Essays, Art and Plays by Dan

Dan Campbell (Peace Corps El Salvador, 1974-77) reviews Star’s War: George Clooney on the Frontlines of a Deadly African Conflict, by Matt Brown (Guinea, 2001-03). This memoir was published in March 2025.

Title: Star’s War: George Clooney on the Frontlines of a Deadly African Conflict

Author: Matt Brown (Peace Corps Guinea 2001-03)

Published: Mar. 22, 2025 (Independently published)

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His Peace Corps service as an English teacher in Guinea, where there were no textbooks and his only tools were a blackboard and two pieces of chalk for each class, might not sound like direct preparation for documentary filmmaking with Hollywood celebrities, but Matt Brown is living proof that the Volunteer experience can prepare a person for just about anything.

After the Peace Corps, Brown worked as a communications specialist for the Enough Project and led three trips to South Sudan and Sudan with actor George Clooney to produce documentary videos and a Dateline NBC special to raise awareness on human rights abuses.

His memoir of those experiences, Star’s War, isn’t just a book — it’s a jolt straight to the heart. From the start, Brown places us beside him on dusty Sudanese roads and in tense border camps where residents’ survival hangs by the thinnest thread. We watch one of the most iconic actors of a generation — George Clooney — shed the red-carpet sheen and step into a place where celebrity means nothing.

In their journeys together, Brown and Clooney meet Jimmy Carter and get drunk with John Kerry. They visit refugee camps, sneak across borders and dodge a rocket attack. Clooney gets malaria, gets arrested, and succeeds in getting a little-known conflict into the national headlines and onto a president’s desk.

One of the many memorable quotes in the book relates a core element of Clooney’s motivation to put himself in such places: “If the cameras are going to follow me wherever I go then I’m going to go where the cameras should be.”

At its core, Star’s War reminds us that witnessing injustice comes with risk and responsibility. Clooney’s presence isn’t treated as a spotlight but as a tool: his fame can generate attention, his platform can speak for those who’ve been silenced. But Brown shows the toll that the adventure takes on him too — the stress, the sadness, the weight of trying to help when the world keeps looking away.

There are moments in this book that will stop you cold. But there are also moments that remind you of the stunning resilience of the human spirit.

I found myself rereading passages and thinking about the news stories I scroll past too quickly as I catch up on my phone every day. Brown forces us to acknowledge that every crisis affects regular people who laugh, weep and dream just like we do. Star’s War doesn’t preach. It doesn’t glorify. It simply shines a light and dares us not to turn away.

If you want a story that makes you feel, that challenges you, that follows you into the quiet moments of your day, read this book. It’s sad, yes. It’s heavy, yes, but it’s an important reminder for us to never forget or abandon those who are suffering, no matter where in this world they might live.

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Dan Campbell served in the Peace Corps in El Salvador from 1974 to 1977 and was a member of the team that planned and launched El Salvador’s first national park. After the Peace Corps, Dan worked for USAID and the U.S. State Department and assisted in the planning of information centers and research libraries in Kenya, Ghana, Thailand, Nicaragua and other countries.

https://peacecorpsworldwide.substack.com/p/review-stars-war-george-clooney-on