An overview of Iraq war videos

Are you one of the hundreds of millions of people who have decided to give any war films or army movies the cold shoulder? Or is it quite simply a question of liking war movies as long as they are not Iraq war movies or have anything to do with the Afghanistan war? Certainly, many pundits like to point out the relative box-office failures of this genre of film. But are they right? This article will attempt to find out.

Overview

Box-office failures There exists a number of critics and cinematic experts (mainly on the more conservative side of things) who have ripped into the producers of such movies, labeling them as mere anti-war propaganda trying to pass themselves off as entertainment. In reality, these same experts have gleefully harped on about Iraq War movies' alleged financial failure, producing the box-office statistics as evidence that on the whole, people are just not interested.

The facts

However, is it true to say that the Iraq war stories or any other Middle-east military films have actually done that badly as far as box-office receipts are concerned? Let us have a look at a few examples. In 2006, Home of the Brave took some $ 0.4 million (released 15.12. 2006) at the box-office. While in 2007 alone, the following movies grossed some $85 million dollars between them: Redacted - $0.6 million Rendition - $9.7 million In the Valley of Elah - $6.8 million The Kingdom - $47.4 million Lions for Lambs - $15 million

Analysis

Home of the Brave Of our six examples here, only Home of the Brave can be considered as a real flop. While it is true to say that Brian De Palma's Redacted didn't exactly prove itself a smash at $0.6 million, the fact that the film was essentially about an Iraqi girl who was raped by American soldiers meant it was never going to be the great summer hit. The Kingdom On the other hand, despite its rather dubious final scenes, The Kingdom has to be regarded as something of a major success. Of course, this might have something to do with the fact that the film was full of thrilling action, impressive stunts and the usual explosions and special effects that all the best war movies have. Lions for Lambs Again, considering it was a film that almost entirely revolved around several people sitting in an office debating, Lions for Lambs, while perhaps not a blockbuster, certainly didn't do that badly. A final word The fact is that war footage, especially that of recent wars, can be fairly depressing and let us face it: On the whole, footage is not very easy to sell.