I was totally blown away by this film. I must admit my expectations were minimal as I braced myself for another ripped from the headlines (and jingoistic flag waving) movie of the week. But my prediction was pleasantly shattered by the first 40 minutes which drew me into the horror of war as if it were a 100 million dollar feature. The prelude to the ambush, the ambush itself and the aftermath (including a very scary hospital scene shot in an almost avant garde style) were devastating. But what made 'Lynch' resonate even more was the fact that the soldiers were cooks and clerks, not Rangers, Navy Seals etc. It was the flip side of BLACKHAWK DOWN. I found this film to be brilliantly antiwar and certainly not one that I would think the current administration would rally around to promote its agendas. Jessica Lynch was presented as an almost unwitting bystander in the ordeal. She couldn't a job at Walmart and enlisted in the army as an alternative. She ends up in the back seat of a humvee in a combat zone and on her back in an Iraqi hospital. Believe me, there is enough drama swirling her to sustain anyone's interest. To quote the New York Times review from Nov. 7th, "the ambush scene is surprisingly good, particularly the moments just before the Americans come under fire, shoot back and ultimately surrender. The convoy's slow,silent and eerie drive into an Iraq controlled section of Nasiriya past stunned enemy soldiers and frightened civilians, and the commanding officer's sweaty seconds of indecision, provide as intimate a glimpse of combat fright as television offers." Frank Rich's article in the New York Times the day it aired (Pfc. Jessica Lynch isn't Rambo now Nov. 9) applauded the film for its integrity. He writes, "given the facts as we know them to date, it is startling in its relative accuracy - more than earlier reportage by the Washington Post and the New York Times". He continues and writes, "its existence as prime time entertainment during the commercially calculating ratings wars of a sweeps week reflects another change in the country's mood, toward harder nosed realism and away from unrestrained triumphalism". Many of the other reviews that I read seemed to have missed the point or the reviewers never bothered to see the film. TIME magazine said in their review that 'the battle scene was so chaotic one couldn't determine if Lynch fired her rifle or not.' She didn't fire her weapon in the NBC film I saw. I don't know what he was watching (or not watching). The film is also balanced in terms of its depiction of the Iraqi point of view. The second part of the film details the involvement of an Iraqi lawyer in the rescue of Lynch. His fights with his wife who is no lover of the United States demonstrates the atomization of Iraqi society having lived under Hussein. At one point Mohammed (the lawyer) says that the Americans will protect them. His wife replies as she looks out the window of her house, "what Americans? I don't see any Americans. I only see buildings and markets bombed by Americans." The sense of mistrust is pervasive, a key condition that bears scrutiny, and is given detailed treatment by the film. And even though the outcome of the piece is not a mystery it was nevertheless riveting. Particularly emotional is the scene when the soldiers find the bodies of Lynch's compatriots buried in the sand outside the hospital and have to dig them up by hand. I started cruising the internet and found an interesting quote. The article read, "at best SAVING JESSICA LYNCH may come off an anti-war but never anti-soldier, a story of real risks and real fears pulled off amazingly well for a so-called television movie. SJL is an account of people, not nations; of the terror of war.
Review of Saving Jessica Lynch
