Redacted (Brian De Palma, 2007)

[Jeff]

Hopefully this will be a return to form for De Palma. It wasn't expected until next year, but after Magnolia execs saw it, they fast-tracked it to Toronto, and it will play in time for Oscar consideration. Jeffrey Wells has the latest scoop on a critics' screening:

A Magnolia Pictures exec has confirmed that yesterday there was a critics' screening in Manhattan for Brian De Palma's Redacted, which only wrapped in early May but will play in Toronto and open in the fall. A DePalma fan site has quoted a "source" who saw the HD-shot film, and the short verdict is that this "Rashomon-style series of video diaries based on a single incident between American soldiers and Iraqi citizenry" is "very good."

The video diaries come from several sources, including an American soldier, an Iraqi, and a terrorist website, among others." The source adds that the film is "intense" and "very affecting," and that "it feels like the work of a young man."

[flyonthewall2983]

Wow, that's quick for Brian.

[Barmy]

Iraq films have jumped the shark. Pass.

[Belmondo]

A director with a spectacular sense of style,
can't miss subject matter,
provocative theme,
a return to form,

wait a minute; that was my feeling as I waited for the sure to be good BLACK DAHLIA, and it is a mistake I will not make again.

[tavernier]

But at least that movie had Mia Kirshner....this one doesn't, I expect.

[tavernier]

December 14 release date.

[Jeff]

Hollywood Reporter loves it:

VENICE, Italy -- Veteran director Brian De Palma's filmmaking skills have seldom been as razor sharp as they are in his sensational new film about members of a U.S. Army squad who rape and murder a 15-year-old Iraqi girl and slay her family.

Made on HD video and employing images from digital cameras, video recorders, Internet uploads and old-fashioned film, De Palma's movie is a ferocious argument against the engagement in Iraq for what it is doing to everyone involved.

Made so expertly that it appears to be assembled from genuine footage, the film details the extraordinary psychological pressure suffered by young soldiers on checkpoint duty in occupied areas of Iraq, and then follows one unit as two of its members skew monstrously out of control.
De Palma's screenplay is outstanding, and he draws wonderfully naturalistic performances from his youthful cast. Sympathetic to the young men who lose their way in horrible circumstances but unflinching in its depiction of the horrors that can result, the film is harrowing, but it should find responsive audiences everywhere.

A fictional story based on real events, "Redacted" distills images from an array of sources to tell its story, beginning with those captured by Angel Salazar (Izzy Diaz), a young soldier who hopes they will buy his way into film school. Clean-cut Lawyer McCoy (Rob Devaney) also wields a video camera, but Salazar goes to extremes making a daily record of almost everything he sees.

That includes conversations with the other guys in the unit: Reno Flake (Patrick Carroll), a doper whose name is apt; B.B. Rush (Daniel Stewart Sherman), a blowhard with a lot of body fat; Gabe Blix (Kel O'Neill), who likes to read John O'Hara; and two sergeants, Sweet (Ty Jones) and Vazques (Mike Figueroa). They goof around for the camera off duty and Salazar even records them on duty so that when one of them is blown to pieces by a bomb left in roadside trash, he gets it all.

By then, footage from a French documentary about the unit has made clear how the monotony and constant fear of maintaining checkpoints grinds the men down. Constantly being told they have to remain on duty for a further tour, they are drained and on edge. The docu reports that over 24 months 2,000 Iraqis were killed at checkpoints with only 60 proven to be insurgents. In one such incident, a pregnant woman and her baby are killed when her brother, taking her to the hospital, races through the unit's checkpoint thinking he's been waved on.

Rush and Flake are especially vulnerable to demonizing an enemy that they don't recognize or understand. Their plan to rape the daughter of a Sunni man recently arrested comes up almost idly but then becomes one of deadly intent.

De Palma uses all his considerable talent to make clear what has happened to these young men and the performances, especially by Carroll as the callously indifferent Flake and Devaney as the conscience stricken McCoy, are first rate.

The director makes great use of Handel's "Sarabande" in the picture, the somber tones familiar as the main title music in Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon." It's a reminder that nothing depicted in this film is new and that it's a shame it needs to be told again.

[exte]

Hollywood Reporter loves it:

A fictional story based on real events...

I thought after reading reports from drudge report that this was a documentary, no?

[flyonthewall2983]

Doesn't the plot of this seem to be treading similar water to De Palma's Casualties Of War, or is it just me?

[Narshty]

Hopefully this will be a return to form for De Palma.

I'd argue he's been smack-bang on form since Femme Fatale.

Doesn't the plot of this seem to be treading similar water to De Palma's Casualties Of War, or is it just me?

It seems to be the same subject matter (though hardly handled in the same manner), but I'm not sure if you're using that as a criticism. Most great filmmakers can't say all they want to say about a given topic in one film, which is why they return to the same themes and ideas several times over. It's not as if De Palma's never broached political issues in his work before.

[Jeff]

Hopefully this will be a return to form for De Palma.

I'd argue he's been smack-bang on form since Femme Fatale.

I love Femme Fatale too, but I've always assumed I was part of a very small minority in that regard. I thought Black Dahlia was a mess, but I do recall you being a big fan, Narshty. At any rate, I guess what I mean is that it looks like he may finally have a film embraced by the critical community again.

[Oedipax]

Seems to be generating a lot of fervor among the 'true believers.' This blog post and especially the subsequent comments left by readers are wingnut central the likes of which I didn't think I'd see this late in the game. Who knew?

[domino harvey]

DePalma chilling in five star luxury while debuting his film to Europeans, nowhere near Iraq

that is like the most amazing picture caption I've ever read

[Cold Bishop]

"Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain't about free speech, remember you're in a private domain. My website, my prerogative."

[domino harvey]

Pat Dollard seemed pretty upset, so I sent him an eHug

[Antoine Doinel]

Incredible footage from the NYFF press conference in which DePalma and Eamonn Bowles from Magnolia Pictures get into a debate about the final cut of the film, in which Magnolia has removed the war photo montage at the end due to legal reasons. Obviously DePalma is less than pleased the pictures have been removed, while Bowles' position is that though he thinks it probably works better dramatically to have them in, legally, it presents a situation that the film company isn't willing to embrace. The producer of the film also gets involved. Very interesting stuff.

[flyonthewall2983]

What are the photographs in question of?

[Oedipax]

What are the photographs in question of?

Sounds like badly mutilated dead bodies of U.S. (or "coalition") soldiers to me. Someone brings up the word "massacre" in relation to the pictures, so it's possible there are Iraqi civilians involved as well - but, not to be too cynical about it, I strongly doubt anyone at this point is particularly concerned with the legal ramifications of showing dead Iraqis. As is often the case in war photography, the sight of "our own" dead is far more taboo than that of the Other, even when it's the people we're allegedly "liberating."

[tavernier]

It's actually a montage of photos of dead Iraqis, not U.S. soldiers. At the end of the montage is a staged photo of the film's dead teenager after the GIs kill her.

[exte]

How is this an issue? How is putting black bars over the eyes of these victims not a good solution? I guess I'd have to see the photos to see how important it is to the content, etc, but won't the rest of the picture tell the story?

[David Ehrenstein]

It's an excellent film. The black bars over the eyes serve to distance the viewer from the pictures -- completely against De Palma's intentions.

[Ted Todorov]

It's an excellent film. The black bars over the eyes serve to distance the viewer from the pictures -- completely against De Palma's intentions.

I agree completely and I am mystified by the "legal ramifications" -- what is Magnolia pictures afraid of -- being sued by the families of dead Iraqis for copyright violations??

Unfortunately there was no Q&A after last night's NYFF screening (no idea why -- DePalma and the cast were present).

The film itself is excellent -- I think DePalma's approach works very well, and is again a reminder of how cowardly our TV press is in showing the Iraq war (I don't mean the poor journalists risking their lives, I mean their network masters who decide what goes on the air). Redacted also again (with films like the Control Room) contrasts the perception of Iraq that the rest of the world is getting.

[lady wakasa]

It's an excellent film. The black bars over the eyes serve to distance the viewer from the pictures -- completely against De Palma's intentions.

Although I thought the way he did the entire film - through video diaries, the French documentary, the websites - added a layer that distanced the viewer from the story, much like what happens in the domestic media in real life.

I was at the showing w/o the Q&A, though, so I don't know what may have been said.

[pemmican]

Saw the film with the montage intact at the VIFF. No mention here of it having been trimmed at any point.

Felt cynical about the value of this film. Wrote about it at some length

P.

[Roger_Thornhill]

Hopefully this will be a return to form for De Palma.

I'd argue he's been smack-bang on form since Femme Fatale.

I love Femme Fatale too, but I've always assumed I was part of a very small minority in that regard. I thought Black Dahlia was a mess, but I do recall you being a big fan, Narshty. At any rate, I guess what I mean is that it looks like he may finally have a film embraced by the critical community again.

Well at least I'm not the only one who likes "The Black Dahlia," and I'm really glad he decided to make this picture instead of a prequel to "The Untouchables" as a follow-up to the critically reviled "Dahlia." Hopefully the DePalma helmed "Untouchables" prequel is dead and buried or, at least, not directed by him.