FULL BATTLE RATTLE (2008) – Retroview by Jennifer Merin

It’s Disneyland For War Games. Somewhere in the Mohave Desert, the U.S. military maintains a large rural compound that contains several fake Middle Eastern towns. It’s Fort Irwin, and it’s here that American soldiers are sent to practice battle tactics and learn to deal with ‘the enemy’ before their deployment to war zones.

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AWFJ Movie of the Week, March 31 to April 4: THE UNKNOWN KNOWN

Opening April 4, The Unknown Known is the AWFJ Movie of the Week. Documentarian Errol Morris’ intensive interview with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is a revealing unravel of bureaucratic knots and double-speak that are at the heart of America’s administrative bodies and the underpinnings of its policies. It’s one of the scariest horror films we’ve seen in years.

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Kimberly Pierce Talks STOP LOSS – Jennifer Merin interviews

Kimberly Peirce’s film, Stop Loss (2008), delves into an egregious and little known policy currently affecting military personnel and their families. Soldiers who’ve completed tours of duty in Iraq are being sent back to the war zone for second and third tours, even if they don’t want to go.

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