Severe Clear (2009)–***1/2 Tomorrow may be your last chance to see Severe Clear in a theater when the film screens at LA’s Archlight Cinemas as part of IDA’s 13th Annual DocuWeeks showcase. I’ve sat on the a DVD screener of the film for a couple weeks now, partly...
By Matt Zoller Seitz on 07/30/2009 “I Am a Camera” could be an alternate title for Kristian Fraga’s “Severe Clear.” This documentary about one Marine’s experience in Iraq is opening for a one-week Oscar-qualifying run at New York’s IFC Center (it’s part of DocuWeeks...
by Hap Erstein Severe Clear (12 pm Sunday, Movies of Delray; 12 pm Monday, Lake Worth Playhouse): By now, there have been so many documentaries on the Iraq War, it seems difficult to approach the subject with a fresh cinematic perspective. But that is what director...
Severe Clear is the Iraq documentary I’ve been awaiting conscientiously if not eagerly. There certainly hasn’t been a shortage of retrospective examinations from a position of authority – e.g. the macrocosmic No End In Sight and the microfocused Standard Operating...
by Eric Kohn Kristian Fraga’s “Severe Clear” breaks free of the “Iraq war movie” stigma by remaining essentially apolitical. The movie exclusively relies on cheap camcorder footage shot by U.S. soldier Mike Scotti during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, offering a...
by Erik Childress Films about the Iraq war and the lack of interest at the box office has been well-documented. Aside from Paul Haggis’ excellent, but overlooked In the Valley of Elah, films like Grace Is Gone, Stop-Loss, Home of the Brave and The Lucky Ones have been...
1st Lt. Mike Scotti, recently returned from Afghanistan, joined the 2003 Iraq invasion force as a gung ho Marine, believing wholeheartedly that he was defending his country, avenging the September 11 attacks, and seeking Saddam Hussein’s confirmed weapons of mass...
All Things Sand By Cynthia Fuchs “If the Republican Guard, supposedly the elite Iraqi force, chooses to stand and meet us,” submits First Lieutenant Mike Scotti, “It could become a shitty mess. I guess that means I’m gonna need a lot of film. That’s about it.” Well,...
Saturday, April 3, 2010 BY GIOVANNA FABIANO STAFF WRITER LEONIA — First Lt. Mike Scotti wanted to give people at home a glimpse into the life of a Marine on the front lines of the Iraq invasion in 2003. So he strapped a hand-held video camera to his fighter helmet and...
By Julia Baird “We don’t have the luxury of choosing our wars. We go where and when our president tells us to—without hesitation. I know it’s hard for some to understand: no matter how much it sucks at times, we love what we f–king do” (Mike Scotti, in the documentary...
