Live From Baghdad Analysis

Improved Essays
As I searched the web to watch Live From Baghdad, I prepared myself for a boring and dry documentary. I had assumed this would be about current coverage of our Iraq War. The opening scene was a standard reenactment in my eyes, akin to America’s Most Wanted. It wasn’t until the faces of Michael Keaton and Paul Guilfoyle appeared on the screen that I realized I wasn’t watching a documentary at all. Live From Baghdad was an HBO feature film that documents the first Iraq War, and the coverage of the CNN team in 1991. While it was certainly a dramatic retelling; it was a rather informative and well made film. In 1991, I was only 4 years old. My memories from that time period are fuzzy at best, and I certainly do not remember watching any coverage of the first Iraq War. I do remember the extensive coverage of the attacks on September 11th 2001, which led us into the second Iraq War. Live From Baghdad was …show more content…
It was both comedic and dramatic and held my attention the entire film. It gave me a renewed respect for journalists and crew members that brave dangerous scenarios and territories all in the name of getting the story to the public. It’s also a valid reminder that our technological advances have made our news coverage of war far superior. The events of September 11th, 2001, and the subsequent war, have been extensively documented. We are kept up to date on any and all occurrences in the Middle East. In 1991, we didn’t really have that privilege. As of late, many of us have been caught up in judging and feeling skeptical of the mass media outlets. We label news programs as biased and often accuse them of reporting or misleading to make a profit. I often forget that journalists and their crew day in and day out risk their lives just to break a story to the public. While profit for the network is always at the top of the reasons, it was clear that this CNN crew loved simply reporting the news and getting the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) is a huge alert and warning to todays post terrorist attack (of the Twin Towers in 2001) society, in which civil liberties and human rights of each and any person can slip away as an effect of mass hysteria. The core of Clooney’s approach is the idea that sometimes journalists need to go beyond simple and exact reporting and offer some more in-depth interpretations on current affairs. He stresses the tensions caused by post-war paranoia and threats made against a country through his portrayal of the acting and characterisations, editing, sound, lighting and framing (Caulfield, 2007). Good Night, and Good Luck cleverly displays and educates the audience of the era of McCarthyism. George Clooney…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What would a person do if his or her child asks, “Will you make it back home tonight?” The easy answer would be to leave his or her country, but that decision is not simple. Afghans center their life on their culture, family, and friends so it is not easy for them to leave their homeland. In the New York Times Op-Docs series “Afghanistan by Choice,” the film director, Alexandria Bombach, appeals to pathos through the juxtaposition of settings and individuals. Her emphasis on pathos conveys the difficulty of leaving one’s country, thus abandoning his or her lifestyle; furthermore, the film director hopes to show the audience why leaving is such a hard decision for Afghans to make.…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Standout Moment Analysis

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There are many standout moments that I would like to mention, but first I would like to say that I am very impressed with this film, I always have been wondering all these things and I like the fact that we are learning about them in this class. The first standout moment for me was when the man and his family lost their farm. It called my attention because my family and some families from this area had to go through this same situation a few years ago. Second standout moment: the pilots’ salaries from 16,000 to 22,000 yearly! That’s ridiculous, some of them had to ask for food stamps, some of them have a second job, that remind me a time when a met a paramedic working at a warehouse, I asked him why he was working there, and he told me that he was getting pay more there for opening boxes than saving lives and even though he loved to be a paramedic he needed the money.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pathos In American Sniper

    • 1182 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Chris Kyle, a United States Navy SEAL that is labeled as the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history. Kyle served four tours in Iraq and is credited with over 150 kills and has been given numerous awards for his heroic acts such as two silver stars and five bronze stars. After being honorably discharged from the Navy, Kyle write an autobiography about the tours he served. A year after Kyle’s death, the film American Sniper was released. American Sniper is a biographical film detailing Chris Kyle’s life of his time in Iraq and his time back home.…

    • 1182 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Desert Storm was the war that I remember watching on television with my father. The gulf war represented a revolution in military warfare due to advantages in technology, the speed of military forces, and the performance of American soldiers of all ranks. Therefore this was the major reason why the Persian Gulf War only lasted 100 hours. The United States had Army, Air Force, Marines, and Navy forces involved in the war.…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Iraq War Analysis

    • 2322 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The United States has gotten themselves involved in many national conflicts since it was first founded on July 4, 1776. These conflicts and wars have been happening from the 1800s all the way to present day. In all of these wars, millions and millions of soldiers have been sent overseas to fight for the United States along with billions of dollars used to pay for war materials and for help from other countries. One war, however, stands out the most. This war would be the Iraq War that started in 2003 after President George W. Bush claimed that they had weapons of mass destruction.…

    • 2322 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I believe this is the best film to date on the war in Iraq. The numerous missions serve to dive deeper into their personalities: touch…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Iraq War Research Paper

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Dylan Perry Mrs. Gallos 31 October 2014 The Problems of the Iraq War I did my paper on a problem that hits close to home for me. My paper is on effects of PTSD and the Iraq War. PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I choose this because my brother is in the Marine Corps and within the next year so will I. Doing this paper will show what our troops have to go through during and after their time overseas protecting our freedom.…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We all have learned about Pearl Harbor and the discrimination against Japanese Americans throughout our many years in school. Although, it was not something I particularly thought about more in depth until today. It is heartbreaking to me that these innocent Japanese Americans were forced to live with the repercussions of something they could not even control. I guess I can slightly understand how many Americans were frightened by this whole Pearl Harbor situation that enabled their prejudice towards Japanese Americans. However, this does not under any circumstance justify what the Japanese Americans were forced to live through.…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Iraq War Turning Points

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Pages

    The Iraq War caused a lot of change in the USA. The war made a horrific impact on many people’s life. Many people have asked questions like: How the Iraq War affected people in Iraq? and What happened in the Iraq War. Despite what others might say the Iraq War was a major turning point in our country.…

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In 2003 George W. Bush finally told America that Operation Iraqi Freedom had started. The operation was to kill the dictator Saddam Hussein. They wanted to kill him because he was able to get weapons of mass destruction. The U.S was just one of the military groups there. The countries that were involved were United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, and Poland.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I have seen this documentary many times, but the feelings that I got watching it this time were much different. I remember seeing this documentary for the first time as a freshman in high school, often shielded from everything going on in the world. As I watched this time, I watched with a broken heart and a devastated view of the country that we live in. I watched with hope to believe that our country had indeed improved in certain ways; but I was left feeling that same void and disappointment. The way that director, Michael Moore, went about telling this story and searching for answers was magnificent, it made you think and analyze each situation.…

    • 1523 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Baghdad’s eventual isolation from the Arabic speaking world was caused by its position between the Mongol-Persian Ilkhanate to its east and the Arabic-Mamluk sultanate to its west. With the death of the caliph, considered to be the last spiritual leader of Islam, Baghdad had lost much, from its nearly annihilated population; the destruction of its irrigation systems, built during the time of Mesopotamia; and the end of the Islamic Golden Age. The Islamic capital shifted west towards Cairo and Damascus after the siege, altering the course of Islam’s development. Islam itself, beyond that of Baghdad, temporarily lost its claim to religious superiority after the siege (Gilli-Elewy, 2011). The “city of peace” no longer, it would take Baghdad until…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Four hungry lions escape captivity. What do you do? Most people would panic, lock their doors and pray they can’t smell the leftover Thanksgiving turkey in the fridge. Now imagine your neighborhood was just attacked by aerial bombers. Believe it or not, both of these scenarios are true, and happened simultaneously in Iraq.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Throughout Hollywood’s years they have come up with several war films, some of them very good and some of them very bad. What makes them good and bad depends on the group or individual watching it. Some people like to watch to see how we have evolved as a country and others look to see people die. Though some Hollywood producers provide an accurate depiction of war in an unbiased manner, several glorify war to the extent of romanticizing what should be a serious topic.…

    • 1429 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays