Arlington West: The Film | |
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Directed by | Peter Dudar Sally Marr |
Release date |
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Running time | 74 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Arlington West: The Film is a 2006 documentary about the Iraq War by Peter Dudar and Sally Marr. The title refers to Arlington West, the "temporary cemeteries" in Santa Barbara and Santa Monica, California which serve as memorials to those who have been killed in Iraq. [1] [2]
The film features 105 interviews, mostly with young soldiers who have served in Iraq, talking about their experiences there. It also features members of Gold Star Families for Peace, whose sons or daughters died in Iraq. Among these parents are Cindy Sheehan, Fernando Suarez, Jane Bright, Bill Mitchell, Vickie Castro, Nadia McCaffrey, and Karen Meredith. [3]
The film has been notably praised by historian Howard Zinn, U.S. Congressman John Murtha, author Chalmers Johnson, filmmaker Haskell Wexler, and anti-war activists Medea Benjamin and Frank Dorrel. [4]
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is bordered on five sides by different neighborhoods of the city of Los Angeles: Pacific Palisades to the north, Brentwood on the northeast, West Los Angeles on the east, Mar Vista on the southeast, and Venice on the south. The 2020 U.S. Census population of Santa Monica was 93,076. Due to its favorable climate and proximity to Los Angeles, Santa Monica became a famed resort town by the early 20th century, attracting celebrities such as Marion Davies to build magnificent beach front homes on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor and director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama Mystic River (2003) and the biopic Milk (2008).
Clyde Jackson Browne is an American musician, songwriter and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States.
Beginning in late 2002, and continuing after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, large-scale protests against the Iraq War were held in many cities worldwide, often coordinated to occur simultaneously around the world. After the biggest series of demonstrations, on February 15, 2003, New York Times writer Patrick Tyler claimed that they showed that there were two superpowers on the planet: the United States and worldwide public opinion.
Ronald Lee Ermey was an American actor and Marine drill instructor. He achieved fame for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Ermey was also a United States Marine Corps staff sergeant and an honorary gunnery sergeant.
Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles, California, situated about 20 miles (32 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles.
William Scott Ritter Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer and convicted sex offender. He served with the United Nations implementing arms control treaties, with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq, overseeing the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as a United Nations weapons inspector, from 1991 to 1998. He later became a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East.
Robert Scheer is an American journalist who has written for Ramparts, the Los Angeles Times, Playboy, Hustler Magazine, Truthdig, Scheerpost and other publications as well as having written many books. His column for Truthdig was nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate in publications such as The Huffington Post and The Nation. He is a clinical professor of communications at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California. Scheer is the former editor in-chief for the Webby Award-winning online magazine Truthdig. For many years, he co-hosted the nationally syndicated political analysis radio program Left, Right & Center on National Public Radio (NPR), produced at public radio station KCRW in Santa Monica. The Society of Professional Journalists awarded Scheer the 2011 Sigma Delta Chi Award for his column.
Thomas Emmet Hayden was an American social and political activist, author, and politician. Hayden was best known for his role as an anti-war, civil rights, and intellectual activist in the 1960s, authoring the Port Huron Statement and standing trial in the Chicago Seven case.
Arlington West is a series of projects in coastal California intended to draw public attention to, and to open a discourse on the subject of both military and civilian deaths during the invasion and occupation of Iraq in the early 21st century. The projects, consisting of symbolic grave markers established at beaches, have been implemented at beaches in Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, San Diego, and elsewhere. There is also a similar, but differently named Lafayette Hillside Memorial in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Santa Monica Pier is a large double-jointed pier at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California, United States. It contains a small amusement park, concession stands, and areas for views and fishing.
God of War is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). First released on March 22, 2005, for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) console, it is the first installment in the series of the same name and the third chronologically. Loosely based on Greek mythology, it is set in ancient Greece with vengeance as its central motif. The player controls the protagonist Kratos, a Spartan warrior who serves the Olympian Gods. The goddess Athena tasks Kratos with killing Ares, the God of War and Kratos' former mentor who tricked Kratos into killing his wife and daughter. As Ares besieges Athens out of hatred for Athena, Kratos embarks on a quest to find the one object capable of stopping the god once and for all: Pandora's Box.
Veterans for Peace is an organization founded in 1985. Initially made up of US military veterans of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War, and as well as peacetime veterans and non-veterans, it has since spread overseas and has an active offshoot in the United Kingdom. The group works to promote alternatives to war.
The Lafayette hillside memorial is a collection of religious symbols, accompanied by a large sign, in Lafayette, California. The memorial commemorates soldiers killed in the Iraq War and War in Afghanistan, with the sign containing a running total of the death count as recorded by the US Department of Defense. The monument began to raise controversy in November 2006.
Frank Dorrel is an American peace activist. A former United States Air Force personnel, he is now a Veteran for Peace.
God of War is an action-adventure game franchise created by David Jaffe at Sony's Santa Monica Studio. It began in 2005 on the PlayStation 2 (PS2) video game console, and has become a flagship title for the PlayStation brand, consisting of ten games across multiple platforms with an eleventh currently in development. Based in ancient history, the story follows the titular protagonist, Kratos, a Spartan warrior and later the God of War, who was tricked into killing his family by his former master, the original Greek God of war Ares. This sets off a series of events that leads to wars with the pantheons. The Greek era of the series sees Kratos follow a path of vengeance due to the machinations of the Olympian Gods, while the Norse era, which introduces his son Atreus as a secondary protagonist, shows an older Kratos on a path of redemption, which inadvertently brings the two into conflict with the Norse Gods.
Santa Monica State Beach is a California State Park operated by the city of Santa Monica.
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase The Pentagon is often used as a metonym for the Department of Defense and its leadership.
Jodie Evans is an American political activist, author, and documentary film producer. She characterizes her activism as working for peace and justice, environmental causes and women's rights. She has traveled extensively promoting what she terms the conflict resolution by peaceful means—including leading "citizen diplomacy" delegations to Iran, the Gaza Strip, and Afghanistan.
Western Heights is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. It contains one Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.