Someday there may be a great film about the war in Iraq, just not yet. This movie seems more anti-soldier than anti-Iraq-war.
By Anthony Bruno
"Redacted" tries hard to present a raw portrait of American soldiers serving in the Iraq war. Though it is not a documentary, much of the film tries to look like one. Part of the film is presented as a video diary kept by one of the characters. Segments supposedly from a fictitious French documentary about the war, fictitious and actual television news footage, and simulated video podcasts and YouTube clips are added to the mix to give an aura of realism. The problem, though, is that the film is not reality; it's a scripted drama, and in the end we're left wondering, "What's the point?"
Real documentaries about the war—like "Gunner Palace," for instance—have done a better and subtler job of showing the unique horrors and incongruities of this conflict. A good documentary shows what the filmmaker has discovered about its subject without excessive editorialization and lets the audience form its own conclusions. "Redacted" writer and director Brian DePalma ("The Untouchables," "Mission: Impossible") starts down that path, but ultimately turns back to lay it on thick to make sure that his audience sees it the way he wants.
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| Redacted Writer/Director Brian DePalma |
DePalma is without a doubt dealing from a stacked liberal deck in this film, but he hasn't been alone in his efforts to make audiences see America's war on terror his way. Robert Redford's "Lions for Lambs" and Gavin Hood's "Rendition," both of which came out earlier this season, tried to give us their views on the shortcomings of U.S. policy, but the politically freighted results were unsatisfying dramatically. So too with "Redacted." You can lead a filmgoer to the theater, but even with complete control of the camera you can't force him always to see things your way.
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| American Soldier at Checkpoint |
"Redacted" is inspired by a real incident: in early 2006, five American soldiers in the central Iraqi town of Al-Mahmudiyah raped a 14-year old Iraqi girl and murdered her, her parents and seven-year old sister. "Redacted" presents the fictional chain of events leading up to and following a similarly horrific crime. The film focuses on a handful of soldiers assigned to the stressful but monotonous chore of manning a checkpoint in the town of Samarra. The men are imposing figures on duty, but, when they return to their quarters at the end of the day, it's made clear that many of them are little more than overgrown adolescents with guns. Most of them manage to deal more-or-less creditably with the pressures of their volatile situation, but some fail to cope. One soldier in the group has a prior criminal record, and the film belabors his antisociability, wanting to make sure we understand that the U.S. military has lowered standards, accepting recruits with dubious pasts. DePalma leaves this loaded gun on the table and, of course, it's just a matter of time before it goes off.
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