Critic Reviews

• Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter

  A docu about modern war games in the California desert contains little insight into the Iraq War.

• Eddie Cockrell, Variety

  A so-so pic on an incendiary subject.

• Tom Keogh, Seattle Times

  A keenly insightful film concerning an unusual training program for war-bound U.S. soldiers.

• J. Hoberman, Village Voice

  One of the many surreal aspects of this fabulously disorienting movie: its representation of an Iraqi heaven that's an American hell.

• V.A. Musetto, New York Post

  Just when I thought I had heard everything about the war in Iraq, along comes Full Battle Rattle.

• A.O. Scott, New York Times

  This documentary gives a remarkably thorough and detailed account of the difficult conditions facing American soldiers in Iraq.

• Jennifer Merin, About.com

  Somewhere in the Mohave Desert, the U.S. military maintains a large rural compound that contains several fake Iraqi towns. It's Disneyland for war games

• Jonathan Romney, Screen International

  An entertaining, often very funny, but ultimately revealing and unsettling film about a US Army camp in the Mojave Desert where Iraq War conditions are simulated for training purposes.

• Matthew Sorrento, Film Threat

  Keeping the style objective and routine, [co-directors Tony] Gerber and [Jesse] Moss remain non-judgmental of the bizarre carnival they have uncovered.

• Bill White, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

  It is an enlightening lesson in modern warfare.

• Sean Gandert, Paste Magazine

  this is such small stakes compared to the real war that the film can't help but feel equally unimportant.

• Ron Wilkinson, Monsters and Critics

  If you thought Disneyland was fun, take a trip to this complete simulated Iraqi village in California, and learn how the other half live. And die.

• Eric Monder, Film Journal International

  Educational and enlightening.

• Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide

  This increasingly complicated scenario isn't scripted, peace is far from guaranteed and the line between reality and its incredible simulation has a funny way of getting blurry.

• Christopher Campbell, Cinematical

  On one level, Full Battle Rattle is enjoyable for the theatrics ... On a second level ... is appreciable for what it says about the U.S. military's involvement in Iraq.

• Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters

  In Full Battle Rattle, the Iraq Simulation and the war are both real and not real, confusing, painful, and horrific, for the refugees working as role players.

• Noel Murray, AV Club

  Full Battle Rattle works just fine as a two-fisted combat story, with unexpected bursts of violence peppering that old universal message that war is hell. But the added layer of pretense pushes the movie to another level.

• John P. McCarthy, Boxoffice Magazine

  While you may wish the filmmakers had included fewer scenic shots of the sun setting over Californiaâ(TM)s high desert and instead played devil's advocate more often, the impact of Full Battle Rattle stems from its political and ideological neutrality.

• Eric Kohn, New York Press

  The movie fails to become a document of our time and settles for the dopey synthetic version instead.

Read all 19 critic reviews