Al Jazeera, the controversial Arab television news network, has become synonymous with the incomplete puzzles of international upheaval, affecting views on what is going on in the world today.
"Control Room," as its title would suggest, shows audiences the process that makes a foreign news station run successfully on the Middle East's ideology line. Few Americans are likely to have seen an unaltered Al Jazeera broadcast, and perhaps fewer still know the whole story behind the channel.
Behind the screen and past the controversy, the angle emerges. The movie does inform, but sadly, although appropriately so, the audiences are left searching for meaning.
Although a feature-length documentary on a volatile subject is no oddity in 2004, "Control Room" is one for the more discerning and reserved viewer to regard with great interest. This is not a Michael Moore movie and it does not entertain like a Michael Moore movie. The style is definitely a pre-reality television documentary with no discernible camera angle work and complete attention to long monologues from the participating reporters.
"Control Room" educates as much as it mystifies. Throughout the hour and a half journey the viewer is put on the rails of a perspective that does not hide its origins.
As a pleasant offshoot, audiences are introduced to the world of the American reporter abroad. The film thoroughly explores the interesting mix of the local American press corps, the Al Jazeera news station and members of the military sharing the same space.
"Control Room" is a difficult movie to categorize because it educates perhaps more than any movie this year, and yet its entertainment value is only luke-warm. It's easy to imagine it coming across more strongly if it were a "60 Minutes" special. Anyone who has questions about what's going on outside the United States should see this movie; others would probably find it boring.
