Control room, summary - Movie Review Example

> < > < > < > Control room Released in 2004, Control room is a project by Jehane Noujaim, an Egyptian-American. Control room is a wonderful documentary which takes us through the happenings of the Iraq war. This documentary mainly focuses on how Al Jazeera, the independent and free Arab news station covers the Iraq war. Al Jazeera has been heavily criticized for terrorism by the Bush administration and the Arabs as well. One of the most captivating aspects of the documentary is that it brings out the truth with the sequence of events and personalities behind the scenes at the Al Jazeera.

The movie begins with a western music which signifies that when two different cultured music can co exist in movies, then both the societies can live together in harmony. When the war begins, the film is taken in the place where all the major news sources work out like CNN, Fox etc. The movie initially begins in an orthodox way at the headquarters in Qatar which shows Muslim men with their headgear watching the television monitor where President Bush gives final warnings to Saddam Hussein for a war which gives us the perfect images of the Arabian culture.

The movie features many staff from Al Jazeera but the two most compelling staff is Samir Khader, the general manager running al Jazeera, and Hassan Ibrahim, a reporter for al Jazeera. This image of Arabian culture begins to crumble when Hassan Ibrahim tells that he has tremendous faith in the American institution. Blood, images of Dead bodies, wounded people and bullets everywhere is one of the different perspectives of war which Control room brings to the viewers. Such images are usually not present in a documentary and encourage negative thoughts in the viewers.

Wars are always a negative effect on the people. Showing live images of dead people depicts negative images of the countries to the viewers. It has also been termed as the “Osama bin laden’s mouthpiece”. However though, Al Jazeera does not show all the information. It does not report and focus on the dead American civilians or American coffins. However, it is not just Al Jazeera broadcasting one type of images, Fox news also display one sided images. Control room tells us how difficult it is to provide unbiased images when working in media.

Everyone wants their nation to win in moral values and that is what the news networks broadcast. This is one place where the movie gives a bad impression of how wars are covered by the media. War is hell and media plays a major role in the success or loss of that war. Since people sitting at home can only get images of what the news are broadcasting, we cannot 100% trust the media. Control room as a documentary though gives us a lot of information and insights which we would never get through a regular news channel.

The documentary has been spun out wonderfully well. It shows the freedom and the courageous nature of the media who cover all the happenings of the war. Even though it shows that news networks are biased in the information it displays, it makes us realize that in journalism, information has to be biased. The documentary focuses on the suffering people, cold blooded murders and the bombings from both the countries. A number of interviews are taken on the injured soldiers, innocent people and the hostages give it a sorrowful tone.

During the course of the documentary, many sorrowful events are shown. The film covers the attacks on the reporters who work in different news networks like Al Jazeera, CNN etc. These attacks were not only on the reporters but also on the news networks headquarters which is very painful to watch. Killing innocent people in wars does not go down with humanity. Control room with all its interviews and coverage on Al Jazeera is an excellent flick which is victory for the director who convinces everyone about the way news networks are organized.

Works CitedKarpel, Daphne. “Control room”. Viewing guide. December 2006. Web.