Live From Baghdad (2002)

Mick Jackson's Live From Baghdad works as an entertaining and effective drama, but it provides disappointingly inadequate context in its depiction of the events surrounding the 1991 Gulf War. For example, in one crucial scene the CNN team in Baghdad (well-played by Michael Keaton, Helena Bonham Carter, and Lili Taylor) travels to Kuwait (at the invitation of the Iraqi Ministry of Information) to visit a hospital in order to investigate allegations that Iraqi soldiers were taking Kuwaiti infants from incubators during their thorough looting of the country. These allegations are given surprising credence in the film, despite the fact that they were later discovered to have been invented by an American PR firm working for Kuwaiti interests. There's no acknowledgement of this crucial information in Live From Baghdad. Although the film purports to show the events from the point-of-view of CNN executive news producer Robert Wiener (Keaton), one would think that any honest account of the events depicted would include the media distortions that led up to the bombing of Iraq. But the film doesn't have a single unpleasant thing to say about the news media, particularly CNN. (This isn't especially surprising, as it is based on Wiener's account of the events and was made for CNN sister company HBO.) That said, the film is uniformly well-played (though Hamish Linklater stands out as tuna-toting correspondent Richard Roth, whose dweebish demeanor belies his intrepid reportorial skills) and tightly scripted (with an assist from John Patrick Shanley, who wrote Moonstruck). Despite its larger failings, the film is entertaining and captures the unique pressures and tensions of reporting from a hostile war zone. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide