![]() ![]() Shot in half-shadow amid general hysteria, this sequence does have a raw power, but its impact is diluted by the pic’s increasingly wobbly tone and the characters’ lack of depth. Secretly helmet-cammed by Salazar, this ends in the horrific rape of a 15-year-girl and the shooting of her and her family. of an embedded journalist, and the subsequent media hoo-ha, Flake and Rush pressure the rest of their group to return on a private mission. After a night raid on a private house, seen from the p.o.v. You get remorse, you get weak you get weak, you die.”Violence escalates when the locals take revenge on one of the group, in a well-staged shock sequence. In dialogue that sounds too theatrically scripted, Rush contends, “You can’t afford remorse. Even when it turns out the car contains a pregnant woman rushing to get to a hospital (where she subsequently dies), the two soldiers remain unrepentant. ![]() Whichever is true, pic’s technique is already starting to deflect attention from any potential message.ĭrama finally clicks into gear when a car driven by Iraqis doesn’t stop at the checkpoint, and Flake and Rush open fire. and Islamic fundamentalist) or other docus and testimonials.Īfter Salazar’s opening, the first of these sources to show the outfit going about its daily routine at a checkpoint is a (fake) French docu, “Barrage.” Complete with Baroque music, finely shot closeups and a metaphysical commentary - as different from Salazar’s raw, emotional footage as possible - it’s unclear whether De Palma is parodying Gallic documentary style for its artiness or praising it for its detachment. It’s soon clear De Palma intends to construct the whole movie from “found footage” - Salazar’s vid diary, security camera tapes, an Arab TV channel, websites (both U.S. James Sweet (Ty Jones), is a motormouth hardass on his third tour of duty. Rush (Daniel Stewart Sherman) and Reno Flake (Patrick Carroll). The breezy Salazar’s fellow soldiers in Alfa Company, Camp Carolina, Samarra, fall into the usual stereotypes: bookish Gabe Blix (Kel O’Neill), who spends his time reading John O’Hara’s “Appointment in Samarra” soldier-with-a-conscience McCoy, a lawyer (Rob Devaney) and racist tree-swingers B.B. From the first sequence, of Latino grunt Angel Salazar (Izzy Diaz) recording his buddies on video camera for a docu (“Tell Me No Lies”) he hopes will get him into film school, “Redacted” is much more about the process and techniques of filmmaking than media distortion or coverups. From its title and intriguing opening (which shows words blacked out on a document by a censor’s pen), the film seems determined to explore the repackaging of actual events by official and corporate media. ![]()
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