Hey, want to watch a movie for free? Of course you do!
A lot of films get posted up onto YouTube, but most get yanked off after a few days because of the whole “illegal file sharing” and “intellectual property” thing. Not so for No End In Sight, a 2007 Academy Award Nominee (Best Documentary Feature) whose creators have taken the unusual (but clever) step of posting their entire film up on the popular video sharing site.
As of today, September 1st, until the end of the 2008 US Presidential Election in November, the curious can watch the entire documentary online for free. From the film’s website:
The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a jaw-dropping, insider’s tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and venality. Based on over 200 hours of footage, the film provides a candid retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high ranking officials such as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003), Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and General Jay Garner (in charge of the occupation of Iraq through May 2003) as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts. NO END IN SIGHT examines the manner in which the principal errors of U.S. policy – the use of insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of Baghdad, the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government, and the disbanding of the Iraqi military – largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today. How did a group of men with little or no military experience, knowledge of the Arab world or personal experience in Iraq come to make such flagrantly debilitating decisions? NO END IN SIGHT dissects the people, issues and facts behind the Bush Administration’s decisions and their consequences on the ground to provide a powerful look into how arrogance and ignorance turned a military victory into a seemingly endless and deepening nightmare of a war.
Check after the jump below for the film’s trailer.
I haven’t watched the film yet, but it is worth noting if only for the film’s unique delivery system. After all, you don’t often get to watch Oscar-caliber films at YouTube–at least not legally. For the more technologically inept of us, the film is also now available on DVD via Magnolia Pictures.
