No End in Sight (2007)

Director:

Charles Ferguson

Writer:

Charles Ferguson (writer)

Genre:

Documentary | War

Tagline:

The American Occupation of Iraq - The Inside Story From the Ultimate Insiders

Plot:

A comprehensive look at the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraq war and its occupation of the country.

Plot Keywords:

Occupation | Iraq | White House | Civil War | Incompetence

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 8 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Campbell Scott	...	Narrator (voice)
Gerald Burke	...	Himself
Ali Fadhil	...	Himself
Omar Fekeiki	...	Himself
Robert Hutchings	...	Himself
Paul Hughes	...	Himself
Marc Garlasco	...	Himself
George Tenet	...	Himself (archive footage)
James Bamford	...	Himself
Dick Cheney	...	Himself (archive footage)
Donald Rumsfeld	...	Himself (archive footage)
Paul Wolfowitz	...	Himself (archive footage)
Colin Powell	...	Himself (archive footage)
Samantha Power
Feisal Istrabadi	...	Himself (as Faisal Al-Istrabadi)
George Packer	...	Himself
Joost Hiltermann	...	Himself
Ahmad Chalabi	...	Himself (archive footage)
Lawrence DiRita	...	Himself (archive footage)
Barry Posen	...	Himself
Lawrence Wilkerson	...	Himself
Seth Moulton	...	Himself
David Yancey	...	Himself
Hugo Gonzalez	...	Himself
Chris Allbritton	...	Himself
General Jay Garner	...	Himself
David McKiernan	...	Himself (archive footage)
James Fallows	...	Himself
Nir Rosen	...	Himself
Paul Eaton	...	Himself
Robert Perito	...	Himself
Paul Bremer	...	Himself (archive footage)
Walter Slocombe	...	Himself
Amazia Baram	...	Himself
Yaroslav Trofimov	...	Himself
Ray Jennings	...	Himself
Linda Bilmas
Ann Gildroy
Sérgio Vieira de Mello	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jamal Benomar	...	Himself
Mahmoud Othman	...	Himself
Paul Pillar	...	Himself
Zalmay Khalilzad	...	Himself (archive footage)
Robert Gates	...	Himself (archive footage)
Aida Ussayran
Matt Sherman	...	Himself
Ashton Carter	...	Himself

Directed by
Charles Ferguson

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Charles Ferguson		writer

Produced by
Jennie Amias	....	producer
Charles Ferguson	....	producer
Alex Gibney	....	executive producer
Audrey Marrs	....	producer
Jessie Vogelson	....	producer
Mary Walsh	....	associate producer (as E. Mary Walsh)

Original Music by
Peter Nashel

Cinematography by
Antonio Rossi

Film Editing by
Chad Beck
Cindy Lee

Production Management
Alan Oxman	....	post-production supervisor
Jessie Vogelson	....	post-production supervisor

Sound Department
Neil Cedar	....	sound editor
Gautam Choudhury	....	additional location sound
Paul Flinton	....	additional location sound
David Hocs	....	location sound mixer
Peter Miller	....	sound recordist
Peter Miller	....	additional location sound
James David Redding III	....	sound re-recording mixer
James David Redding III	....	supervising sound editor
Charles Tomaras	....	additional location sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Maryse Alberti	....	additional cinematographer
Mia Barker	....	assistant camera
Charley Beyer	....	additional cinematographer
Ben Bloodwell	....	assistant camera
Mariusz Cichon	....	assistant camera
Nathan Clapp	....	assistant camera
Andrew Federman	....	lighting assistant
Christopher Gleaton	....	assistant camera
Tom Hurwitz	....	additional cinematographer
Alan McIntyre Smith	....	gaffer (as Alan Smith)
Rey Miranda	....	assistant camera
Edward Rodriguez	....	assistant camera
Jon Shenk	....	additional cinematographer
Joia Speciale	....	assistant camera
Brett Wiley	....	additional cinematographer

Editorial Department
Will Cox	....	colorist: high definition
Donna Donato	....	assistant editor
Bob Eisenhardt	....	editorial consultant
Edward Jaszi	....	assistant editor
Antonia Law	....	assistant editor
Alan Oxman	....	editorial consultant
Sandy Patch	....	editor: high definition
Stephen Stept	....	editorial consultant
David Kuther	....	additional editor: HDTV (uncredited)

Music Department
Brian Deming	....	score mixer
Brian Deming	....	score recordist
Tracy McKnight	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Jay Beverly	....	production assistant
Kit Bland	....	production assistant
Ryan Bronz	....	production assistant
Robin Cutter	....	production accountant
Richard Dworkin	....	transcriptor
Jacqueline Eckhouse	....	production counsel (as Jackie Eckhouse, Esq.)
Kathy England	....	production insurance
Ali Fadhil	....	translator
Blair Foster	....	additional archival researcher
Roja Gashtili	....	production coordinator
Warzer Jaff	....	production crew: Iraq
Amer Mohsen	....	translator
Christopher Murphy	....	research and archival footage
Emily Osborne	....	production coordinator
Dana Reiser	....	production insurance
Nir Rosen	....	production crew: Iraq
Andrew Siceloff	....	production intern
David Smallman	....	litigation counsel
Greg Steinbruner	....	production assistant
Dan Stein	....	production assistant
Robert Stein	....	legal counsel
Bethany Thomas	....	production insurance
Adriano Valle	....	production assistant

Thanks
Jake Abraham	....	thanks
Yasmina Ykelenstam	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Red Envelope Entertainment
• Representational Pictures

Distributors

• Magnolia Pictures (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Red Envelope Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Bigstar Motion Design  graphics
• Donna Daniels Public Relations  publicity
• Falcon Security  security services
• Post Factory NY  post-production facilities
• Sync Sound  sound re-recording

Also Known As:

No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent Into Chaos (Australia)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Australia:M

Company:

Red Envelope Entertainment

Movie Connections:

Features "Meet the Press" (1947)

about as important a documentary you'll likely see this year

Sometimes seeing a documentary that has such immense and complex connotations like the war on Iraq can be so staggering that one might be tempted to rate it highly just based on how compelling the subject matter is. That part of it, of whether it's worthy for a documentary, is important. But first-time director Ferguson does an incredible job of amounting crucial interviews with former Generals and government officials, ex-soldiers, enough footage of Iraq destruction for two or more movies, and a mounting sense of dread over the unequivocal fiasco that what went on leading up to-during-and especially after America invaded Iraq, and the film was more than worthy of a special jury prize at Sundance earlier this year.

It's devastating and infuriating enough to get the people you might be with seeing the film into a heated argument (probably with everyone on the side, at least, that it was profoundly stupid to go into the country to start with, without a real plan anyway), because of the layers that can be taken into account. If one watched the news enough, or read what was available at the time, then some of the information may not be all new-news. But a lot of it is, which throws on fuel to the fire for Ferguson's thesis that with all the mounting mistakes, the most crucial ones came in taking for granted what would happen if say, for example, the Iraqi army was disbanded along with the Ba'ath party (if that's how it's spelled). Interestingly, Ferguson doesn't spend too much time on the blunder that was going into Iraq in the first place; that's for other films and he knows it well (namely Fahrenheit 9/11).

We went in. Now 'what to do next' is really where the cards are all layed out: the looting and rioting, which went on for days and ruined many of Iraq's small places of civilization like museums and libraries (which, of course, Rumsfeld and the US didn't mind and practically encouraged), then after that the whole huge f*** up that was the lack of real planning for after we toppled Sadaam's regime (for Germany after WW2 the plan was layed out two years in advance, for Iraq it started 50 days before the invasion), and very notably Walter B. Slocombe (who comes off stumbling through his interview as he can't answer why he wasn't talking to other advisers about the plans of what to do with the Iraq security) and L Paul Bremer, who crafted the three plans for reconstituting Iraq, which basically created the Insurgency. That part, of course, is a big chunk of No End in Sight, with the blunders continuing on and gaining force with the US involvement in Iraq.

So the question comes first to those thinking about the questions Ferguson lays out through his interview, aside from how in the living hell (literally, if you're over in Iraq) we've now spend two *trillion* dollars over there, which is: Why? To get a documentary like that now probably would make a big enough uproar to get people in the streets. But for now, No End in Sight will have to do.