The left-leaning documentaries on the Iraq war have been plentiful over the past four years.

From the first Iraq war documentary, 2004’s "Uncovered: The War on Iraq," to 2007’s "No End in Sight," Iraq war documentarians have consistently interjected their own leftist slant on the war.

In "The War Tapes," filmmaker Deborah Scranton lets the men in harm’s way have a say, and the results are mixed on the political scale.

Three New Hampshire National Guard soldiers, Sgt. Steve Pink, Sgt. Zack Bazzi and Spc. Mike Moriarty are given cameras to file their own reports from the front lines. The results — spanning from the troops’ conflicted patriotism to their overall cynicism for the entire operation — defy conventional expectations.

Critics have described the film as "disturbing," and "humbling," and leftist screenwriter-director Nora Ephron called it "truly a grunt’s-eye-view of the war," saying that the views of grunts and embedded reporters are worthless because they’re "too close" to the war. Apparently, Ephron never heard of Ernie Pyle.

Some of the best documentaries about war come from the "ground-pounders" on the front lines. Results are usually a mix of grunt humor, often better than anything scripted, and unsettling danger. "The War Tapes" serves up a dish of both as the documentary brings to the screen the reality of all war from those who know it best, the foot soldiers.

Shot in 2004, during the height of the war’s violence, Scranton gives us a literal soldier’s view of the war, which includes desolate rides through Baghdad and Fallujah accompanied by the occasional IED explosion that lead to a chaotic anticlimactic ambush in which the soldiers don’t even see their enemies.

Scranton also spends a fair amount of time documenting the home-front woes of the soldiers’ wives, girlfriends and parents, and the film’s last 20 minutes — some of its most painful — are given over to the struggle of reintegrating into civilian life, alongside people who don’t want to hear the details of the war.

"The War Tapes," winner of the prize for best documentary in 2006 at the Tribeca Film Festival, stems from a simple, powerful idea: let the soldiers show their side of the war.

"The War Tapes" is not a denunciation of what some call an unjust war, but an authentic portrait of the ones who make it work.