---
title: "This Is One Of The More Interesting Iraq War Movie Reviews I’ve Read Lately"
date: "2018-05-14"
modified: "2018-05-14"
authors:
  - name: "Tom Ricks"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/tom-ricks.md"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/sand-castle-movie-iraq-war/"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "Entertainment"
  - "History"
  - "Iraq War"
  - "Past Conflicts"
---

# This Is One Of The More Interesting Iraq War Movie Reviews I’ve Read Lately

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/02/18988337-1.jpg>)

They say that bad books make the best movies (for example, *The Godfather*). By the same token, perhaps bad movies make for the best reviews.

That’s what I thought after reading Peter Molin’s meditative [review](<https://acolytesofwar.com/2018/05/06/from-baghdad-to-hollywood-sand-castle/>) of a Netflix movie I haven’t heard of, *Sand Castle.* It looks to be a kind of the routine story of “I was a soldier and I went to Iraq and everything went to shit.” Molin writes: “A movie about how Private Ocre subsequently willed *Sand Castle* into existence would probably be a better movie than *Sand Castle*, to be honest.”

Molin adds, “What thinks of all this, I don’t know, but I’m curious if he is proud of *Sand Castle*, in spite of its modest achievement, or if he has regrets about how a better movie got away from him in the sausage-making process. Probably he’s just happy to have punched his ticket admitting him to LA insider status.”

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/02/image-placeholder-title-236.png>)