"Find your future in the Arrrrmy!" goes the memorable jingle on Army commercials, and from all accounts, the line carries over into recruitment meetings, where officers promise discipline and direction to youth whose options are limited. But re-enlistment pitches are another matter entirely. In a startling scene during Occupation: Dreamland, a powerful documentary about a squad of Army grunts patrolling the Iraqi city of Fallujah in late 2004, troops are gathered under a tent for a talk about re-enlisting after their tour of duty expires. The officer in charge asks the soldiers to raise their hands if they do not intend to re-enlist; across the room, a sea of hands. Then he asks how many of them have solid, iron-clad opportunities waiting for them when they get back home; all but one of the hands drop. The message is the opposite of the recruitment commercial: They have no future, because they're not mature or skilled enough to make it in the real world, so they really have no choice other than to make a career out of the Army.
For the young men in the Army's 82nd Airborne division, the officer's cynical appeal is reinforced by their experience in the streets, where sharp jolts of terror and violence occasionally puncture their usual mode of low-level despair. Most are uncertain why they're there, but all are certain they're not making a positive difference in people's lives, and they've long since given up trying, other than some obligatory public-relations glad-handing before city-council meetings. Their tour of duty comes at an awkward and dangerous time in Fallujah, a Sunni stronghold that became a hotbed for insurgents and brought Americans perhaps the most disturbing image of the war, when contractors were burned alive and a mob hung their charred bodies over a bridge. The palpable tension between the soldiers and the locals comes through even their friendliest interactions, as if they're tentatively trying to defuse a bomb. But with the threat of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), which took the life of a squad member shortly before filming, the Americans are too filled with fear and resentment to play the role of goodwill ambassadors.
Directors Garrett Scott and Ian Olds were allowed to live with an Army unit at a former Baathist retreat on the outskirts of Fallujah, and they get the soldiers to talk openly about feelings and experiences. An ideal companion piece to Gunner Palace, which followed troops holed up near a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, Occupation: Dreamland corroborates the earlier film in its survey of widespread disenchantment in the ranks. Though these brave men follow orders and perform their harrowing missions to the best of their ability, none of them feel much hope for the city's future, which leaves them needlessly exposed, little more than target practice for local insurgents. When the Marines essentially razed the city months later, they had to wonder why they were there in the first place. Occupation: Dreamland gives voice to these voiceless soldiers, and their unfiltered thoughts are not what many people want to hear. As one of them notes, "People want their steak, but they don't want to see how the cow got butchered."