Live From Baghdad

In a wee bit of family backslapping, HBO celebrates the accomplishment of its AOL family member CNN in covering the 1991 Gulf War. Ted Turner's Cable News Network was, at the time, a young, relatively modest operation, not taken terribly seriously in the journalistic world, and the skill of producer Robert Wiener (played zestfully here by Michael Keaton) in cultivating contacts that permitted his crew to remain in Baghdad and provide a live feed showing the initial bombing, as well as his ability to secure interviews unavailable to other news outlets, proved instrumental in securing its reputation. There's more than a hint of self-congratulation to the picture, which Wiener co-wrote, and the most skillfully drawn relationship in it isn't between the producer and lovely coworker Ingrid Formanek (Helena Bonham Carter), but between Wiener and Iraqi information minister Naji Al-Hadithi, played with cool control by David Suchet. One has to wonder, moreover, whether, after the more recent conflict in Iraq (in which CNN was overshadowed by Fox News and Peter Arnett, played as a boisterous hero here by Bruce McGill), the film will prove quite as timely as it was when telecast last year. Still, Live From Baghdad is directed with kinetic punch by veteran Mick Jackson and should appeal to a wide audience. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras are limited to an informative commentary track by Jackson. Bottom line: a small extras package for a film with built-in current affairs interest.] (F. Swietek)