Metacritic reviews

Few who see it will be sorry. Sometimes being humane means not being squeamish.

Essential viewing for anyone who desires a sense of the finer human grain of a war that now commands the attention of the world as never before.

The film is informative, often grisly and undeniably riveting.

A film that cannot, in the normal sense of the word, be enjoyed, but it can be endured in a spirit of tempered anticipation -- The movie becomes an anguished demand that the dream be fulfilled. [26 Nov 2001, p. 122]

As news, it smokes CNN.

It is an excruciating experience. But then, it would have to be. We're watching the distilled essence of war.

Like "Beneath the Veil," it gives a human face to those who have suffered from the Taliban's tremendous cruelty, and those who have been maimed in the war to end their rule.

While the film is admittedly imperfect, it nonetheless deserves to be seen by all Americans to provide a clear understanding of what kind of a country we are currently at war within.