Meeting Resistance

If Anne Coulter had blood instead of dust, fear and vitriol in her veins, it would boil at the very thought of this documentary on the Iraqi resistance. Imagine the audacity examining motivations instead of writing snappy catch-phrases on ordnance. Imagine learning about your enemy instead of tying him to a board and trying to drown him. Imagine people had compassion instead of FOX news.

That noble purpose aside, there aren’t many surprises in this interview-based film. Most of the subjects, all anonymous, with faces blurred like smeared Polaroids, are fighting for fairly straightforward reasons: religion, patriotism, revenge. It’s not rocket science, but perhaps that’s the point. For the most part, the resistance fighters aren’t demons, or monsters. They’re just mad because some jackass Arkansan with a Tasmanian Devil tattoo blew up their house.

As a film, Meeting Resistance isn’t particularly innovative. Limited mainly to the nameless, faceless interviews, there’s a lot of footage of hands holding coffee cups. There’s little attention paid to the history of the conflict, or that of the people involved. All that’s presented are emotions, sometimes raw, as in the case of an ex-soldier, and sometimes calculated, like those of a young Syrian fighting a holy war. But while the film  may not be enough to change anyone’s opinion about the Iraq war, it might help foster a little understanding, and a little dust and vitriol.