If The Da Vinci Code used the woman child of Christ as a controversial subject, Valley of the Wolves uses the barbaric acts of Americans in Iraq. The rest is mainly action.
As an action movie, though, it is a surprisingly good movie. The action scenes are realistic and the beginning of the movie makes you hate Americans like there's no tomorrow. But the ending is something like Rambo. That's why, even is the direction is good and the acting is good, the script seems half finished.
There are good ideas in the film: Islam is a religion of peace for those who truly understand it, all people have a right to dignity, terrorism is stupid, while intelligent and informed attack is the only true way of making a difference. Bad ideas include Gary Busey in a really small role as a doctor trafficking organs from "detainees" and a religious fanaticism in Billy Zane.
The script is not about Turkish soldiers captured by the Americans, that's only a pretext to show brutal torture, mindless killing and superior disregard to human life, all from the part of the Americans, commanded by insane Christian zealot Billy Zane. Zane basically plays Demon Knight again and if you take Billy Zane and make it Russian or Chinese, if you take Necati Sasmaz and make him American and if you make Necati invincible and saving all the innocent people in the end, you have your typical US action movie.
The sad fact is that while the brutality of the soldiers in Iraq is grossly exaggerated, some of the scenes in the movie are based on true events: the torture and humiliation of detainees by making them strip and sitting on top of each other, indiscriminate killing of people just because they don't matter enough and the way power can corrupt in the most disgusting ways. It is sad because you watch the movie and you don't feel that there is something wrong, it seems believable that people would act this way, Americans or not.
The highlight of the movie is the discourse of the Sheikh, who tells his daughter (recently deposed of her child and groom to be by US fire) that blowing herself up would not serve Allah, it would only increase hopelessness and damage Islam and he advises patience. But later he says patience is not submission, but struggle.
