|
Redacted
Reviewed By Rich Drees
Brian De Palma’s new film Redacted is many things. Raw.
Courageous. Disturbing. Brutal. Inflamatory. Bold. Uncompromising.
Important. A plea for the soul of our country. Quite possibly the
best film of De Palma’s career.
Redacted
opens with a statement from De Palma saying that the events of the
film are fictional. But the truth is that it was inspired by the
actual rape and murder of a teenage Iraqi girl and the killing of
her family by a group of four United States Army infantrymen. We are
introduced to the four, and other members of their squad, through
the video footage being shot by one of the soldiers who hopes to go
to film school once he gets home. We are also introduced to De
Palma’s storytelling conceit here- the use of video sources from
various sources such as a French documentary, news reports from the
local media, videos by the Iraqi insurgency posted to YouTube, etc.
Redacted may sound like it uses the same technique as other
“found footage” mockumentaries, but it is so much more here. De
Palma uses the various video sources as not just a narrative device,
but as a way to comment on the impact of the current climate of
ever-present media effects the soldiers as well as those of us on
the home front. It is a complex intertwining of text and subtext
that works incredibly effectively.
Using these
various points of view, De Palma paints a portrait of these soldiers
as they go through their tour of duty, manning a checkpoint in Iraq.
The days past slowly, the heat beating down on them as they wonder
if the next car to pass through their checkpoint is going to be an
attack from insurgents or not. As their tour of duty gets extended,
their stress levels mount closer to the breaking point.
There are bound
to be those whose knee-jerk reaction to Redacted will be to
dismiss as “against the troops.” Such a criticism would be
short-sighted, and I would question whether anyone who offers it has
actually seen the film. Instead, DePalma is very sympathetic to
these soldiers, trying to find answers as to what would drive these
soldiers to do what they did and what kind of continued effect the
war will have on our soldiers and our nation as a whole.
There’s one
shot, almost thrown away, that not only sums up De Palma’s feelings
on the war, but on the media’s observing and reporting on it. In the
faux French documentary, Salazar is shown on duty at a checkpoint.
Suddenly glancing down, something catches his eye. It is a scorpion,
being swarmed over by fire ants. The scorpion tries to fight back,
but his big stinker is ineffective against the much smaller and more
agile ants. Oblivious to the irony, Salazar pulls out his camera and
begins filming the smaller enemy swarming over the larger, more
powerful opponent.
Perhaps the
most damning scene in the film is one that comes towards the end of
the movie. One of the soldiers has returned home and is having a
homecoming night out with some of his friends at a local bar. After
being pressed for a war story, he tells him of the experiences we
have just seen him live through, breaking down into tears as he
recounts the horror. Oblivious to the emotional pain he is going
through, his friends lead the room in a round of applause for the
returning war hero. And that is what De Palma is saying about our
country. That we have gladly put on the blinders of patriotism to
keep from seeing the true horrors of war.
It is incumbent
to mention the film’s now well publicized ending in which De Palma
presents a montage of photographs of actual Iraqis who have been
killed, maimed or wounded during the ongoing conflict. As has been
widely reported, the film’s distributor, Magnolia Pictures, has had
black bars placed across their faces, obscuring their identities on
the basis of protecting themselves from invasion of privacy
lawsuits. An ironic punctuation to a film that has attempted to put
a human face to this war. But in its own way, it also fittingly
reinforces the film’s subtext that questions the effect this
conflict has had on our nation’s priorities and moral standing. |
