Redacted (2007)

Director:

Brian De Palma

Writer:

Brian De Palma (written by)

Release Date:

16 November 2007 (Spain)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | War

Tagline:

Truth is the first casualty of war.

Plot:

A montage of stories about U.S. soldiers fighting in the Iraq conflict, focusing on the modern forms of media covering the war.

Plot Keywords:

Throat Slitting | Iraq War | Narrator | Roadblock | Racial Slur

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Sahar Alloul	...	Arab News Reporter
Happy Anderson	...	Battalion Commander (as Eric 'Happy' Anderson)
Lara Atalla	...	Buddy #3
Karima Attayeh	...	Farah's Mother
Francois Caillaud	...	Buddy #2
Patrick Carroll	...	Reno Flake
Andrew Cullen	...	Buddy #1
Rob Devaney	...	Lawyer McCoy
Izzy Diaz	...	Angel Salazar
Mike Figueroa	...	Sergeant Jim Vazques
Qazi Freihat	...	Hadi
Shatha Haddad	...	Embedded Journalist
Paul Hijazin	...	English Newscaster
Suhail Abdel Hussein	...	Farah's Father
Ty Jones	...	Master Sergeant Sweet
Dhiaa Kahlil	...	Soldier
Hiyam Abdel Karim	...	Pregnant Woman
Yanal Kassay	...	Soldier
Ohad Knoller	...	Army Psychiatrist
Shukraya Maran	...	Young Screaming Woman
Sabrine Munther	...	Farah's Little Sister
Paul O'Brien	...	Barton's Father
Adel Odai	...	Interpreter
Kel O'Neill	...	Private Gabe Blix
Hameed Sahi	...	Farah's Grandfather
Abigail Savage	...	Tattooed Kid
Nick Seeley	...	Criminal Investigation Agent #1
Issam Shamary	...	Pregnant Woman's Brother
Daniel Stewart Sherman	...	B.B. Rush
Julie Thiery	...	'Barrage' Narrator
Helen Zamel	...	Date Girl
Jafar Zoubi	...	ATV Anchorman
Mazen Zoubi	...	Company Commander
Zahra Zubaidi	...	Farah

MPAA:

Rated R for strong disturbing violent content including a rape, pervasive language and some sexual references/images.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English | French | Arabic | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Ireland:16 | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | USA:R | Portugal:M/16

Filming Locations:

Jordan

Company:

Film Farm, The

Trivia:

The genesis of the film began when HDNet Films approached Brian De Palma in 2006 to make a film with only two strings attached: it had to be shot for $5 million and on HD.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Angel Salazar's video camera, as shown in the opening scene, is a small, cheap camcorder. However, during the scene where Master Sergeant Sweet is introduced, the camera's shadow suggests a much larger high-end HD camera with wide lens and external microphone is being used.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The O'Reilly Factor: (2008-04-04)" (2008)

A Dark Film about the Dark Side of a Dark War

Redacted (2007) ***

Redacted is interesting and well intentioned, even if it is heavy handed. It's is a tough and unpleasant film to watch at times. Its style is unique and works quite well at times, while at others bogs the movie down.

Redacted is shot from different points of view, mostly through the video camera of private Angel Salizar, who was denied entrance into film school so he joined the army. He is obviously one of the central characters, but he's rarely seen on film; he's the one operating his camera and we hear him often speaking from behind it. This is his ticket into film school, a combat veteran with a video diary: who's going to deny him now? He tapes his buddies as they patrol Sumatra, play cards, and talk. When we're not watching his camera, we're watching either security cams, a documentary by a French crew on the soldiers, a news crew, or what appear to be videos posted on YouTube. It creates an interesting approach to narrative, and at times creates the sense that you are actually watching a documentary - which I'm sure was DePalma's intention. I'm sure that everyone by now, given the massive controversy surrounding the film, knows what will happen. US soldiers go on a revenge raid after one of their comrades is killed by an IED. Drunk with rage, sexual deprivation, and sadism they storm a house they raided - for no apparent reason then either - days before and found nothing, but arrested the male head of the house anyway. They go back to rape the man's 15 year old daughter, and one of them kills her and her entire family. Salizar is one of the soldiers who goes, rigging his camera up to his helmet so as to be the fly on the wall, documenting what happens. Another soldier goes as well to make sure nothing happens, but is forced at gunpoint to not interfere.

I don't' think that redacted is an anti-soldier movie at all in reality. Most of the soldiers are disenchanted with the war, just want to go home and want nothing to do with the rape and want nothing more than to see justice done, but are forced to stay quiet. We get to see some scenes where one soldier is being persuaded by his father, an army man, to keep quiet, and an attack on his story by military superiors when he attempts to tell them. These scenes, especially the latter, I would have liked to see more of. After all the film is supposed to be about the way stories are suppressed and diverted when they are deemed unsavory to the credibility of the USA. The film gets bogged down in showing us how it's being made, when it should be showing us more of the "redaction," if you will.

The use of non-actors, or inexperienced ones, works to the advantage of the attempts to create a documentary like feel. When people know they are on camera, they get uncomfortable and the way the actors are not able to give movie star performances works to this end. However there are other times, particularly moments of big speeches that it works against it. It doesn't help that these speeches are sometimes over the top and heavy handed. Moments of the film are nearly laughable, and those moments make this a hard film to review. On the one hand I want to call it a mess; on the other hand I would like to compliment its messiness. Redacted is a marginal, but in the end, its occasional bad scenes are overshadowed by its moments of excellence. It is a worthy film.

There are no actual problems with the message of the movie and it does not vilify the troops as a whole. I would even go so far as to say that it is quite even-handed when you consider the facts surrounding reality. If you are out of tune with reality, and still adhere to the false reality that the USA can do no wrong, then I'm sure you'll find it offensive.

There are a couple of shocking moments in the film. One includes an IED explosion, the killing of a pregnant Iraqi thanks to a misunderstanding at a checkpoint, and another scene involving a kidnapped soldier. The ending however is probably the most powerful, and gruesome portion of the film.

The final moments, under the heading "Collateral Damage," show the bloodied, dismembered, and dead bodies of Iraqi men, women and children - the only doctoring done, is the digital covering of their faces. On that note, I will take the same course as the film, and end this review.