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Reviews
Hooligans at War (2010)
Outstanding documentary about soldiers in Afghanistan
Saw the world premier at the Tallahassee Film Festival. This is an outstanding film about soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Director Tyler Elliot was embedded for a month with these soldiers and the access he was granted is spectacular. The focus of this film is a bit different than other war documentaries in the sense that the soldiers' boredom is on full display (like the movie Jarhead). As one soldier said "so we spend most of our time in Afghanistan guarding dirt..." But then we see what these heroes do and realize their sense of boredom is much different than ours back at home. These soldiers go on humanitarian missions to deliver food/water and medical supplies to villages in the middle of nowhere, serve as backup on election day should any violence erupt, patrol the streets of a crowded urban area after a suicide bomber detonates a car bomb in the middle of the district, and engage in firefights where the rules of engagement at times disallow soldiers from returning fire---all the while keeping their heads on a swivel for potential IEDs or sniper fire. Elliot doesn't editorialize--he allows the soldiers to tell it like it is. Outstanding film that is right up there with Restrepo.