Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Brilliant and touching

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Let's face facts folks, especially at this point if not the should-have-been start: American invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. This isn't the core message of Control Room, but it's certainly all encompassing for what Jehane Noujaim wants to say in her documentary Control Room. The argument could be made- and of course has- that Al Jezeera is a militant television network playing to an Arab base, that it shows people damning America all the time and praising Alah and so on and so forth. For the latter I can't say how much is truly shown, even by the documentary's scope. But for the former, the context can't be taken lightly: whether or not it is propagandistic isn't quite the point. When a country gets attacked by another country, it's hard to continue to find praise for the offensive side (and, as we see later in the film, Al-Jezeera was attacked by American planes specifically). Is her perspective meant to show bias? Maybe, maybe not. It's there in plain sight, how much to s*** things went following the American invasion, and yet side has to be taken into question, media, military, civilian.There's plenty of questions to ask by the end of the film, even in a form that isn't with the best production values or the firmest visual hold. Control Room is also terrifying in hindsight- if this is where we were at in going into Iraq (I saw this film in cinemas as the time one week before Fahrenheit 9/11 was released), what about today? It might be even more intriguing to see a follow-up documentary to Control Room, where one sees what has happened some half a decade (and deceased hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives later and thousands of Americans) down the line. But for now, it's a story set in the midst of a conflict established by the Americans to get Sadaam Hussein out of power - and thus throwing the country into a tailspin. And all throughout we're put through the prism of media, of inquiry, of a search for the facts in the midst of two systems shown in the film: American journalism (we see American military interviewed) and Arab journalism, and each side in dialog and argument, with location footage interspersed.In a way it's a dense film in just its 84 minutes. This might be Noujaim's main strength is the accumulation of points of view, of perspectives. It's not just pat a statement to make that Control Room takes the side of the Iraqi's and that's it. There's also accountability taken in. There's an fascinating cross-section that reveals some of Bush's hypocrisy (not hard to do, and there's such an abundance, but just one instance for example), where Bush says that "the people of Iraq will control their own destiny... they will not just say they were following orders." Cut to some footage of Americans, in possible dire straits, being asked by Iraqi's why they're in Iraq. "I'm just following orders," they all say. Is it America, or just Bush? Is it just Sadaam, or a whole mix of Iraqi's that have to be seen through the prism of the media coverage? What is really propaganda? Control Room, ultimately, isn't the greatest of documentaries, mostly in a form that bounces around with the only structure with Bush at the start with his message of "watch out, Iraq, we're attacking now!" to the disgusting message on the Aircraft carrier at the end. But it is an important one, almost like an early, crucial appendage to the more recent No End in Sight. If only for a moment can we have a view into the first huge cluster-f*** of the century, Control Room has a purpose.

Dear IMDb:I found no other way to do this, so I'm using the "review" feature to do it: I couldn't remember the name of this film for many minutes (almost an hour) and I used your "keywords" and so on... but I couldn't draw up "Contol Room" that way.. Even when I typed in "iraq," or "Iraq War," I didn't get Control Room as one of the films on your data base. Now, I know that "key word" is not the same as, say, "Subject Heading" in a Library... but, it still bothers me, that key word means (evidently) nothing more than "one of the words of the title.." So, for example, if I was interested in Austrailia's history in the first World War, I could type in all those words into the key words option, but my search wouldn't come up with "Gallipoli," because that isn't a key word?In short: is there no way to have a "subject search" as part of your searching options? (And if not, why not?)Yours,Jerry Dyer

1- NOT at all what it purports to be. 2- Unbalanced. 3- Uses mostly slanted Al Jazeera so-called reporters. 4- Sneaky one-sided political propaganda - the systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.5- I read many of the other reviews on here from those who express their love of this terrible piece and wonder if they have a clue about unbiased journalism...6- It just goes to show that if you want to suck in millions of movie-goers or movie-buyers, just make a one-sided piece, distort the facts as much as possible, and you'll get sales from people who are hungry for any support for their point-of-view. No matter how sloppy and biased the piece may be, you'll get rich using the same method as Michael Moore.

Control Room is a documentary on the Arab news network Al Jazeera, and how this network presented the war between Iraq and America to the public. This documentary contains no narration, nor elaborate filming technology; hence, making this movie very simple. Instead of the writer, director, or producer guiding the viewer through this movie, a few screens are displayed throughout the film giving minimal information to make sure the viewer is not lost. These screens, however, do not persuade the audience on what to think, which is what narration usually tends to do. Without narration, the viewer is forced to be engaged in the film and absorb and consider all of what is being said. This documentary is not entertainment, but a well done, thought provoking film on Al Jazeera.Towards the beginning of Control Room, a reporter for Al Jazeera says that the message of their news network is "wake up, there is a war out there and you are still sleeping". This network is trying to educate Arabs on the war that their country is partaking in. Many of the Arab citizens would be completely unaware of the daily events of this war if Al Jazeera did not exist. Besides just informing Arabs of the war, Al Jazeera wants to "gain grief" from the American people by showing pictures of mass dead bodies. Americans were very upset when Al Jazeera released film of American POWs, some alive, but others lying on a concrete floor dead. The grotesque footage that Al Jazeera will put on their news network, American networks would not even consider doing.Another flaw of Al Jazeera that the American soldier speaks of is how this Arab news network shows propaganda over and over. This instills the same image into the mind of the viewers; therefore, making this particular event seem to be more important or have more meaning than others. After a bomb is dropped, the reporters find women and children to pretend they have been hurt this bomb, and then have them talk about it on camera. The views presented by the American soldier and reporters for Al Jazeera are both commendable arguments that give the audience the opportunity to take this information in, and come to their own conclusion. The bombings on Arab news outlets by America are talked about in great detail in Control Room. In one day, three separate attacks were clearly aimed at Al Jazeera, and two other network's outlets. The explanation by America for these bombings was that the networks were distributing terrorist propaganda. Arabs thought the missiles were sent because Al Jazeera would not side one hundred percent against Saddam. This example demonstrates how this film is a documentary in that it leaves the audience with only the information of the event; hence, giving the viewer the opportunity to make of it what they want. Control Room did a wonderful job is showing exactly how Al Jazeera is run, and the people that work for the network. I thought this documentary was very factual, and it left me thinking about the war and American and Arab news networks in a different way. This film seemed to be more of the truth than any of the news that I had seen prior. I would say that Control Room is a unique and informative look in Al Jazeera. It was a better way to see what this network is trying to show without actually watching their show