Redacted (2007)

Director:

Brian De Palma

Guionista:

Brian De Palma (written by)

Release Date:

16 noviembre 2007 (Spain)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | War

Frase comercial:

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:

Cigarette Smoking | Iraq War | Rape Victim | Rapist | Decapitation

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

A Dark Film about the Dark Side of a Dark War

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

Dirigida por
Brian De Palma

Créditos del guión
Brian De Palma		(written by)

Producida por
Laird Adamson	....	co-executive producer
Mark Cuban	....	executive producer
Jason Kliot	....	producer
Christopher Matson	....	associate producer
Gretchen McGowan	....	co-executive producer
Eric Schwab	....	co-producer
Stephen Traynor	....	line producer
Simone Urdl	....	producer
Joana Vicente	....	producer
Todd Wagner	....	executive producer
Jennifer Weiss	....	producer

Fotografía por
Jonathon Cliff		(director of photography)

Montaje por
Bill Pankow

Casting
Billy Hopkins
Paul Schnee

Diseño de producción por
Phillip Barker

Dirección artística
Michael Diner

Decorados
Rana Abboot

Diseño de vestuario por
Jamila Aladdin

Departamento de maquillaje
Adrien Morot	....	special makeup effects artist
Orly Ronen	....	key hair stylist
Orly Ronen	....	key makeup artist

Dirección de producción
Andrew Cullen	....	assistant production manager
Mike Harrop	....	post-production supervisor
Gretchen McGowan	....	executive in charge of production
Stephen Traynor	....	production manager

Ayudante de dirección
Francois Caillaud	....	key second assistant director
Tamir Naber	....	second second assistant director
Eric Schwab	....	second unit director
John Tyson	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Rime Al-Jabr	....	scenic painter
Amin Charif El Masri	....	lead set dresser
Sana'a Jaber	....	set dresser
John Moran	....	graphic designer
Lana Tettlock	....	key scenic painter
Paul Vernon	....	property master
Samir Zaidan	....	scenic painter
Nasser Zoubi	....	assistant property master

Departamento de sonido
Steve Baine	....	foley artist
Todd Beckett	....	sound re-recording mixer
Keith Elliott	....	sound re-recording mixer
Paula Fairfield	....	sound designer
Paula Fairfield	....	supervising sound editor
Carla Murray	....	sound effects designer
Carla Murray	....	sound effects editor
Jason Perreira	....	sound re-recording assistant
Peter Persaud	....	foley recordist
Jill Purdy	....	dialogue editor
John J. Thomson	....	sound mixer
Alan Zielonko	....	boom operator
Mark Zsifkovits	....	sound re-recording mixer

Efectos especiales
David Harris	....	special effects supervisor
Graham Hills	....	senior special effects technician

Visual Effects
Rob Gyorgy	....	digital effects artist

Especialistas
Steve Griffin	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Michael Bailey	....	second assistant camera
Alex Gomez	....	first assistant camera
Duraid Munajim	....	camera operator: second unit
Osama Namrouqa	....	gaffer
Kit Pennebaker	....	assistant camera

Animation Department
Timothy Peel	....	playback animator

Casting Department
Lara Atalla	....	casting: Jordan
George Naouri	....	casting assistant

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Fikreyeh Abu Kheit	....	assistant costume designer
Phaedra Dahdaleh	....	wardrobe assistant
Abd Elfattah Rayyan	....	wardrobe assistant
Nooredin Abedrabboh Sufian	....	wardrobe assistant

Editorial Department
Jim Fleming	....	digital film colorist
Rob Gyorgy	....	DI editor
Alex Yalakidis	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Kevin Banks	....	music editor
Stephanie Diaz-Matos	....	music supervisor
Jim Dunbar	....	music supervisor
Randall Poster	....	music supervisor

Transportation Department
Adel Adawi	....	transportation captain
Omar Ayesh	....	transportation co-captain

Otros miembros del equipo
Phillip Barker	....	title designer
Maggie Cohn	....	assistant: Mr. De Palma
Alice Wickwire Foster	....	production coordinator
Doug Gillespie	....	production accountant
Steve Holmgren	....	office manager
Sonia Hosko	....	assistant to producers
Winnifred Jong	....	script supervisor
Fuad Khalil	....	location manager
Quentin Little	....	development executive
Mohammad Majali	....	production assistant
Karen S. Neasi	....	product placement
Travis Rehwaldt	....	key set production assistant
Dana Silverman	....	production assistant
Robert Stein	....	legal counsel
Charles Taylor	....	head armorer
Scott Tremblay	....	principal technical officer
Scott Wealing	....	key military consultant
Virginia A. Williams	....	production executive

Thanks
Stewart Aziz	....	special thanks
Maxine Bailey	....	special thanks
John DeBoer	....	special thanks
Atom Egoyan	....	special thanks
Luc Montpellier	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Film Farm, The
• HDNet Films

Distributors

• On Pictures (2007) (Spain) (all media)
• Magnolia Pictures (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Albatros Film (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• CP Classics (2008) (Russia) (all media) (limited)
• Magnolia Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Maximum Film Distribution (2008) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Orlando Films (2007) (Israel) (all media)
• Paradiso Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Prorom Media-Trade (2007) (Romania) (all media)
• Seville Pictures (2008) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Sponge (2008) (South Korea) (theatrical)

Other Companies

• Dolby Laboratories  sound mix
• Elizabeth Bardsley & Associates  script annotation
• Hand Prop  props supplied by
• Movie Armaments Group  weapons and tactical gear supplied by

MPAA:

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

Duración:

90 min

País:

USA | Canada

Idioma:

English | French | Arabic | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Dolby

Clasificación:

Portugal:M/16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | Ireland:16 | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Jordan

Company:

Film Farm, The

Trivialidades:

Magnolia Films requested that Brian De Palma blacked out the faces of dead Iraqis in the disturbing photo montage at the end of the film. It was feared that families of the dead could sue.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The helmets worn in the film are Kevlar PASGT helmet with ACU (Army Combat Uniform) camouflage. These helmets were never used with this camouflage; the U.S. Army replaced the PASGT in 2005 with MICH TC-2000 Combat Helmet.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2007-12-01)" (2007)

A Dark Film about the Dark Side of a Dark War

Redacted (2007) **1/2

Redacted is an interesting and well intentioned, but nevertheless heavy handed picture. It's often a tough and unpleasant film to watch. Its style is unique and works quite well at times, while at others bogs the movie down to a halt.

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 - if not totally successful - 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, occasionally 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 almost always 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. In the end though, Redacted simply is a bit too much of a mess to overcome its heavy handed and sluggish execution.

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.