Homepage: http://soldierspaythemovie.com/home.htm

"I thought I could perhaps make a difference before the election, let people see the situation, how Iraqis wanted to get rid of Saddam, but also show what war does to people.", said Hollywood director David O. Russell – and was quickly dropped from his distributor’s list.

Russell shot "Soldiers' Pay" for $207,000, working alongside fellow film-makers Tricia Regan and Juan Carlos Zaldivar. Originally intended to be screened as part of a double bill with a re-release of the director's classic 1999 movie "Three Kings", Warner’s hypersensitivity over the upcoming Presidential elections and the war in Iraq derailed the initial release. A studio spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that it was not appropriate to attach "this polemic" to an "entertainment piece".

Small production/distribution company Cinema Libre came to the rescue, the same company that released "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" and "Uncovered: The War on Iraq", two films by veteran documentary maker Robert Greenwald.

"Soldiers' Pay" therefore screens as part of a double bill alongside "Uncovered: The War in Iraq". Cinema Libre Studio issued a statement saying that both films complement each other, with their "strong arguments about the consequences of war and the lies that were told to get there".

Most amazing is the story of the 3rd Infantry Division of the Army. During a raid, they discovered millions of dollars of cash. This mirrors events in Russell's fictional "Three Kings". Some of the soldiers decided to take some, and the military later seem to scapegoat one of them, ignoring the fact that his superiors were there and did not receive any sort of punishment.

The army was in crucial need of gear like gas masks and armor. Soldiers described how they had to scrounge for parts. Meanwhile, private companies hire contractors with exorbitant salaries to do things like drive trucks. So while soldiers lacked proper body armor and water, the private industry (most notably Kellogg, Brown & Root, the infamous subsidiary of Halliburton) had the best of everything.