.

There are interesting scenes e.g. where a sheik stops some fanatists from executing an American journalist and confronts them with facts why this has nothing to do with Islam, or another one where he discusses with suicide bombers why their plans are wrong.

This movie can help us understand how many Turkish, Arabic or Muslim people feel and think. It is provocative, one-sided, and mixes historic truth with fiction in a questionable way. However isn't that a good starting point for discussing these issues? Sometimes provocation is necessary to get people start talking. First we need to learn to talk about our own feelings. Then we can talk to each other. It's not very healthy if the political correctness keeps telling us to not talk about what we really think and feel just because it could violate other peoples feelings.

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142 out of 252 people found the following comment useful :-
Polat Alemdar goes to Iraq, not only with the usual weapons, but also with the usual mentality..., 1 February 2006
5/10
Author: imedebe from Turkey

After being the top TV series of Turkey for many years, Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves) now appears as a cinema film. Year 1996 was a break stone in Turkish cinema history, in which Eskiya (The Bandit) was seen by more than one million people, which could be counted a very high number for that time. People started to revise their opinions about the national cinema. After Eskiya, high-budget movies followed, being seen by millions of people, and giving out the signs that Turkey was in fact a really profitable country for film-making, if the needs of the people were analyzed well. The result of the analysis is simple: People would pay for the movies if they knew the cast from television. Good or bad, every movie having its basis on TV worked well on the screen. Kurtlar Vadisi Irak will do good on the screen, without any doubt, for the same reason. However, there is a difference now. The movie is based on the characters from the series, but the story is completely different. It zooms in the war in Iraq, with a different subjectivity than the American one. The makers of the movie could base the story on the mafia events that the viewers of the TV series were used to, but they took a risk and carried the war to the screen. Billy Zane appears in the movie, which will take the attention of international viewers. Time will show, if the movie is going to be a success out of Turkey, but we can say, it has simply guaranteed the top in Turkey.

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75 out of 129 people found the following comment useful :-
The other side of the medal, 23 February 2006
7/10
Author: rawkidd from Switzerland

As mentioned before here somewhere, there is a true hysteria on going in Europe about this movie, which i don't understand at all. Why is it, that people get up now and denunciate the content. What is wrong with them guys ? I mean Hollywood produced Bullsh.. for years, and told so called "true" stories one-sided and no one ever said a word about their manipulative policy. Russians have been showed bad and evil for years, then the Japanese, then the Arabian world and it always was OK. Who says, the good guys are always American ? Who says justice is being made by stars'n'stripes ? Once Oliver Stone dragged a whole country and its people in the mud and every consumer thought, ooohhh yeah, so this is what Turkey is about. And when the Turks complained about that movie, Hollywood's answer was: Hey, it's just a movie. Don't take serious. Exact the same thing word, is what I'm saying now: Hey, it's only Showbiz !!! But back to the movie.

Valley of Wolves sure has some lacks in professionalism but what has to be said: the movie is thrilling. Besides the American actors, which are chosen very well, the Turkish ones have some work to do to take place in the higher class. But of course, there are also very touching moments, like the Hospital visit from the main character. The special and action effects are not bad but are too limited in its volume to be really spectacle.

I think it is a solid action movie and for once told from the other side than the usual "hero saves the world" stuff.

cheers.

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24 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
Great action movie - very controversial in the west, 16 December 2006
8/10
Author: Andres Salama from Buenos Aires, Argentina

A commando of Turkish intelligence agents enter Irak to avenge a real life episode in the war where Turkish soldiers were arrested and blindfolded by American troops. A very good action film, condemned unseen by many in the west, it represents at least a change of pace by showing the Muslims as the good guys and the Americans as the bad guys. The movie is actually very strongly against terrorism (the Sheikh in the movie criticizes the terrorists who wants to behead an American journalist, and prevents this from happening) but is also against American ignorant meddling in the Middle East. Most of all, though, Valley of the Wolves is a terrific action movie. And Billy Zane - who has apologized to the American press for appearing in this film - has actually one of the best performances in his career as a real meanie.

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19 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Just a B-action movie, but behind it is a very good message, 23 February 2007
Author: Michael A. Martinez (aylmer666@juno.com) from Los Angeles, CA

It's actually surprisingly slick for a Turkish movie, considering it's also part of an ongoing TV series, kinda like their "24".

The Good:

The actors all did well, and I'm surprised to see so many real American actors, including Busey and Zane in such a blatantly anti-war movie. The music The cinematography The editing The special effects

The Bad:

The production design is cheap by movie standards. The US military uniforms are not very believable and many of the US soldiers speak with thick accents (especially the jailer at Abu Ghraib). The plot is not believable, with the four Turkish special forces guys taking out a LOT of American G.I.'s at the climax. The US soldiers are shown to be cartoonishly evil - one guy even kills one of his own men for threatening to tell on him for killing some Iraqi civilians! Gary Busey as a Jewish Doctor harvesting organs to send to the West - a bit far fetched.

As ludicrous as it gets, this movie is a real eye-opener to how the Islamic world sees us. The war is controversial and polarizing here, just like this movie and most Americans are gonna love it or hate it long before they actually watch it. I liked it. One almost never sees an American (non-documentary) movie with the guts to be so completely one-sided, especially when our questionable foreign policy is involved. US soldiers as the bad guys, led by a fanatical Christian zealot, is definitely not something one sees every day. This movie is kinda like THE OMEGA CODE 2 turned on its head. Between the bad and the good, VALLEY OF THE WOLVES: IRAQ at least never fails to be entertaining.

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17 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
A good action film, 27 May 2006
10/10
Author: kjdd97 from United States

The film compresses a series of proved (in some cases alleged) atrocities by American soldiers in Iraq into a single story line. Fine. I have no problem with that, and it works pretty well because what is portrayed in the film rings bells of recognition by the viewer. We all know about Abu Ghraib…about massacres at wedding parties…about people dying of suffocation in closed transport trucks…about rogue soldiers.

So is it propaganda? Maybe. But so what? It's no worse than the hundreds of American "action" films over the past several decades that targeted Eastern Europeans, Arabs, Muslims, Iranians, Russians, Latin Americans….basically, the rest of the non-American world.

I liked it.

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21 out of 35 people found the following comment useful :-
My salute to the producer, 21 May 2006
7/10
Author: j199 from Singapore

The making itself is not that great as most viewers have said. However, the action is entertaining enough. But I think what is more important is the subject of the movie. I'm glad that someone is finally has the gut to make a movie on the real injustice that committed by the America. It's amazing how many narrow minded people actually refuse to accept the truth about US army in Iraq. The massacre of civilian by US solder has already been reported by Time magazine and now the US defend department finally bowed to public pressure to investigate. Here's a report by US newspaper so no more arguments about the fact behind this movie. www.registerguard.com /news /2006 /05 /20 /a3.nat.iraqprobe.0520.p1.php?section=nation_world. (you need to remove the spaces in between to form a valid url)

I just hope we have a real hero like in the movie as well.

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7 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Seen from another perspective, 26 November 2007
10/10
Author: Texan_man from Incirlik, TR

I am currently posted in Turkey and as TEXAN I had to watch this movie!! Not being Liberal-Pinkie I kept an open mind and I would recommend YOU watch this movie when it is released on DVD. It is easy to BLOG from where you sit and not realise that Turkey is in the "Valley of Wolves". 30,000 people have died due to terror and the 91 Gulf war nearly bankrupted the Turkish Economy. So it is unfair to put any blame on Turkey or the Turkish people for their sentiment.

Keep in mind that Turkey and Israel conduct joint military operations, assist each other with regards to armaments upgrades. No need to explain that the biggest threat to Turkey comes from religious and Kurdish terrorists. Please note that I said religious fanatics and not Muslim -Islamic fanatics.

In fact the movie stresses this difference. The movie repeatedly shows near "news release" events over the past 3 yrs ..., arrest of Turkish Allies, Abu Ghraib, the "Wedding Incident" etc. None seemed fictional to me (yes the movie is shockingly brutal) No true friend or Ally can be expected to back the other 100%. This is ever more true when one has been brutalised. The Turkish proverb " A frank ( blunt speaking) friend is better than a flattering fool" comes to mind.

A Democratic- Secular Turkey is the LAST BEST hope for US (aka Western World). You can be assured that behind the scenes Turkey has logistically supported US troops far more than anyone cares to admit. Well maybe the 2004 bombings in Istanbul showed that Al Qaida felt that the Turks had to punished.

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