Customer Reviews

Frontline: The Gulf War [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the first reports on the Gulf War to widely disseminate the fact that the Patriot had no confirmed kills against SCUD missiles, this Frontline documentary is thorough and damning of the manner in which the war was carried out. I should note, however, that this is NOT produced by CNN.

That's what I kept saying to my self as I was watching this incredible documentary.

I was fourteen when Gulf War 1 started and I, being fourteen was infatuated with the stealth planes and the guns and the Tomahawks. I also remember being a little bit aprehensious about why we take out Saddam when we had the chance. This is one the first FRONTLINE docs that I remember seeing. I saw it on TV in 1996 and, like a lot of people I suppose, thought that they were trying to justify ending the war before they got Saddam. I eventually thought, and I still do, that the US went to the UN directed mandate of getting Iraq out of Kuwait, and that was it.

It's amazing that actions and statements made then we thought were justifications and excuses turned out to be the correct judgements. All wars end messy. As Ridley Scott said, "It's like all wars. No one really wins. You just count the cost." When Norman Schwarzkoph says things like, "Oh and by the way, I still think we'd be there (This doc was done 5 years AFTER the war had ended.) and we'ld be like a dinosaur in a tarpit. And we would have to pay all of the reconstruction costs," along with Brent Scowcroft and Robert Gates saying basically the same thing, the seem like psychics in hindsight.

From a purely filmaking aspect, it's amazing they got to people like Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Gates, Scowcroft, Richard Haas, Schwarzkoph, Tariq Aziz, James Baker, and Margaret Thatcher. I can't imagine them being able to do something like that now. It's really a "wounds still open" documentary, beside the fact that it was filmed five years after the fact. It doesn't pull any punches, mixing criticism of some of the policies and the patriotis and first hand accounts of soldiers on both sides. The military brass comes across as cold, calculating, and methodical, in other words exactly as you excpect them to come across. The individual soldiers come across as professional and honest, again as you expect them to come across. They're less presence of journalists, as in more recent FRONTLINE docs, but it seems to add to more of the realism of the piece.

Even after thirteen years (has it really been that long?) after this doc first aired, it still has a timeless quality about it. I'd say "watch it and learn something" but, apparently, few of the politicos featured in this doc actually did.

This four-hour documentary should be a must for every educator from high school through a Master's program.
Very well balanced - doesn't seem to give a political "slant" in it's reporting. Looks for the truth in what happened.
Doesn't rely on any one source for information, but uses a multitude of mediums to tell the story - including Iraqi video.
I recommend this to EVERYONE who has an interest in the Gulf War!

In this video the makers try to shed some light on the gulf war. Not only based on the CNN footage that we have all seen so many times, but on information gathered from all other sources, like the BBC, home-videos and personal interviews. This makes the documentary a well-balanced one, that compelled and inpacted me more, than any other documentary on the gulf war did.

The Gulf War is a biography on the 1st gulf war. It gives a step by step account of the events that lead up to the war. Using penatrating interviews with some of the main players like Colin Powell and Dick Cheney among others, it takes the viewer inside the walls of the White House and the Pentagon.

This documentry is the quality you would expect for something put together by CNN. It provides a good overview of the war from prewar to post war. However, the lack of combat film footage is odd considering CNN's resources and coverage of the war.

This documentry is the quality you would expect for something put together by CNN. It provides a good overview of the war from prewar to post war. However, the lack of combat film footage is odd considering CNN's resources and coverage of the war.