Letters from Baghdad
Vitagraph Films | Release Date: June 2, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJun 14, 2017
Although it would take much more than a 95 minute documentary for true enlightenment, Letters to Baghdad also helps us understand the complex political situation stemming from the gradual dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeMark FeeneySep 20, 2017
Swinton’s vocal performance as Bell is so vivid and absorbing it could be entered as evidence for the defense. Swinton makes Bell so compelling it’s easy to overlook what a paradoxical figure she was. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJeffrey FleishmanJun 8, 2017
The film elegantly unfolds as if someone had peeked inside a steerage trunk and thumbed through the brittle pages of scrapbooks showing sailboats on the Euphrates and hieroglyphics in the moonlight. Read full review
80
The GuardianLeslie FelperinMay 31, 2017
It does serve as a handy summary for those who want a cinematic introduction to Bell’s sprawling, singular story. Read full review
80
Total FilmNeil SmithMay 31, 2017
Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum’s elegant mix of voiceover, archive footage and talking heads lets “the female Lawrence of Arabia” largely speak for herself, illuminating the pivotal role she played in shaping today’s Middle East. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 8, 2017
It provides a sturdy, often exhilarating bridge between the present and a past that not only isn’t distant, but isn’t even really past. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 29, 2020
You emerge from the film with a divided heart: thrilled to hear of a woman who, ignoring the dictates of the age, filled her days to overflowing, yet ashamed to measure your own days and to find them, by comparison, hollow and bare. Is it too late to follow Gertrude Bell’s example? First, hire your camel Read full review
70
TheWrapTricia OlszewskiJun 15, 2017
Although Bell herself is fascinating, Letters From Baghdad is less so. Read full review
70
VarietyJay WeissbergJun 8, 2017
The bottom line is that Oelbaum and Krayenbühl have fleshed out a complex, fascinating figure. Read full review
60
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJun 1, 2017
There’s much historical material here that’s of high interest, and Ms. Swinton’s performance of Bell’s letters convey Bell’s skills as a writer, but the movie is ultimately too conceptually labored for its own good — or that of its subject. Read full review
60
Village VoiceDaphne HowlandMay 31, 2017
Unfortunately, the doc is devoid of any real context, including how work such as Bell’s helped lead to the quagmire that has unsettled the region for decades. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeMay 31, 2017
The film also touches on Bell’s work for the British government, drawing up the boundaries of Iraq after WWI – which was to have consequences still felt today. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comVikram MurthiJun 2, 2017
It’s a disorganized onslaught of primary source material that doesn’t so much shed light as it does simply exist. Read full review
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