A shabby Iraqi village erupts with violence, bloodshed and mayhem in the opening scenes from “Full Battle Rattle”. Is this combat camera footage, news crews in the midst of a fire-fight, filmmakers?  A stretcher bearer loads a casualty into a Humvee.  The casualty is made of plastic with rubbery sinew dangling from a severed leg. This is a mock battle taking place in the Mojave desert, but to the soldiers weighed down with 50lbs of gear known as ‘full battle rattle’, this is as close to real as it gets before being deployed to the front.

This billion dollar training facility is wonderfully captured through the lens of Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss.  They give us a sneak peek behind the planners, Iraqi refugees, referees and soldiers inhabiting the fictional town of Medina Wasl.  The film explores how the army is best replicating real world scenarios for units bound for Iraq.  The story focuses on several of the soldiers learning and failing to deal with everyday problems for units operating in Iraq.

One memorable scene deals with a meeting between Colonel McLaughlin and the mayor of Medina Wasl (played by an Iraqi refugee), in which an insurgent attack begins, throwing the meeting off track. This attack, reassures McLaughlin to the mayor and staff, will be suppressed by his troops. Moments after his firm statement to the mayor, a referee informs the room they have all been ‘killed’ by a bean bag hand grenade laying on their doorstep. The Colonel takes this defeat to heart, holding casualty ceremonies and vowing to learn and succeed based on his simulated defeat.  The most powerful story is of an Iraqi refugee looking for a green card to prevent deportation and subsequent death sentence upon return to Iraq.  He is aided by a letter from one of the role players in the U.S. army with whom he works with in Medina Wasl.  He is one of the few lucky ones to gain legal status as 2.4 million refugees have been created since 2003, with less than 1000 gaining visas to stay in America. The cultural exchange which takes place between soldiers and english speaking Iraqis in Media Wasl is extremely endearing to watch.  Not only are these relationships meaningful to both parties but as soldiers deploy they can understand better the war torn lives of every Iraqi they encounter.

Full Battle Rattle is expertly shot with the energy of a war film and the ethos of a great doc with a balanced look at the U.S. military’s ingenuity for better or worse in Iraq.

Full Battle Rattle is available on Netflix and for more info visit
www.fullbattlerattlemovie.com

DVD review by Nathan Tisdale
- Nathan Tisdale is a certified armchair general and purveyor of indie
docs.