Desert One movie review & film summary (2020)
From the first, it’s a spiraling boondoggle. There’s a small road running through the area that was supposed to be little used, but as soon as the Americans are on the ground it’s “like Grand Central,” one recalls: here comes a motorcycle, a busload of religious pilgrims (Kopple interviews one who recalls being a wide-eyed boy witnessing the chaos) and two trucks, one containing fuel that produces a giant explosion when the Americans fire on it. By this time, two helicopters have gone inoperable. When a third falls out of use, the inevitable command is given: “abort.” But then misfortune turns into disaster. A giant dust storm swoops in, and when one chopper tries to take off, the blinded pilot rams into a C-130 with 40 soldiers aboard, causing it to erupt in a giant fireball. Eight Americans perish in the conflagration.
The extended sequence that narrates these events is alternately heart-stopping and gut-wrenching, as dramatically propulsive as any action movie. In addition to her interviews with several participants, Kopple’s telling benefits enormously from Zartosht Soltani’s superb animation, as well as the work of editors Francsico Bello and Fabian Caballero and composer Wendy Blackstone.
After the deaths in the desert, the Americans’ bodies were taken to Tehran to be turned over to the Red Cross for repatriation, but before that happened, the hideously charred and contorted corpses were stripped naked and put on display for the world press, an event overseen by Sadegh Khalkhali, a Stalin-like monster who was responsible for countless summary executions as Khomeini’s “hanging judge.” This horrific act is the tale’s harsh nadir. Back in the U.S, the fallen men were greeted by a stricken and sorrowful nation and their own grieving families, and given tributes that appropriately recognized their patriotism, professionalism and courage.
As starkly tragic as the end of Operation Eagle Claw was, it and the history surrounding it are too little known and deserve to be discovered and contemplated as a way of imagining a future beyond the missteps and misunderstandings that have kept the U.S. and Iranian governments at violent odds for decades. As for Carter’s missteps, it’s hard to disagree with Ted Koppel’s assertion that the president’s signaling Khomeini that he wouldn’t use force as long as the hostages weren’t killed was “as foolish a policy statement as you could make.” Carter’s very un-strategic restraint, in any case, effectively doomed his reelection chances; he was beaten in a landslide by tough-talking Ronald Reagan. But the same cautious course also ended in the hostages being released unharmed. Having the 52 Americans returned safely was Carter’s pre-eminent goal, after all; it’s just too bad the eight men left at Desert One weren’t similarly rescued.
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