Holy War, Un-Holy Victory

暂无简介Holy War, Unholy Victory was produced immediately after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Based on the book of the same name by former CBS news correspondent Kurt Lohbeck, the film was assembled from footage the author shot during his 10 year sojourn as a reporter in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the 1980's. Dan Rather wrote the forward to Lohbeck's book, which also includes a photo of the author having tea with a young Osama bin Laden and several mujaheddin warriors who were fighting the Soviets at that time. The documentary would feature interviews and public speeches from Lohbeck on the subject of terrorism in the Middle East, and the fear of such attacks on the US. During the editing of the film, Lohbeck's longtime friend, the guerrilla chieftain Abdul Haq, who is featured heavily in the book, was captured and executed. \"I remember the morning Lohbeck walked into the editing room with tears in his eyes,\" director Shaun Monson says, \"revealing to us the sad news of his friends death.\" Holy War, Unholy Victory was narrated by Academy Award winner George Kennedy, who also appears on camera. Editor Curtis Edge suggested documentary filmmaker Shaun Monson as a director-for-hire and co-writer with Lohbeck after seeing a rough cut of his forthcoming film Earthlings. Kennedy's scenes and narration were all recorded and filmed by Monson in Las Vegas, where the film's primary investor and friend to Lohbeck, Wayne Pirtle, was based. The documentary was also edited by Edge in Las Vegas, as Lohbeck and Monson supervised. \"The film was really the brainchild of Lohbeck and Pirtle. I didn't have much creative control over the project,\" says Monson. \"However, they needed someone to assemble this stock footage and write a narrative; a person who could shape it and correlate its particular history into something relevant to 9/11, and because of Curtis' recommendation I just happened to get the job.\" Monson continues, \"It was good practice since I was far from completing Earthlings and learned much. It was also an honor to have the rare opportunity to direct someone like George Kennedy. But beyond these technical aspects of filmmaking, I found the subject quite sobering, especially during those tense weeks immediately following the September 11th attacks.\"