Extraordinary Movie & Video Guide

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Shadow Company. 2006. Directed by Nick Bicanic and Jason Bourque.

In the history of warfare, mercenaries have played a large role in them. Now the mercenaries are known better as Private Military Companies, and latest examples can be seen in Iraq right now. When everything is outsourced, why not the army too? When the work is dangerous, a lot of money is more tempting than ending up as an unknown soldier, whose coffins cannot even be photographed these days. Companies do not like the title mercenary, but are there really notable differences? Documentary "Shadow Company" tells the views of both sides very efficiently.

Shadow Company raises number of questions, does provoke the viewer many times - but is in the end a highly and respectively neutral view to business that does make its big money from war. War is money, we shouldn't forget that when wondering the reasons of wars in the world.

The interviewees agree on one aspect: the romantic, classic vision of unfearful mercenary adventures live only in stories, not in real life.

Shadow Company shows us the figures and statistics, that make this all seem stranger and crazier than one could've ever imagined (did you know that 50 cents is an

average black market price for DVD, that shows a beheading of a foreigner?). Then there are lots of real footage from war zones. The footage is disturbing, as it should be. With these two elements combined, the filmmakers hit the right spot making the viewer think.

Talking heads have been chosen carefully. Mercenaries, professional soldiers

or whatever you want to call them, have the time and space to talk about their job, the dirty one that someone has to do. Also we hear the views of ex-mercenaries like John F. Mullins, private military contractors, authors, investigators and also TV producer Stephen J. Cannell. But it's not all opinion after opinion - the documentary

ties nicely the story of PMC employee "James" which we can only hear by voice-over narrator.

After watching Shadow Company and thinking about the outsourcing trend in every thinkable aspect, you began somehow to understand why they (I won't say "we") fight. Somehow everything makes sense, and then not. And that's quite scary.