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Film Review: Severe Clear: a Marines’ uncensored view on the liberation of Iraq
When promoters of the film Severe Clear sent a screener copy to Veterans Today for review and comment, I volunteered to take this film review on although I am not a war movie watcher nor trust anything that just might have Pentagon endorsement or funding. I was to be surprised in many ways.
PARENTAL ADVISORY: Oh, if you are offended by four letter words, this film review and flick is not for you. This is not a fictional drama, and these are not actors who have to limit their use of four letter words to within a range of at least an R rating. This is how Marines, and most Soldiers for that matter, no shit talk. Mainstream media is never going to bring such vivid detail to the American public and neither is the Pentagon.
Not only is the film NOT a Marine Corps infomercial for PR purpose or recruiting, I frankly could not see how the footage would ever have made it pass either Marine public affairs much less Pentagon public affairs during the early stages of the Iraq War when the services and mainstream media had a strong political PR incentive of only showing our Marines and Soldiers in a positive light that does not reflect negatively on the Corps or Army despite the realities of WAR. This is not a sanitized version of War.
Simply put I went into the film with an open mind, but from a left of center, Pro-Peace bias. Frankly speaking having lost a child to war, it is very hard for me personally to sit through any war movie regardless what the intent or motivation. Sitting through Severe Clear would be both hard and therapeutic on young (and older) Vets coping with PTSD for instance. The movie is that brutal and graphic.
As I watched the DVD screener, I took notes, and it is upon those notes that my review is based. After reviewing the movie myself, I then took a look at what others were saying about the movie to see how much our collective views jived. I did not want to be tainted by others experiences, biases, or hidden agendas going in.
Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News
Why did Lieutenant Mike Scotti and film director Kristian Fraga choose the title Severe Clear?
Mike Scotti defined Severe Clear as “seemingly infinite visibility. The weather report on morning of 9/11 was “Severe Clear”, and this phrase became the title of the film about Mike’s time as a U.S. Marine in Iraq. The director of the film, Kristian Fraga, came up with the concept for the title, because he believed that Severe Clear is an “unofficial” FAA term used by pilots. For a first-person narrative about a war, the title works because the intimate nature of the subject allows those who have not served in combat to have visibility into the grim realities of what happens on the battlefield. There is also the link to 9/11, and the fact that friends of mine from high school lost their lives in the WTC, and that this was the catalyst that caused me to be among the first troops in both Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Though the link to 9/11 and revenge for 9/11 remains pretty much a theme of Severe Clear, I caution Pro-Peace or anti-war advocates from allowing this to turn you off. I ask that we leave our politics at the door and give Severe Clear an unbiased viewing. Regardless what we believed about the relationship between 9/11 and Iraq back in 2003 or today in 2010, the reality is that the vast majority of our troops, especially Marines, believed there was a connection. Many do so today but that does not make it so. We have to view this movie in the context, chronology, and time line in which Lt. Scotti filmed it. I believe that his intent was not to make PR in the first place and that is made clear in the filming and commentary. Mike’s intent was to present an unsanitized look and vision into what American combat troops no shit experience in war. Though influenced by politics, the last things on their minds are political views and politicians. If we expect Marines to being going into combat sensitive to the concerns of people on the left of center (or liberals if I may) not only is that an unrealistic expectation, but this is not the movie for you. Marines are trained to KILL that is what they do SENSITIVITY is nowhere in their vocabulary. Does that means they are not human being sensitive to the chaos, and stench of death around them? Check out the movie and see.
I’ve jotted some of my initial impressions on my Facebook page. More on that latter, but this is what comes from my notes as I watched the screener. I’m new at this, so I’m trying best I can to not provide spoilers for those wishing to see the flick.
As I sat with a bowl of popcorn (no shit if I was going to watch a war flick when I’m not into war flicks, then I gotta have popcorn), I prepared to take notes, hell I was asked for my honest impressions.
In the first chapter or initial few minutes of the flick, aboard ship en route to Iraq, Lt. Scotti and the other Marines listen to Bush administration and mainstream media talking points that sold the Iraq War to the Congress and enough American people to make it happen. At first, I felt this was going to be a turn off. However, as I read between the lines and decided to watch and LISTEN to more of the narrative, it began to sound as if Mike was repeating or mocking what was being said over the ship’s PA system about weapons of mass destruction and so on and so forth, we know the drill.
Severe Clear starts out as if it is going to be yet another propaganda flick to either promote the U.S. Marine Corps (a Marine Corps infomercial if I may) and rationale for invading (excuse me liberating) Iraq. Please do not let that turn you off, I assure you that if you gave testimony at Winter Soldier, you will not be surprised by what you see in this movie in stark reality to what you gave witness to.
Examples of what held my attention, the Marines view that the media, be it mainstream or DoD public affairs, was there for PR and selling the war to the folks back home, screw the PR, Mike films what life is no shit like for Marines going into combat. Marines don’t do PR. Our job is to KILL plain and simple, and we like what we do.
There are plenty of gas and chemical attack warnings from the Chain of Command real, imagined or false intelligence. Regardless, no one is taking any chances. There are more quotes from President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and even SECDEF Don Rumsfeld that continue to lend a mocking effect to what they are saying about weapons of mass destruction and so forth.
Lt. Scotti makes it clear beyond a doubt that regardless what anyone else thinks outside of Kuwait or Iraq, this liberation is really about REVENGE for 9/11. Not only is it about revenge, but the disconnect between the Christian anointing of Crusaders to protect them from the Iraqi combatant enemy and pep talk from the company commander stressing war of liberation, giving Iraqis the same freedoms, same liberties, and protecting our love one’s at home borders on the hilarious if it were not so seriously inconsistent with reality. Scotti just keeps on filming what he and other Marines see without passing judgment. However, the message that we are over here to fight THEM so we do not have to fight THEM in America comes through loud and clear.
To say that the Marines were influenced by political propaganda would be an understatement. During the Company Commander’s pep talk he tells every Marine that now the Chaplain is going to come out and anoint each and every one of you with oil. No shit and we are not on a Christian Crusade in the Middle East, you could have fooled me based on what I saw in this movie.
Once again Scotti does not pass judgment as he is anointing with oil, he only keeps on filming it happening. In fact, there is no indication that I could tell if Scotti is even a Christian, but that did not matter to the company commander that day going into war all his Marines were Christian Soldiers if they wanted to be or not, and regardless what their religious beliefs were or were not.
The fact of life and spirituality of Marines is that they are placed on earth not to save humanity but to kill people that is what they do and their weapons are what they better worship most. At the same time the company commander is having his Christian Marines anointed, he is once again sending mixed messages stressing that his Marines need to understand they are there in Iraq not only to kill people but it is important for them to understand that they are there to liberate the people of Iraq, win hearts and minds, and not conquer them.
Combat, the stench of death is everywhere.
During the middle part of the flick are the combat sequences and plenty of dead bodies vividly displayed – all Iraqis of course the filming of U.S. casualties remains pretty much a no-no, but sets the precedence of socially acceptable filming the cost of war on all sides. In fact, the dead Muslims are displayed in such gruesome detail that even dead Iraqis still would not be allowed on mainstream U.S. media by Pentagon censors. There is also the accidental killing of innocent civilians in what is called the fog of war. Suffice it to say as Lt. Scotti did, “In war bad things happen ain’t that the mother fuckin truth.”
Oh, if you are offended by four letter words, this too is not the flick for you.
Nope, if foul language turns you off, and you don’t want your precious little Ann or Andy exposed to it, then this is not the movie for your family. However, be advised that this is how people at war talk – period, and though the focus of this movie is on guys, women at war talk like this too.
It has more four letter words than the religious right is accustomed to or the mixed company of liberals can stand. When these people set out to do a movie that would not be endorsed by the Marine Corps nor censored by propaganda merchants at the Department of Defense, the intent was to be able to use all the four letter words Marine combat troops desire, so momma if you think your babies grow up to be Marines don’t cuss before, during, and after combat this flick will be an eye opener. In fact, I got a chuckle between the Chaplain anointing the Christian troops with oil and the non-stop use of four letter words, but I was a grunt, so I see the barracks humor in such inconsistency.
Suffice it to say that without losing its gusto, including cussing, the last half of the movie begins to go downhill into scenes that question all the premises of ‘the politicians,’ political commanders, and political generals. Their chain of command told them they would be welcomed into Baghdad as heroes, liberators, and they frankly were or at least from what I could see in this flick and then all hell literally breaks loose showing just how the Marines and other ground forces were simply overwhelmed by the looting and rioting. How the people of Iraq so quickly turned on their American liberators. The emotions of we hate this place, we hate these people, and we want to simply pack up and go home lead the viewer to flash backs of Vietnam with the Marines climbing aboard a Freedom Bird to get out of Dodge – a Dodge city BTW that was worse than the American Wild West.
The movie leaves this Marine, and I must say from watching the screener, many Marines with questions about Iraq, September the 11th, vengeance, anger, weapons of mass destruction, lies, deceit, but one thing comes out perfectly clear – this Marine and all those filmed have no question what so ever about being PROUD TO BE MARINES nor any regrets.
They may not go back to Iraq for a President, may not even go back for the country, but they would not hesitate to go back for their brothers in the Corps!
ROBERT L. HANAFIN, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Editorial Board, Veterans Today News
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=15416
Posted by Robert L. Hanafin on Feb 13 2010, Filed under Iraq War, WarZone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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What others are saying about Severe Clear that closely match my experience watching it.
Mike Scotti was a First Lieutenant with the U.S. Marines when he and his outfit, the First Battalion, were sent to Iraq as part of the American invasion forces in 2003. Along with his weapons, Scotti brought a miniature digital video camera into battle, and he kept a record of what he and his fellow soldiers [MARINES] saw as they traveled through hostile territory en route to Baghdad. When Scotti returned from Iraq, he teamed up with filmmaker Kristian Fraga to fashion his rough footage into a film, and the documentary Severe Clear was the result. Scotti and Fraga have opted not to make a political statement or a broadside for or against the war; instead, Severe Clear offers a first person account of the soldier’s experience on the front lines of Iraq, a place of constant danger where nothing can be predicted but the unexpected and terror and excitement walk hand in hand. Severe Clear was an official selection at the 2009 South By Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Severe Clear on Answers.com
SEVERE CLEAR offers an unflinching look at the uncertainty, disorder and chaos of war from the remarkable perspective of one Marine. Based on the memoir and video footage of First Lieutenant Mike Scotti of 1st Battalion, 4th Marines on the outset of the 2003 invasion, the film brings to life the harrowing three hundred mile charge to Baghdad through hostile enemy territory. With footage never shot for the purpose of making a movie, and in the digital age of embedded reporters, the barriers between audience and soldier are stripped away, personalizing the fear, moral conundrum and adrenaline rush of life on the battlefield.
http://sdff.bside.com/2009/films/severeclear_sdff2009
SXSW Snapshot: Kristian Fraga’s “Severe Clear”
by Eric Kohn (March 18, 2009)
Kristian Fraga’s “Severe Clear” breaks free of the “Iraq war movie” stigma by remaining essentially apolitical. [The political statements being made by representatives of the Bush administration, I interpreted to be part of the narrative and not intentionally embedded to be a pro or anti-war message, statements BTW that Scotti comes to later question. Major Hanafin]. The movie exclusively relies on cheap camcorder footage shot by U.S. soldier [Marine] Mike Scotti during the U.S. invasion [liberation] of Iraq in 2003, offering a fascinatingly intimate look at the fraternization and search for adventure shared by many members of the military.
Search for adventure, I viewed the flick, and noted more of a search for revenge, than adventure. I saw more of a adrenaline rush of killing, these are Marines we are talking about here. Major Hanafin. This review is painting a little bit more of a rosy picture than the actual aura the film projects. Major Hanafin.
Because “Severe Clear” takes place five years in the past and doesn’t compare the state of the war to its current chaos, the movie contains on a timeless feel. It takes the focus off this specific incursion and emphasizes character motives, universal morality issues, and the two-way street of xenophobia. Scotti’s voiceover, culled from his diary entries, highlights a number of problems that could potentially arise in any foreign war. Discussing the various nomadic dwellers his battalion encounters in the desert, he wonders if even the friendly types might later turn into foes, concluding that “it’s tough to fight for the freedom of people you don’t trust.”
Superbly edited in a linear fashion “Severe Clear” manages to become a fluid cinematic experience, despite its reliance on Scotti’s unsteady camera work. Although he’s certainly not a candidate for the American Society of Cinematographers, Scotti displays a fierce commitment to his photographic lens. When he’s not running for cover, he puts a blatant effort into composing lucid shots, and occasionally hits on strikingly lyrical images. In one memorable scene, he and his colleagues watch bombs light up the night sky as they fall on Baghdad for the first time since the Gulf War. Scotti says the moment gives him a sense of vengeance [for 9/11], but openly admits to the simplicity of the thought.
Watching “Severe Clear,” it’s obvious: That many young Soldiers are guided less by [political] ideology than emotional conviction [revenge and to kill or be killed].
Severe Clear on Indiewire
http://www.indiewire.com/article/sxsw_snapshot_kristian_fragas_severe_clear/
1st Lieutenant Michael Scotti was inspired to enlist after the death of a high school classmate, Scotti joined the Marines in hopes of avenging the deaths of so many innocent Americans lost on September 11, 2001. [Revenge in fact comes through loud and clear in this flick. Major Hanafin].
Severe Clear provides viewers with an in-depth glimpse into the life of a Marine at war, and the unwavering loyalty [to each other and the Corps] that the few and the proud possess. The film makes no judgment on the war; rather it explores the unique bond that warriors forge, and their quest to ensure the continued safety of their country by fighting so valiantly each day. [These Marines seriously believe that fighting Muslim extremists over here is the only way to prevent having to fight Muslim extremists in America. Major Hanafin]
With footage shot by Scotti and his fellow Marines using a handheld camera, Severe Clear offers an up-close look at what soldiers [Marines] endure each day, the raw sounds of war, heart wrenching casualties [I recall seeing maybe two Marine casualties on film, maybe one, but plenty of Iraqi casualties and dead in grossly vivid exposures. Major Hanafin], and their insatiable drive to complete the mission at hand.
The movie is what you would expect to be shot by a Marine – raw, profanity-laced, and in your face. [Exactly what I say makes the movie a work of art worth seeing. Major Hanafin] Scotti documents periods of boredom with spikes of combat, frustration, and confusion. The movie traces 1/4 Marines from home station to Kuwait, then their onward northern push to Baghdad. It’s intense and blistering in its unapologetic look at real life combat as seen by a group of battle hardened Marines. Reminiscent of Stanly Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, Severe Clear is the real Hurt Locker, allowing viewers to see firsthand the adrenaline rush and moral conflicts that arise during the heat of battle, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout the entire film. [This it will do. VT comment]
I couldn’t help but bite my fingernails as I witnessed the path of these Marines as they fought their way north to the east of my unit at the time, the 3rd Infantry Division. I recall some of those same BBC reports intertwined within the film and found myself whisked back into the smoky stench of Iraq combat. While technology has yet to capture the true sights, sounds, and smells of combat, Severe Clear comes the closest I’ve honestly seen yet. It’s the first movie I’ve seen of the main assault into Iraq from the Warrior’s point of view, shot entirely by troops.
Scotti does a great job narrating the film and provides insights into his personal journal during weeks of combat. Marines speak freely about their opinions of situations in which they’re placed.
Many media misconceptions and outright public falsehoods are laid to rest by the movie. For example, as the Marines pour into Baghdad, the camera pans across hundreds of smiling, approving Iraqis as they convey their thanks for the freedom these brave men have just brought to their country. It’s a site you have to be there to truly appreciate.
I have to disagree with this part of A Soldier’s Perspective, he is selectively taking highlights from the film out of context to the entire film, and that is what really makes it apolitical. Scotti balances out the smiling faces of Iraqis welcoming the Marines as liberators with the about face in the meltdown of public order during rioting and looting the Marines and Army cannot control. Severe Clear goes on to document how quickly the people of Iraq turned on their liberators. Soldiers and Marines have got to watch the entire film not just the parts the touch you’re fancy or fit in with your views. Not only that but Scotti also makes the comment during this phase that take what the mainstream media back home is reporting about the looting and rioting in Baghdad and multiply it 10 times, and that is how bad things are. VT Editor comment]
Severe Clear will be screened in New York and Los Angeles in March 2010, and they are exploring opportunities to screen the film for military audiences and their families as well, as the film will give family members a greater understanding of what their loved ones go through. It’s gritty, though, and some family members may find the movie too honest and gripping in detail. But, for those that truly want to know what combat is like from “a Soldier’s (or Marine’s) perspective,” you can’t get much closer than Severe Clear. [I strongly agree with this part of A Soldier’s Perspective, but I would add that the best audience to focus such a movie on would be high school, college students, and parents thereof who are thinking about joining the Army or Marines. This is a side of war that Military Recruiters are not going to be bruitally honest about for obvious reasons. That said, I believe that most youngsters and parents sending their child into the Marine Corps knows that the Corps has one proud purpose for existing and that is to kill – period. They know what they are getting into in most part. VT. Editor comment]
If you’d like the movie shown in your neck of the woods, get some friends together and go to the Severe Clear website. On the right hand side of the page is a “demand it” feature for possible screening locations. You can also Watch the First 3 Minutes.
A Soldier’s Perspective website
http://www.soldiersperspective.us/2010/02/12/severe-clear-a-movie-review/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ASoldiersPerspective+(A+Soldier's+Perspective)
Good review, but I’d like to respond to the aspect you disagree with of my review. I was with the 3rd Infantry Division fighting to the west of the Marines in this movie. I recall town after town of Iraqis that did indeed wave and applaud and approve of our presence. I remember my interceptor vest being laced with flowers from women who placed them between my magazine pouches and loops. The point I was making was not to assume that the film ONLY covered this aspect, but that it was covered at all. Most Americans don’t know that we were welcomed as we were. I was making the point that the film provides proof. It’s obvious that the welcome was short lived, but I wanted to point out it actually happened, contrary to the leftist agenda that it didn’t.
Good review by the way!
“Most Americans don’t know that we were welcomed as we were. I was making the point that the film provides proof. It’s obvious that the welcome was short lived, but I wanted to point out it actually happened, contrary to the leftist agenda that it didn’t.”
CJ,
First of all Thanks for Your Service.
Secondly, I don’t do leftist agendas although I am an Anti-War Conservative.
If I understand you correctly, then you were in country about the same time that Mike was. I was sitting at home watching our TV or monitoring what was going down during the liberation (or invasion).
Sorry Bro but from what I personally saw in mainstream media (not second hand news but with my own eyes) was as you say, and unless most Americans were not paying attention to the media (Fox News included, but all the Big Three carried your Welcome to Baghdad) there is no leftest agenda saying otherwise.
Nope I take that back, there is no leftest agenda that can be based on FACT.
The vast majority of Americans do know that you were welcomed as you were. We saw it on mainstream media. CJ the part played by mainstream media was to sell the Iraq War then turn on everything about it once the shit hit the fan. That is how they make money, get ratings, and instigate the population instead of doing journalism.
But I get the impression that you believe there is (or was) a left-wing conspiracy with liberal media to hide the fact that you were welcomed to Baghdad, and this is not true. Point to one legitimate source in the media even independent media that does not show or worse yet disparages your welcome to Baghdad?
Lastly, be careful in not placing everyone moderate to left of center in cookie cutter molds. There are many who returned from Iraq to question most everything about the operation, liberation vs. occupation, and so on. Most of what is recorded on Mike’s camera was given as testimony at Winter Soldier Irag and Afghanistan, but of course with a political agenda. I would not consider all these people questioning let alone opposing the war as leftist.
In fact, unlike Viet Nam where college campuses and college students and professors questioned then opposed that war, the anti-war movement was no shit driven by liberal academics and students who gave the Viet Nam war an AFTERTHOUGHT of the civil rights movement, but their hidden agenda was FEAR they would be drafted to do the fighting and dying in something they did not believe in.
Today, Veterans and Military Families have spear headed the anti-war movement, and I would not even call it that. Most Veterans and Military Families who QUESTION, but do not exactly oppose war in principle are not Anti-War. That is why I for one (among others) no longer use the term anti-war because of its ties to THE DRAFT and DRAFT resistance.
We do not have a DRAFT today, most likely never will, thus the incentive for liberals to question or oppose the war is drastically curtailed. Now of course there is a right-wing agenda to cubbyhole any Veteran or Military Family into the leftist camp as a form of stifling dissent within the Veteran and Military Family community that just does not fit nor work during the information age.
Lastly, the scene I most remember about your Welcome in Baghdad, and correct me on this if I’m wrong you were there. The scene where either a Marine or Army grunt raised Old Glory above Saddam Hussein’s statue just prior to it being pulled down by those very Iraqis welcoming you to the city.
To my knowledge no Iraqi at that time protested nor cared about Old Glory being raised on high as a symbol of victory over the Regime and Iraqi Armed Forces, but your chain of command (in general terms) quickly made that trooper take down Old Glory.
Now I will agree with you that there was a political incentive to downplay your welcome to Baghdad. Hell there were even rumors being spread mostly on-line that your Welcome was staged, but CJ I can assure you that most Veterans and Military Families within the Pro-Peace movement do not believe that and are not leftist in the true and pure sense of the word. In fact, I believe that most of the rumors being spread that your welcome was staged came from international media not mainstream U.S. media. I do not recall Fox, ABC, CBS, or NBC let alone the cable channels even mentioning before, during, or after that your welcome was staged.
Thank you for taking the time to read my very long review, I put my heart into it, and I intended to express my disagreement with your view not even infer your view was not true.
I certainly believe you were welcomed to Baghdad, but comparing the short lived welcome to the outcome that continues today, it is not important how you or I view the liberation of Iraq in the long run, it is how the people of Iraq will view the liberation in historic terms.
SEVERE CLEAR – The Stench of War
When America premiered the riveting made-for-television sequel Iraq War 2: Electric Boogaloo back in March of 2003, it was billed as a new and exciting way to “experience” battle from the comfort of one’s shrapnel-free couch. This time around, our considerate government had implemented a new system of media coverage in which journalists and filmmakers would embed themselves with actual military units and report back to us using an on-the-ground, immediate approach the likes of which we’d never previously seen. It was going to capture what war was really like!
Of course, things turned out differently. If anything, the obvious censorship on display only enhanced the rising feeling of skepticism and concern with regards to that whole murky endeavor. Gradually, feature-length documentaries began to arrive that showed the situation for what it really was, and until I saw Kristian Fagra’s Severe Clear, I would have gone on record as choosing Garrett Scott and Ian Olds’ Occupation: Dreamland as my pick for the definitive cinematic report on this particular moment in American combat history. But after having experienced Severe Clear (as opposed to “experiencing” it), I’ve made room for two at the top of that list.
Severe Clear is about as first person and immersive as a film about war—or any subject, for that matter—can be. Compiled from mini-DV footage shot by the film’s main subject, Marine First Lieutenant Mike Scotti, as well as fellow soldiers Tim Lynch, Joe Holecko, and Captain Jeimar Patacsil, Severe Clear follows Scotti as he packs his bags in America and begins his long journey to help unseat Saddam Hussein and liberate the citizens of Iraq. In voice-over, Scotti reads from journal entries and letters home to further establish the film’s foreboding present tense. Though we know historically what’s going to happen, the tension rises off the screen in waves like the smoldering Middle Eastern desert heat. The only thing we’re missing is the smell, which Scotti goes a long way to describing in words. Though according to him it can’t actually be described, the site of vomit and snot dangling from one soldier’s nauseous face gets the point across quite nicely.
As constructed by Fagra—whose editor credit here takes top billing over the director tag (since he’s doing both, that makes them interchangeable, I suppose)—the story of Severe Clear unfolds in a straightforward manner. During the 40-day voyage across the Arabian Sea, Scotti has time to address the clichés about soldiers in general and Marines in particular (his verdict: turn them up even louder). He also explains, in clear, concise language, what makes Marines such a distinct breed of human creature (like a porn star or an Olympic gold medalist). Not to insult Fagra, Scotti, or the Marine Corps in general, but the footage of these soldiers interacting during both R&R and intense battle makes Brian De Palma’s Redacted look like an even more shamefully, atrociously, insultingly stylized work than it already did.
That said, there is a valid comparison to be made between Severe Clear and a recent Hollywood war picture. It isn’t just because Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker is currently playing in theaters and is another exceptional work of cinematic bravado set during this exact war. The truth is that both of these films shun politics in favor of representing, with palpable urgency, the frenetic, indescribably complex allure of soldier hood. Fagra uses sound bites from Dubya and Rumsfeld, as well as news reports from multiple countries, to add dramatic, as well as political, dimensions to his film, but at its core, the only perspective Severe Clear is interested in conveying is Scotti’s harrowing present-tense one. What lifts the film to a truly special level is that it also succeeds as a visceral historical document about this controversial moment in time.
— Michael Tully
SEVERE CLEAR – The Stench of War Hammer to Nail film review
http://www.hammertonail.com/genre/documentary/severe-clear-movie-review/
SEVERE CLEAR Review, SXSW 2009
By Vadim Rizov posted 11 months ago
Severe Clear is the Iraq documentary I’ve been awaiting conscientiously if not eagerly. There certainly hasn’t been a shortage of retrospective examinations from a position of authority – e.g. the macrocosmic No End In Sight and the micro focused Standard Operating Procedure – or, in lesser quantities, on-the-ground reportage. The best-known of those is probably 2004’s Gunner Palace, which could be politely described – in internet slang – as Epic Fail. Well-intentioned though they were in spending time with soldiers both at rest and patrolling, Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein screwed up by including little you couldn’t have seen on the news – gore and atrocities discreetly off-screen – and also in basic competence, like providing audible sound.
Working from the footage of Marine Mike Scotti, Kristian Fraga does much better. An Afghanistan vet who voluntarily re-enrolled [volunteered] and went over to Iraq in 2003, Scotti took along a camera for documentation and kept a journal with the ultimate purpose of writing a book; the movie’s accordingly divided into titled chapters.
Rarely on-camera, Scotti’s personal arc and perspective on the war is kind of beyond the point. There are no revelations here; from the opening blast of Marine excitement to Scotti’s closing sense that something’s gone wrong, there are no surprises. What is there an utter lack of reserve, a jolting immediacy that could’ve come from Walter Hill, but one that never telescopes the war into its own bloodless movie.
Scotti’s portrait of the Marines is unambiguous: “We’re loud, drink too much, fight too much, curse too much,” he announces. “All the cliches are true.” Neither the saints that so endeared Taking Chance to conservatives nor the retarded rednecks of Brian De Palma’s rock-bottom Redacted, the Marines here don’t have any personality except collectively, which is wise: Fraga and Scotti refuse to milk the deaths of individual soldiers for easy pathos. They’re seen in fragments and in voice-overs, profanely exultant; the collective, retaliatory bloodlust for 9/11 colors everything. “People are dying,” one says after an early battle. “This is the coolest thing ever.”
News reports frame the soundtrack, but the soldiers are stuck on the ground: sitting in masks wondering if they’re getting gassed, one announces “We just heard that Jennifer Lopez just died back in the States.” They’re conscientious about their job – which, they’re quite clear on, is to kill people, not police Baghdad – and avoiding civilian casualties. Scotti’s division is a good one, bloodthirsty within understandable limits.
There’s footage for every stage of the journey, from the initial weeks aboard a massive aircraft carrier to the waiting in Kuwait for a go-ahead to the actual road to Baghdad. Footage naturally changes from the jocular to the jolting, and the brilliance of Scotti’s footage is that, as a [combat] veteran, he’s got no qualms about capturing the most brutal stuff.
Its one thing (numbing and monotonous) to hear testimonials from soldiers about how seeing mangled corpses shake you; it’s another to see them with their skulls half-open, unsurprising but still upsetting. Scotti’s also meticulous about the Marines themselves and the general shittiness of life during wartime: especially during a tactical halt, when the Marines pause on the road while waiting for supplies or god knows what, he’s nerveless about capturing the flies on the corpses, the generally mucousy atmosphere that hits the Marines with attendant contamination, and even someone shitting into a crate in the middle of the road. This is reportage no one’s dared so far.
Fraga’s editing makes the footage formally, as well as viscerally, meaningful. For our first major digital war, he uses the inherent glitches and noise patterns on the original footage as wipes and dissolves from one moment to the next; the digital grain becomes its own aesthetic, with a night-time rocket attack visible only as an avant-garde exercise in red lines darting Tron-like across blackness; footage veers between the grimly coherent and the disorientingly illegible. At times, Scotti simply has to plunk the camera down as he gets to work and the compositions can be inadvertently arresting: a close up of a cigarette and hand tapping a radio console, people working through a tangle of wires that creates bizarre scenes.
When they hit Baghdad, Scotti’s shocked to learn that Babylon was real: “I thought this shit only existed in fucking Led Zeppelin songs.”
Predictably, when things sour in Baghdad, Scotti starts wondering if the mission’s as justified and righteous as their commander’s motivational speech made it seem. Musing on the battle-field, Scotti notes: “You’ve got to keep it simple out here” to survive.
The “out here” is key: if soldiers (and the Marines, to whom the film is unambiguously at least in part a testament) have no choice but to keep their blinders on to complete their mission, that’s what they must do; for those off the battlefield and out of the immediate moment, though, there’s no excuse for not thinking hard about what’s happening. But that’s not Scotti’s problem for much of the film, and Fraga avoids preaching to the anti-war choir: Severe Clear does a remarkable job of erasing what we know now and plunging us back into the immediate initial campaign.
Its portrait of the military is unsympathetic and clear-eyed, and the overall film grimly exciting. Severe Clear doesn’t answer any questions, but that means there’s no chance for self-congratulation either.
http://blog.spout.com/2009/03/14/severe-clear-review-sxsw-2009/
VT Editors note: this is what I found so valuable to viewers regardless if we are pro-war, anti-war, pro-PEACE, or war mongers. It gives thrills and glory of war, if not combat, to the conservatives on the right and attention to detail that earlier efforts either were unable to capture on film or were prevented from by Pentagon and mainstream media censorship for liberal viewers on the left. The challenge now would be not only to get viewers from across the political spectrum to go see the move, but to also keep the fringe of all political extremes from exploiting the movie for its gore, violence, and many QUESTIONS it raises. In this, the ‘our cause is noble and just’ crowd may be disappointed, because the film does not justify anything either way. That was never Mike Scotti’s purpose to begin with.
Other reviews of Severe Clear
“A look at life on the battlefield through the eyes of someone who was there.” Fandango
http://www.fandango.com/severeclear_124375/movieoverview
Severe Clear on the IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0494826/
Life on the Battlefield – No reporters, no camera crews, no politics, no censors
Severe Clear Official Site
http://severeclearthemovie.com/wordpress/
Severe Clear Facebook Page
http://blog.spout.com/2009/03/14/severe-clear-review-sxsw-2009/
Armed with the world’s most lethal ordnance and his home video camera, First Lieutenant Mike Scotti captures the chaos and complexity of war.
Severe Clear MySpace Page
http://www.myspace.com/severeclearthemovie
Uncertainty, Chaos, Disorder…This is WAR.
[...] Link to Review on Veterans Today [...]
Sent into Veterans Today via Facebook by Erick Gonzalez of The Largest Veteran Group on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=469110880367
“Great movie, I would pay to watch. You should bring it to Washington D.C. Tons of people here would like to watch it. Please feel free to post a link on the group page.”
After posting a link to the official Severe Clear website on The Largest Veteran Group on Facebook, I referred Erick to the promoters to Severe Clear to consider a screening in the Washington, DC area.
It would of course be most appropriate to hold a FREE screening for members of Congress and their staffs so that they can experience SEVERE CLEAR when it comes to wars they like most Americans really cannot relate to.