This is an awkward film. It's twisting the reality. It's all a lie showing that the US army always have good intentions. While the reality they were devils entered Iraq to steal the oil, kill, rape, and destroy everything. That honest soldier shouldn't have gone to Iraq in the first place. Because he went there just for money. He chose to build his life and destroy the life of the others. Also, it does not make sense that Iraqi detainee was a scared coward guy and he was the one who bombed people. They did not show any scene about what media showed in showed about the crimes the USA army committed in Iraq. This movie is trying to block the reality from USA citizens to justify the crimes committed.

Let me start out by saying its a damn good film. I like it especially because it's not a film that paints the soldiers there as complete monsters as the media would have you believe.Now. What this film is about is simply the repercussions of being in the kind of messed up situation a lot of these guys were in. Our main character for instance almost got killed, got humiliated, and basically had to deal with all sorts of s h i t both from his superiors as well as inmates he was in charge of. That kind of thing changes you without question and that is what this film attempts to show us. The ending part of the film asks the question: What kind of person could do something like this. Like... were these guys sadists before all this happened...did they enjoy it....was it part of them...were they forced to by their superiors?... So many theories, so many answers...Now. The conclusion we reach here is that when you are surrounded by so much bad stuff it CAN change you. You might not enjoy what you do but you start to come to terms with it due to the fact that the guys you're messing up aren't innocent at all. Lots of people might argue the dehumanization factor that plays a part psychologically but personally I find it to be far simpler than that. Our main character was sure that he was dealing with an innocent man. Later he becomes convinced the same guy was lying to him and thus he changes his behavior towards him and everybody else. Whether the man was innocent or not is not made clear due to the torture present. But what matters is the simple fact that the guy felt betrayed. He went from seeing him as a friend to as an enemy. Therein lies the acceptance of the brutality which many find to be totally unacceptable and impossible to relate to. What some people forget though might be what they themselves might do when in the care of terrorists who's got the blood of dozens on their hands. Lotta people wanted this film to focus on the torture and painting the American guards as devils but thats is NOT what this film is about. We know about all that already. What we don't know about is what happened from the American soldier's perspective and THAT is what this film brings to the table. A refreshing change in my opinion.This film is in my opinion NOT about sadism, cruelty, evil, being subject to the strict orders of those above you. To me this film is about humanity. What we feel and thus what we do when we encounter people we despise and hate due to how they are or how we think they are. Our main character here was under the impression he was dealing with monsters, murderers, terrorists etc. How would you expect a man to react when in the company of such scum. Some would argue the guard to remain professional but deep down that is not realistic. We humans act on our emotions. Even soldiers. That is what we see here. Humanity both on good and bad and in between. It's a great film and its a MUST see for people who know about what happened in the Abu Ghraib prison during the war. It will grant you another view into what happened. An important view in my own personal opinion. All in all you need to understand what this film is REALLY about. Once again the focus is on what the title implies. The boys...of Abu Ghraib. If you fail to see that you will most likely not understand nor see the film for what it really is. I have already seen a review that was written by a guy who CLEARLY missed that entirely. You must accept this particular film for what it is and where its focus lies and not where you wanted it to be. I believe this to be a very good film. A solid watch. I think a 6 out of 10 is fair. A really good film indeed. Good because it doesn't strike me as biased in any way. But manages to include features both good and evil in regard to humanity itself, tells a story of one particular guard and his experiences there and still manages to NOT appear one sided.

I went into this film knowing nothing about it, realising at a certain point what war crimes it was based on it then became a lot more interesting, I don't have a lot to say about this film apart from I enjoyed the acting the story line was good but then around the last 25 min mark they completely destroyed it! it seemed they were blaming the detainees for their acts of torture which I found extremely offencive. I would not recommend this film to anyone who believes that what these soldiers did in real life was crimes of war because this will just anger you, if you're the kind of person that excuses your country for these atrocities then you'll love it, blame it on the victims and all.

I did not really understand what the movie was about precisely; was it about the squad being a squad, just like the beginning of the movie portrays it to be, or is it about the MP duties and his relation with the inmate, or is it about him and his girlfriend, or is it about the torture that took place? the movie was jumping back and fourth between events and loose connections. Also, it does not give a fair edge to both sides of the story, *SPOILERS* when the soldier and the inmate build a really good relationship, and then just like that, the inmate turns out to be not innocent? I mean that is harsh and biased. Many people who were imprisoned in Abu Ghraib were innocent and had nothing on them, and they got tortured and many of them died, for no reason. I think if the director focused on those people more than the others, it would be a better overall story. But, that is just my opinion.Give it a watch, and build your own opinion about it, my opinion is that it was a waste of time.