The War Tapes
Metascore
77 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 24
  3. Negative: 0 out of 24
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  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    100
    Gripping documentary.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    100
    There's a lot to process when watching The War Tapes, and that's probably why the documentary gets even better a few days later.
  3. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    100
    It's an experience that blows your mind, clears it and educates it.
  4. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    100
    The best documentary to date about the military occupation of Iraq.
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    91
    The War Tapes captures how the war in Iraq, for all its terrible carnage and death, is in a way too random in its destruction to even be called ''combat.''
  6. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Toddy Burton
    89
    A powerfully unique film.
  7. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    88
    We get to know three of these courageous, funny, smart and perhaps permanently damaged men in a film that largely avoids telling us what to think and makes an effort to get near the truth of the soldiers' experience.
  8. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    88
    Must-see stuff.
  9. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    88
    Really the film is a deft first-person character study with a war zone for a background.
  10. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    83
    This film is apolitical in the best sense - it bears witness to a time and a place.
  11. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    83
    The edited footage has an intensity and immediacy you won't find on cable news networks.
  12. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    83
    The War Tapes falls just short of greatness, because its scope is too limited.

User Reviews

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User Score
9.0 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. VLadimirG.
    8
    In a world where documentaries oftentimes seek to indoctrinate rather than inform it's refreshing to see a movie where the makers suppressed their own biases as much as possible. The result is a nuanced and complex portrait of the war, not the standard one fed the public by each of the parties and from the general news media. Well-worth a watch.… Full Review »
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