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'Saving Jessica Lynch' has Iraqi hero

The decision to make a TV movie about Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch seems like a slam dunk, part of Hollywood's long-standing fascination with ripped-from-the-war stories and warriors.

But NBC's "Saving Jessica Lynch" turns out to be distinctive because it's less about Lynch than about the Iraqi man credited with helping the U.S. military find and retrieve her.

In this stereotype-busting saga (9 p.m. EST Sunday), the soldier is the hapless victim and an Arab -- a lawyer, to boot -- is the hero.

Unable to secure rights to Lynch's story, producer Dan Paulson relied on Mohammed al-Rehaief's newly published book, "Because Each Life Is Precious," about the rescue and his role in it.

"We have our first war movie from Iraq and it's not about the heroism of our soldiers -- who have actually displayed a great deal of heroism under incredibly trying circumstances -- but it's about the heroism of an Iraqi man," said social critic Neal Gabler.

"This is a kind of odd propaganda pitch by the American military," said Gabler, author of "Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality."

But the producer says "Saving Jessica Lynch," which he calls as faithful a depiction of events as possible, is not intended as either an anti- or pro-war movie. The Department of Defense cooperated in the project but had no script control, Paulson said.

"We took great pains, forgive me for a tired phrase, for being fair and balanced. We really wanted to tell the story. We certainly did not propagandize," Paulson said.

Doubts raised

Questions have been raised about the drama's accuracy, especially in light of conflicting accounts of Lynch's rescue and claims that the Pentagon hyped her story for maximum public relations value.

Lynch's forthcoming authorized biography, "I am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story," reportedly casts doubt on al-Rehaief's claims. According to ABC's Diane Sawyer, who interviewed Lynch, she has no memory of him at the hospital. (The book also says Lynch was raped by her Iraqi captors.)

There is some skepticism as well about the timing of the feel-good movie, airing as U.S. casualties in Iraq continue to mount.

It's not entirely flattering to the military. The drama shows miscalculations and errors, including a wrong turn that led Army supply clerk Lynch and her 507th Maintenance Company convoy into an ambush in southern Iraq.

In contrast to inaccurate early reports that had Lynch fighting her attackers in petite-blonde Rambo style and suffering knife and bullet wounds, the movie depicts a chaotic attack and truck crash leaving her badly injured and unable to resist. Eleven soldiers died.

Her rescue, conducted by combined U.S. military forces, is shown as neatly executed but with troops facing no opposition. Only compliant hospital personnel are on hand when the units swoop into the hospital.

But it's courage that "Saving Jessica Lynch" stresses -- the fortitude of Lynch, even as she's lying in pain and under guard and, most of all, al-Rehaief.

(The film gives scant attention to others in the 507th, including some who have drawn increasing praise for their bravery. They include Pfc. Patrick Miller, who an Army report says may have killed as many as nine Iraqis before being captured. Lynch, 20, continues to attract media interest: Her first interview, with Sawyer, airs November 11, publication day for Lynch's book.)

'I think people are going to be surprised'

Nicholas Guilak ("Devil Wears Black," "Homeland Security") stars as the lawyer, who's portrayed as risking all to alert the Army to Lynch's presence in the hospital where his wife worked. Iraqi doctors and nurses also are shown as sympathetic to the U.S. soldier, played by Laura Regan ("Someone Like You," "Unbreakable").

"I think people are going to be surprised when they see this film," Guilak said. "They're going to see an unexpected hero" coming from an oppressive, fearful society.

"People need to see these things," Guilak said.

"It was our intent to connect with the human side of these people, the Iraqi people" said Paulson. "Based on the facts, as we could determine them, there were people who wanted to save this young girl."

The film's willingness to show Arabs in a positive light was lauded by Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Southern California.

"I think any programs that humanizes Iraqis and Muslims in general is welcomed by our community," Ayloush said. "This is the reality: Iraqi people are human beings who care about others."

A kind depiction of Iraqis also might help bolster American willingness to stay the postwar course, suggested Ayloush (whose group, he says, opposed unilateral action against Iraq).

"It's much more appealing to sell that we're helping people who deserve our help ... We've taken over their country and there is a (tendency) to humanize the people of that country to justify the human and material cost of being there," he said.

Other observers question whether "Saving Jessica Lynch" will have any meaningful impact on public opinion.

"It's much more difficult, it seems to me, to raise enthusiasm and patriotic fervor for an occupation than it is for victory," said Gabler. "What we've got now amounts to an occupation movie, not a war movie."

Lawrence H. Suid, author of "Guts and Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film," argues that the movie's timing "is all wrong, and the timing may never have been right."

"However positive it is, you can't hide the fact that every night on the news or every morning on the newspaper there are headlines -- another American, another two, another 10 have died," Suid said.

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