If you want to see a feel good flick as the holidays approach, check
out Fred Claus or Bee Movie. If instead you're looking for a
punch-you-in-the-gut dose of reality, nothing in theatres compares with
Brian De Palma's Redacted.
Released Friday in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, the Scarface director's Iraq War docu-drama is not an easy film to sit through, especially considering that the horrific events at its centre actually happened.
Redacted is a fictional account drawn from the real-life 2006 rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. troops, who also murdered the teen's family. In De Palma’s film, two soldiers, both of whom have succumbed to the intense pressures of war and gone off the deep end, carry out those same evil deeds to the horror of their fellow troops.
The story focuses on a U.S. Army unit stationed at a military checkpoint in the country. The soldiers carry out their often mundane but always dangerous duties in the hopes that they’ll soon be discharged. One of those jobs is inspecting vehicles at the checkpoint – a perilous proposition as checkpoints are often targets of suicide bombers.
At one point a man and a woman travelling in a vehicle that fails to stop are shot at by the militiamen. The woman, who’s pregnant, is struck and she and her unborn child die. The audience learns that the man driving her was her brother, who was anxious to get his sister to hospital so she could deliver the baby. He reveals to an Iraqi reporter that he thought the soldiers were motioning at him to proceed, when in reality they were trying to get him to stop. As with many of the issues in a country where English isn’t the primary language, the tragedy was a result of a misunderstanding. A startling statistic pops up on the screen explaining that of the hundreds of Iraqis killed at checkpoints since the war began, a few dozen have actually been proven to be insurgents.
A scene from Brian De Palma's Redacted
The director uses a variety of techniques including blogs, surveillance camera footage, media reports and a French documentary to get his blatantly anti-war message across, a reflection of the multimedia-centric times we’re living in. One of the soldiers in the unit, Angel Salazar (Izzy Diaz) is an aspiring filmmaker who hopes the digital video he’s making of his fellow soldiers and their daily grind will help get him into film school. Sadly, Angel ends up the subject of a very different video later in the film, a scene that’s shocking in its brutality.
In order to give the film a feeling of realism none of the actors are well-known – but a couple of them are very effective in their parts. Rob Devaney is affecting as Lawyer McCoy, a good man who wants to do the right thing in Iraq and is haunted by the guilt of what he’s seen and experienced. As remorseless soldier Reno Flake, one of the two men involved in the rape and multiple murder, Patrick Carroll also stands out.
The director resists the urge to paint all U.S. soldiers as brutish pigs, though some of them certainly come across that way, nor does he suggest all Iraqis are innocent victims of the conflict. However he’s not at all ambiguous about his feelings on the war, and the final scene is actually a photo montage of those who are blameless: mainly children, bloodied and missing limbs. In accordance with the studio’s wishes their faces are blacked out, or ‘redacted.’ They're images of the Iraq War not often seen, a startling and saddening reminder that all the nightmarish violence of the previous 90 minutes is actually happening overseas.
De Palma’s bold creation, which won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, has already drawn the ire of right-wing political commentator Bill O'Reilly, who's called on moviegoers to carry 'Support the Troops' signs to theatres showing it. He also criticized producer Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and urged basketball fans to protest at games as well.
A different kind of war movie, one for the YouTube age, Redacted is one of those films you’ll love or hate – there’s really no in between. I get the distinct impression that’s the way De Palma wants it.
Posted by Cate Jones
Agree? Disagree? Email Cate at criticizecate@gmail.com
Redacted (*** out of 5)
Rated: R
Starring: Rob Devaney, Patrick Carroll, Izzy Diaz, Kel O'Neill, Daniel Stewart Sherman
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Written by: Brian De Palma
Related links: Official site, IMDB page, Apple trailer
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