Iraq War Pics Win Fans at Venice Festival

Films about the Iraq war are hits at the Venice Film Festival, Reuters reports. One critic calls Brian De Palma's Redacted, about the rape of an Iraqi girl by US soldiers, "truly a blow to the stomach." Others tout In the Valley of Elah, starring Tommy Lee Jones as the father of a soldier murdered after returning from Iraq.

Director Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah is a more traditional crowd-pleaser, says another critic, combining "the high quality of the director, the message about the Iraq war and a thriller-type story that the public will enjoy." But, adds a third, "there isn't one film that everyone is saying 'This is the one' about. People are very divided." (More Venice Film Festival stories.)