Arlington West

The ever-escalating death toll among U.S. military personnel in Iraq is the subject of this somber, heartbreaking documentary focusing on a group called Veterans for Peace, who have erected a temporary cemetery each weekend in various locations in the U.S. West since the president's foolishly premature "Mission Accomplished" speech following the fall of Baghdad (the film stops with 1,282 crosses; as of February 11, that number has jumped to 1,456). Peter Dudar and Sally Marr's Arlington West features 64 interviews: with soldiers preparing for duty or returning from Iraq, as well as family members who've lost loved ones, and World War II veterans who view the current crisis with undisguised anger. Interviewees offer bitter comments on the Bush administration's handling of the domestic side of the Iraq agenda, including charges of acute mismanagement in health care services for veterans and a policy that aggressively targets military recruitment in underperforming school districts (Michael Moore pointed this out in Fahrenheit 9/11, but it bears repeating). One soldier makes a strong show of support for the president, but he is clearly in the minority here. Capturing and preserving a visual record detailing the current state of anger and despair over U.S. policies in Iraq and stateside, this is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Hall)