Live from Baghdad

2002 "Breaking News - Making History"
Live from Baghdad
7.2| 1h48m| en| More Info
Released: 07 December 2002 Released
Producted By: Industry Entertainment
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

A group of CNN reporters wrestle with journalistic ethics and the life-and-death perils of reporting during the Gulf War.A Directors Guild Award-winning movie for director Mick Jackson, starring Michael Keaton and Helena Bonham Carter. In 1990, CNN was a 24-hour news network in search of a 24-hour story. They were about to find it in Baghdad. Veteran CNN producer Robert Wiener and his longtime producing partner Ingrid Formanek find themselves in Iraq on the eve of war. Up against the big three networks, Weiner and his team are rebels with a cause, willing to take risks to get the biggest stories and - unlike their rivals - take them live at a moment's notice. As Baghdad becomes an inevitable US target, one by one the networks pull out of the city until only the crew from CNN remains. With a full-scale war soon to be launched all around them, and CNN ready to broadcast whatever happens 24 hours a day, Wiener and Formanek are about to risk their lives for the story of a lifetime.

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Falconesque Excellent teleplay, exemplary performances. Riveting and thought-provoking. A top-notch production all around.Beyond what else has been said, LIVE FROM BAGHDAD hails those who, as late as 1991, stood up for the freedom of the press, the battles waged, the compromises made, their failures as well as their successes. Bush the elder had ordered the press out of Baghdad, but failed, as this teleplay depicts. When Bush the younger reentered Iraq, he offered the press corps a leash instead, which most agencies snapped up.LIVE FROM BAGHDAD, a brilliant bit of reporting done by an extraordinary CNN team, but also a subtle homage to those who help preserve one of the most vital proponents of liberty -- a free press.
o_cedar Some would try to pass this off as a good movie/documentary about the Iraqi war... It is actually trying to pass off as established facts testimonies that were already denounced at that time as being false such as the girl Naira testifying as to what she saw, when she in reality had never set foot in Kuwait. But who cares?? As long as very few people hear the denial, the propaganda has worked...If you watch this, stay alert and just watch it like you would watch "Broken Arrow"... fiction... or else you will end manipulated by the spin doctors who do their job perfectly well...
pksky1 I guess this is a story based on real characters. You would have to be a real news junkie to say for sure, but I seem to recognize many aspects of the story as real history. And there is some real journalism history that shows up as news items in this movie. Sometimes journalism is news too.But history is the only worthwhile story here offered up by the script. Dialog is very weak and our two lead actors clearly have a hard time with it.Way down in the credits here at IMDB is David Suchet who plays Naji Al-Nadithi, a contact with the Iraqi ministry of information. He is only the actor who seems to have any fun with his part. I remember him from the excellent spy thriller, "The Falcon and the Snowman".
Joseph Pintar This is an excellent movie from HBO about journalists in Iraq covering the build up to the Gulf War. It is very honest about how journalists risk their lives and freedom so that people get the news accurately. It is also about how 24 hour news channels such as CNN grew up. Today we take for granted, but then it was a big deal. Michael Keaton gives his best performance since Batman here. I hope his career after this.