At one time when training for war, soldiers were pitted against an imaginary enemy. It was like shadow boxing. The foe was entirely in the warriors’ heads.  Full Battle Rattle, an official selection of the 2008 Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Film Festival, presents a different tactic the U.S. Army is now employing to prepare men for battle.

This documentary focuses on the American military’s Iraq Simulation in the Mojave Desert and features a group of soldiers from the 5-82 Battalion. There in the sweltering desert the men and women go through three weeks of intensive training before being shipped out to Iraq. The training center stretches across 1,000 square miles and consists of an enormous complex of replica Iraqi villages -- thirteen of them, to be exact. The arid area also includes a large city called Medina Wasl, which is supposed to be on the brink of civil war.

The soldiers’ training mission is to secure Medina Wasl and, above all, bring hope to its people. To maintain authenticity, the army has hired over 1,600 actors to play a variety of roles that bring the fictional city to life. Over two hundred of the performers are former Iraqi citizens. They have been instructed to speak only in Arabic whenever confronted by soldiers. The army has also hired soldiers who have returned from their tour of duty in Iraq to play insurgents. Other performers fill in as foreign correspondents and local reporters. Before the first day of training, Amber Gates, the center’s training consultant, gives each of the actors a dossier. It contains information about the character’s family background, education, occupation and hostility or the lack thereof toward the American troops. Also contained in the dossier is information on whether or not their character has any family members who have been killed or have attempted to flee Iraq.

While not scripting exactly what happens, the army sets up conditions and events which illustrate -- with live action -- what the soldiers can expect once in Iraq.  During the training, the soldiers may encounter simulated ambushes, sectarian violence, suicide attacks, death squads and improvised explosive devices.

Co-directors of Full Battle Rattle, Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss, had considerable difficulty trying to convince the army to allow them to film a documentary about the Iraq simulation. At first, the army refused to allow them access to the facility because they were not members of the news media. After the filmmakers revealed their qualifications and prior credits, the army relented and granted them two days access to the program.

After watching their footage, the directors wanted more time to give to the project.  So once more they approached the army for permission. This time they requested authorization to actually live with soldiers and document the entire three-week training simulation. They signed an agreement with the army which stipulated that the filmmakers would be neither monitored nor censored when interviewing the program’s participants.

Moss and Gerber have strong feelings about the war in Iraq, yet the strength of their compelling and entertaining documentary lies with the fact that they did not set out to make a pro or anti-war film. They simply wanted to examine the program from inside the simulator and leave viewers to draw their own conclusions.

For more information about Full Battle Rattle, go to the film's official site by clicking here.

(Produced by Mile End Films; not rated by MPAA.)