War and peace: Through the lens of war

The War Tapes photo courtesy of SenArt Films / Scranton/Lacy Films

By Shay Totten | Vermont Guardian

Posted August 4, 2006

Mike Moriarty has a message for Hollywood: “I dare you to promote this film.”

“This film” is the critically acclaimed, award-winning documentary The War Tapes, in which soldiers are the ones shooting the footage and providing the running commentary. It’s the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves.

Moriarty was one of those soldiers, filling 225 80-minute tapes, or 300 hours of the more than 800 hours of raw footage that he and four others took during their yearlong deployment in Iraq as part of Charlie Company, 3rd of the 172nd Infantry Regiment, which includes some Vermonters.

The regiment lived through more than 1,200 combat operations and 250 direct enemy engagements, nearly one a day, during their year of “boots on the ground.”

The War Tapes is not a political film in the usual sense; rather, it allows the soldiers to reveal their politics and opinions candidly, whether they support or oppose their mission. Politically, the film remains neutral as a whole; however, there is plenty of fodder for everyone.

Moriarty, of Windsor, NH, has no illusions that Hollywood will pick up the film. “This film is too middle of the road,” he said.

The film was the winner of the Best International Documentary Competition at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, and a similar award at the recent BRIT DOC festival in England. It opens Aug. 11 at Burlington’s Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas, and is already playing at theaters around the country.

Moriarty, in an interview with the Vermont Guardian, said 9/11 rekindled his sense of patriotism and duty as a soldier, and he wanted to serve his country in some capacity. “I would have gone anywhere at that point, — Afghanistan, Iraq, or even served somewhere stateside.”

Nearly too old to serve, he re-enlisted and left his wife and two kids to spend a year in the so-called Sunni Triangle, one of the most dangerous sections of Iraq, facing rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), small-arms fire, and roadside bombs on a daily basis.

Moriarty said the film shows what soldiers go through every day, as well as the sacrifices that their loved ones make.

“One thing that is very appealing about making a war film is that even on a boring day, in war the footage is interesting, and they all show the soldiers and the heroism, but rarely do they show the sacrifice of the wives and mothers,” he said. “This film gives them a pat on the back; they are the unsung heroes of this war.”

Filming the front lines

The film tells the story of Operation Iraqi Freedom through the eyes of Sgt. Zack Bazzi, Sgt. Steve Pink, and Moriarty. Bazzi is a Lebanese-American university student who loves politics and traveling. Pink is a young carpenter with a sense of humor who enlisted to help pay for college.

The film’s director, Deb Scranton, who previously filmed a documentary about New Hampshire’s World War II vets, was joined on the project by Chuck Lacy of Jericho, after the pair met during a graduate writing class at Dartmouth College, Lacy told the Guardian.

Scranton and Lacy traveled to Fort Dix, NJ, during the unit’s eight-week combat training with 10 cameras and hopes of finding at least that many soldiers interested in participating. In all, 17 soldiers agreed to film their tour, but in the end five did most of the filming.

Moriarty said he was reluctant to take part, expecting his footage to be used as anti-war propaganda.

After seeing Scranton’s WW II documentary, his opinion changed and he took part in the project.

Moriarty said he quickly became accustomed to having the camera with him.

“From day one, the very day we left the wire for the first time — it was an unbelievable day of destruction. I probably fired off thousands of rounds and had rockets going by my head. The camera was the least of my worries,” he said.

Moriarty said since it was soldiers with the cameras, there was more open dialogue and less guarded talk among each other. “If it had been an embedded reporter in the back seat, it would be different,” he said.

The message

Often loaded with expletives, some of the dialogue reveals the candor of soldiers in combat — sometimes critical of politicians, each other, and the insurgents.

During one brief exchange, Pink asks a fellow soldier to describe the reasons for being in Iraq. The soldier glibly talks about establishing a free and democratic Iraq, which will help to spread peace in the Middle East and stabilize the region.

“Is that how you really feel?” Pink asks.

“Yes, and maybe after all that happens we can buy everybody in the world a puppy,” the soldier replies.

In another instance, Moriarty notes that while a supporter of Pres. George Bush, he is flabbergasted at how the president could declare that “major combat operations are over, given the kind of conflicts that we’re seeing every day.”

The soldiers were given mostly free rein to film what they saw, but some footage was held back, including that of the dead bodies of insurgents who attacked Pink’s squadron while on patrol. A fellow soldier of Pink’s was injured in the attack.

In another incident, Moriarty’s patrol, while providing protection for a private contractor’s supply convoy, hit a woman trying to cross in front of their humvee. In violation of military policy, his vehicle stopped to rescue the woman. But it was too late.

Moriarty told the Guardian that this scene is one that he remembers vividly, and was the only time during his deployment that he erased footage.

“I had footage of us hitting the woman, and I erased it. I didn’t think it was anything that anyone else needed to see,” he said.

Moriarty is now working full-time for the film’s production company helping to market the film by appearing at screenings and giving media interviews. He said he plans to hit the college lecture circuit and has no plans to return to Iraq.

“They could offer me $500,000 and I would not go back,” he said in the movie’s closing moments. “What would you do if someone gave you $500,000 for your son to never see you again? I’m glad I went, but … I feel like its someone else’s turn now.”

Bazzi, who during the movie pledged to recycle more and drive a hybrid car when he got home to lessen his oil dependency, said candidly, “I love being a soldier. The only bad thing about the Army is you can’t pick your war.”

Piecing it all together

Scranton worked with the guardsmen from her farmhouse in New Hampshire, guiding their filming through instant messaging and e-mail.

While the soldiers filmed overseas, stateside the filmmaking team shot an additional 200 hours of tape documenting the effect of their deployment on the soldiers’ families while the soldiers were gone and after they returned home.

Distilling the 1,000 hours of tape into a 97-minute movie took more than year, and the crew has plans for a second DVD to be released with the stories of five additional soldiers from the unit, said Lacy. Already, the filmmakers have posted some of the cut footage online on the movie’s website.

Lacy said the decision to let the soldiers shoot the film is the best decision they made.

“I think the film was stronger because we didn’t go,” said Lacy.

In the end, Lacy said the film tries not to make any moral or political judgments; he believes that people will not likely be swayed either way by the film.

“For most Americans war is a political issue, because most Americans don’t know anybody who is serving over there,” said Lacy. “This film creates an experience to make the war a more personal one.”

Lacy said he became very attached to the men in the unit, and Moriarty even said that Lacy, who filmed Moriarty’s wife and children while he was serving, took time to read books to his son and jump on a trampoline with him.

For Lacy, that kind of involvement spoke to another theme of the movie.

“The thing we learned about the Vietnam War is that we need to separate soldier from policy,” he added. “With this film, people will see soldiers are serving for the right reasons and are basically doing what they’ve been asked to do, and as a free society that’s their job.”

Moriarty agrees, and believes the film stays true to that. He’s glad that the film represents a variety of soldiers’ viewpoints.

“Given the fact that they only had 97 minutes for the film and they had over 1,000 hours of film, I think they did a pretty good job keeping it non-political — for the most part,” said Moriarty. “As soldiers, we know that we signed the bottom line, and no matter our beliefs, we’re there to do a job.”

To see more about the movie, go to www.wartapes.com, or to see the trailer of the movie, go to www.wartapes.com/trailer.

What: Screening, The War Tapes
When: Aug. 11
Where: Merrill’s Roxy Cinema, Burlington
For ticket information and showtime: call 864-3456 or visit www.merrilltheatres.net/roxy.html