Entertainment

WAR IMITATES WAR

JUST when I thought I had heard everything about the war in Iraq, along comes “Full Battle Rattle.”

The documentary goes inside a billion-dollar government project in the Mojave Desert that few know exists: a 1,000-square-mile imitation Iraq, where US personnel and several hundred Iraqis simulate the war. The Iraqis portray insurgents as well as ordinary citizens caught in the crossfire. The encampment, consisting of 13 faux villages, is the last stop for troops on the way to the real war.

The idea of spending big bucks on a phony war sounds like something out of the Marx Brothers’ “Duck Soup,” but the stakes are, of course, much higher.

The directors, Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss, say they have “strong and similar feelings” about the war, but their views don’t find their way onto the screen. It is up to each viewer to decide if the Mojave project is a stroke of genius or a very expensive boondoggle.

And why didn’t the US hire actors to portray Blackwater mercenaries?

Running time: 85 minutes. Not rated (profanity, fake violence). At Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue.

FULL BATTLE RATTLE