Only the Dead

This visceral, harrowing distillation of Wares seven years on the front line may not break any new ground. But it certainly brings that chaos to life ...

Only The Dead lacks a consistent self-reflexivity, coming across as a hybrid of simplistic narrative account of the war and personal diary.

There are scenes here that you can't unsee, much as you might want to.

Given this is assembled mostly from his own war correspondents videos, Ware is at the centre of most of the footage and your response to the film will largely depend on your response to him and his true blue blokey personality.

Absolutely outstanding, piercing documentary about the war in Iraq pieced together by Australian war correspondent Michael Ware from the seven years' worth of camcorder footage he took... Easily one of the best accounts of the war so far.

There are occasions when more information or sustained introspection feels necessary, but there also times when images speak for themselves.

Much is learned from Ware's words of haunted experience, mostly that while war is indeed destructive, it can also plant seeds for even more rotten fruit to grow.

This is to the Iraq war what Night and Fog was to the Second World War, and it must be seen in spite of itself.