We watch movies generally when they first come out, but cranking out a review isn’t always easy given our time constraints. That said, we were almost first in line to see Brian DePalma’s new Iraq war polemic “Redacted” and afterwards we wish we would have shot ourselves in the face for it.
A docudrama based on the real-life rape, murder, and burning a 14-year-old Iraqi girl in March 2006 by U.S. soldiers, who also killed her parents and younger sister, obviously this isn’t light stuff and DePalma has made no bones about claiming this film is a blatant attempt to provoke and show the “true” side of the Iraq war (or “stop the war,” as he said over-optimistically)
Told through the multiple eyes of mock sources such as a pretentious French documentary, a soldier’s video diary, wife-of-the-soldier blogs, cable news reports, Internet YouTube clips and other pieced together nonsense, DePalma’s haphazard approach doesn’t do anything to inject any pathos to the plight and situation of American soldiers and Iraqis alike.
In fact, it does an offensive disservice to everyone, maybe especially on the viewer. The piece-meal approach is muddled, but one can only assume this ham-fisted and sophomoric take on agit-prop would have been terrible anyway DePalma tried to slice it. Subtly and grace aren’t his forte and every insipid scene is like a clumsy ox bouncing around the room breaking china with every step- you really can’t help laugh at how moronic and pathetic it all is. He makes Marilyn Manson’s shock tactics seem like a baby lamb bleating in comparison.
Most astute war films show the shades of gray and make everyone complicit in the inherent tragedy and stupidity of war, but DePalma’s black and white world of finger pointing, shock tactics and obvious, premeditated attempts to repulse the audience is lazy, irresponsible and should be the work of a much lesser filmmaker. The film is so heavy-handed, crude, and clownish that it borders on the absurd and you wonder if you’re watching a cruel joke or an oafish attempt at comedy.
It doesn’t help that every actor in the film (mostly unknowns or lesser-known actors) are godawful. Sure, the material they have to work with is clearly one-dimensional, but these guys are so wooden, I wouldn’t expect them to score lead roles anytime soon.
DePalma’s defenders and acolytes (and their are many) will likely bring up the tried and true “voyeur” stance: how his “male gaze” makes you complicit in all the evils his stories doth bring, but that’s just tenuous and paper-thin. The only thing DePalma makes you guilty of is the shame of having paid $10 for his film and actually not leaving your seat halfway through.
Ok, we understand (and admire) that this film is fueled from the most vituperative anti-war rage, but did it really have to be so cretinous and buffoonish? We’re far from patriots and far, far from war supporters, but this film is just a crime against storytelling of any kind and cinema at large. There’s a montage coda at the end of this film that DePalma has made a huge stink about. Basically it’s real footage of injured, maimed and dead soldiers, Iraqis, children, innocents and other grotesqueries. For legal reasons, Magnolia pictures, “redacted” the images placing black bars over the faces and DePalma had a shitfit when this went down, but this scene serves nothing other than to add injury to insult.
Do yourself a favor: never trust any critic from now on that recommends this film. [-D]
[ed. Next up: reviews of “Before The Devil Knows Your Dead,” “Youth Without Youth,” and “Juno” if we can get a free second]
