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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

No End in Sight
Magnolia Pictures


8.3

based on 28 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 39 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Campbell Scott

The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerrilla 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), Colonel 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. (Magnolia Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Documentary
WRITTEN BY:	Charles Ferguson
DIRECTED BY:	Charles Ferguson
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: July 27, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	102 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Time Richard Schickel

Prepare to be riveted: No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson's first film, is without question the most important movie you are likely to see this year.

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Ferguson spotlights two massive mistakes: the looting that was allowed to continue, destroying Iraqi infrastructure and morale; and--far more revelatory -- the apocalyptically stupid decision to disband the Iraqi army, sending half a million angry soldiers into the streets.

100

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Perhaps the most cogent and straightforward dissection of the Bush Administration missteps leading up to the current Iraq nightmare.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

May be the best and saddest film of the year so far.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Who is Charles Ferguson, director of this film? A one-time senior fellow of the Brookings Institute, software millionaire, originally a supporter of the war, visiting professor at MIT and Berkeley, he was trustworthy enough to inspire confidences from former top officials.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The most coolheaded of the Iraq war documentaries, the most methodical and the least polemical. Yet it's the one that will leave audiences the most shattered, angry and astounded.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

If any movie can rid Americans of "Iraq war fatigue," it's Charles Ferguson's muscular documentary No End in Sight.

100

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Ferguson's film is a clear-sighted counterpoint to the former secretary of defense's impression. As the title suggests, it's a seemingly infinite mess.

100

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

No End In Sight is the most important film of the year thus far and, more significantly, the most comprehensive, clear-eyed account of the Iraq debacle and the arrogance behind it that we have.

Los Angeles Times Dennis Lim

The result, narrated in a grave monotone by Campbell Scott, is a catalog of horrors so absurd and relentless it verges on farce, or Greek tragedy.

The New Yorker David Denby

Though the facts in No End in Sight are well known, the movie is still a classic.

Village Voice Rob Nelson

Masterfully edited and cumulatively walloping, Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight turns the well-known details of our monstrously bungled Iraq war into an enraging, apocalyptic litany of fuckups.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

It’s a sober, revelatory and absolutely vital film.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's enough to make you weep.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The most remarkable aspect of Charles Ferguson's lacerating documentary about the U.S. invasion of Iraq is that the film contains virtually no new information, and yet its message is as compelling as if we were hearing it for the first time.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Lucid, concise and devastating account of what went wrong in Iraq, patiently counts those 500 ways.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The anger that fuels Ferguson's film is felt in nearly every frame.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The most compelling and least partisan of all the Iraq documentaries.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

It's a cogent, often infuriating explication of how the execution of the war went awry.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The film concludes that there's still simply no way out of the forest.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

The first to take a big-picture view of just how the plans for postwar occupation went so far off track.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Ferguson is admirably tenacious in assigning blame for the boneheaded mistakes that have doomed Iraqi reconstruction. Paul Bremer, former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, is hung out to dry.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Ferguson builds a compelling case of bad judgment, error, stubbornness and arrogance.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

From the first frames of Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight, replaying some of the oddest and twitchiest podium performances of Donald Rumsfeld during those heady days of spring 2003, you may feel the crushing weight of an almost Sophoclean impending doom.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

A meticulous, thoroughly engrossing lesson in how not to win friends (or wars) and influence people (or potential terrorists).

Variety Robert Koehler

With an accountant's eye for precision and a political scientist's grasp of the machinations that move national policy, Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight itemizes the errors, misjudgments and follies that have defined the Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

May not offer up any fresh revelations, but this effectively assembled documentary puts it all in valuable, if depressing, perspective.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Some documentaries are a fervent search for truth; others are a fervent search for snickers. This one is the latter, providing via interviews and old film clips a Greatest Hits for Bush haters.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 39 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jay H. gave it an8:
Very thought provoking, most always maddening, and the staggering cost of the war makes me sick, considering the current economic state. It they divided up the money spent in the war between all us citizens, we would all be millionaires. Bush and his cronies are incompetent disasters. What a mess they created.

Nigel M. gave it a10:
Frightening, fascinating and vital, this should be seen by as many people as possible, whatever your political persuasion. Lessons have to be learnt from the mess that Iraq has become and this film asks all the right questions, even if it doesn't have all the answers. The Bush administration have fueled terrorism beyond anything Bin Laden could ever have done, through ineptitude, carelessness and pure ignorance.

holly c gave it a10:
As others have said, this is the best documentary dealing with the Iraq War--and I would argue the best doc of 2007. Not since "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" have I seen such a well done, level headed piece of documentary film making. Bravo to Charles Ferguson. What a stellar debut film.

Arthur C. gave it a0:
89!!! Well, I must have been watching the wrong movie, because the one I saw sucked. It was so boring, not during but overall, what is the point to this?

John C. gave it a1:
Incredibly biased. Dishonest and highly selective in what it shows. Movie is red meat for Bush haters. I walked out half way through the movie because I was so disgusted by its lack of objectivity and its more than obvious political agenda. The positive critics' reviews reflect their prejudices and are hopeless to use for anyone to objectively evaluate this truly awful move.

Rich D. gave it a7:
Very detailed and even though I agree with the director's point of view, I do believe he should have found some less negative commentators. I suppose he could have gotten some people from Fox News.

Argex gave it a10:
One of the best doc I have seen recently. Scary, and depressing but enlightening.

No End in Sight Magnolia Pictures

No End in Sight
Magnolia Pictures