Boys of Abu Ghraib Portrays War Crimes Without Saying So
With such a film title, one might suppose that the boys were the hundred or so young Iraqis confined at the prison, including one who observed his sister’s rape and another who was subjected to excessive cold in order to obtain a confession from his father, a military officer. Instead, the film begins on July 4, 2003, when Jack Farmer (played by writer-director Luke Moran) is feted by a family gathering as he is about to enter the army “to make a difference.” Assigned to Iraq, his duty is to serve his country at Abu Ghraib, the prison formerly used by Saddam Hussein. The boys of Abu Ghraib featured in the film are members of his squad, and in much of the film they try to amuse themselves by various means. After a month in the motor pool, repairing military vehicles, he is bored and requests to join the military police guarding the prisoners. When he first enters the cellblock, he sees someone stretched out lying naked in a stress position on a bed without a mattress as well as the famous hooded prisoner forced to stand. Prisoners are confined to cells, not allowed to talk to one another or even to exercise in their cells. As they are brought back from interrogation, they show signs of sensory deprivation and torture. On one occasion an elderly prisoner appears near death, but Jack is unable to resuscitate him. One prisoner, Ghazi Hammoud (Omid Abtahi), who speaks English, claims to be a graduate of an English university. He befriends Jack but is taken away for interrogation, returning with evidence of having been tortured, whereupon Jack cracks up. The film ends when Jack returns home at about the time when gross military misconduct is revealed to the American public. Although the main point of the film appears to be to show how young Americans suffered during their service in Iraq, another message is that war crimes occurred at Abu Ghraib. The fact that the prison was in a war zone was one war crime; elder abuse, inhuman treatment, solitary confinement, and torture of prisoners are others; and the possibility that some prisoners might have had tuberculosis identifies the crime of not providing healthy conditions. In most of the film the dialog is drowned out by overly loud music. The fact that the words “war crimes” are never mentioned shows that the topic is so taboo that director Luke Moran decided to play safe, though such an exposé might have helped to increase box office attendance. MH