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Full Battle Rattle
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Metascore
72 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: Full Battle Rattle is the story of a real war and a fake town. In California’s Mojave Desert, the US Army has built a “virtual Iraq”—a billion dollar urban warfare simulation--and populated it with hundreds of Iraqi role-players. Army units spend three weeks inside the simulation before deploying to Iraq. Blurring the boundary between fact and fiction, horrific and hilarious, Full Battle Rattle follows an Army Battalion through the simulation, as they attempt to quell an insurgency and prevent Medina Wasl, a mock Iraqi village, from slipping into civil war. (Mile End Films)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    100
    The title, by the way, is age-old slang for a soldier's complete combat gear, which for the U.S. soldiers in Iraq -- both real and otherwise -- weighs over 50 pounds.
  2. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    91
    Full Battle Rattle works just fine as a two-fisted combat story, with unexpected bursts of violence peppering that old universal message that war is hell.
  3. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    It's all a bit bizarre. One soldier tellingly calls it "one big reality TV show," and the movie never makes clear whether such training does any good.

See all 9 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. LindaB.
    10
    This was a realistic simulation of how our troops are prepared here, in the desert, to fight in Iraq. There are light touches, and some great lines. We see the soldiers in charge in the desert, then at home with their families, and then leaving heir families when it's time to be deployed. You see - and feel their emotions. It is not a political, or government bashing film. It is insight as to what our men and women are experiencing and sacrificing to protect freedom. A must see.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. jerry
    10
    A brilliant doc that is pro-life in the best sense of that word. Not anti-Iraq war or pro-Iraq war...but against killing in any sort of war.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes