To be fair, I could not imagine a Chinese film might have a more human and compassionate touch on the Iraq war than any American film focusing on the same topic since while the US was one side of the conflict with access to many historical accounts on the topic from both sides, China was not playing any significant role at all. Once Upon a Time in the Middle East offers a very sober and impartial interpretation of the US invasion and the horrible outcome of it for the nation and the region. On one hand, there is a transparent sympathy with Iraqis, and a smart explanation for the insurgency of radical forces from a standpoint that gives enough context to its audience to get a picture of what the dynamic behind these groups is and what might move someone to join them.On the other hand, the movie does not push an absolute anti-American sentiment. It indicates some sort of empathy towards the American soldiers, making an effort to ascertain that some of them were brainwashed teenagers who did not really want to be there. Even though nearly all the Americans in the movie are "fairly" absolute scums, these moments of sympathy are where I can respect the motive behind the movie even more.Regardless, Once Upon a Time in the Middle East is not perfect. To start, I do not really appreciate the visuals during action scenes and some of them are so awful and soulless that I thought they might be AI-generated. Furthermore, I am not a huge fan of graphic violence just for the sake of it. There is a scene in the end that depicts the death of suicide bombers in an indirect manner that I found both impressive and clever. I wish that approach had been taken more seriously throughout the movie. Besides, I think there is a noticeable absence of Saddam in the beginning of the movie which I later found was due to censorship in China, similar to some other issues that I cannot really blame the director for. I believe if the movie could present a bit more context about Iraq during his reign, and perhaps a slight reference to Zionist propaganda and support for a US invasion to further destabilize an already destabilized region, the political and historical value of it would be much higher, but it is not really something that I have a big problem with. Finally, Once Upon a Time in the Middle East is an interesting movie. I am not sure how it will age 10 years from now, but I assume it is a good movie for its time; a time that, unfortunately, seems like we need more movies to tell us why there is no good in any wars.
