Redacted: The New Brian DePalma Iraq War Film Waht Will Shock Us All

A new film about the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears.

"Redacted", by U.S. director Brian De Palma, is one of at least eight American films on the war in Iraq due for release in the next few months and the first of two movies on the conflict screening in Venice's main competition.

Inspired by one of the most serious crimes committed by American soldiers in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, it is a harrowing indictment of the conflict and spares the audience no brutality to get its message across.

De Palma, 66, whose "Casualties of War" in 1989 told a similar tale of abuse by American soldiers in Vietnam, makes no secret of the goal he is hoping to achieve with the film's images, all based on real material he found on the Internet.

"The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people," he told reporters after a press screening.

"The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war," he said.

Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi was gang raped, killed and burnt by American soldiers in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in March 2006. Her parents and younger daughter were also killed.

Five soldiers have since been charged with the attack. Four of them have been given sentences of between 5 and 110 years.

pauline kael, r.i.p.

Advance word from De Palma fan-ghouls is that this is a disappointment.

A disappointment as a thrill ride or as showing a side of the Iraq war that hasn't been visually rendered?

A disappointment as a film. But, hey, I'll hope for the best. De Palma in Casualties of War-cum-late '60s mode could be a great thing.

Starring Nicolas Cage as the crusty-but-benign reporter.

who's always getting head from Dennis Franz

head heat, obviously

http://www.tvguide.com/images/pgimg/dennis-franz1.jpg

"Now, we are keeping this on the d.l., right? Right?"

best Freudian slip ever

I'll admit I caught it before hitting submit, but couldn't bring myself to, um, redact it.

Shot on video for $5 million, apparently.

Casualties Of War II: The Redacting

Just glad to see he's speeding up his work schedule.

De Palma just took the Silver Lion (for best directing) at Venice. I really hope this doesn't turn out to be shoddy award-bait.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z4iCM7dqkcQ&mode=related&search=

"Unless you're Tom Hanks, making real movies..."

"Jane Fonda...gettin' laid"

Christ. This video keeps getting better.

john c. reilly's greatest role yet

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LLNrP1piuyE

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9SQ275K_hic

"Che Rivera"

He's really pissed off about Magnolia 'redacting' the dead Iraqis' photos in it:

http://gothamist.com/2007/10/11/video_of_the_da_121.php

http://daily.greencine.com/archives/004677.html

A friend of mine really liked it, so I'm gonna check it out. If it's really the mix of Casaulties Of War and Hi, Mom! it seems then I'll be happy.

hmmm - I'll probably see it

To Armond White, Brian De Palma’s Redacted represents the low point of a great artist’s career.

By Armond White

Was Brian De Palma joking when he said he made Redacted to stop the war in Iraq? For the past 30 years he hasn’t made a movie that got people to simply go to the movies.

http://www.nypress.com/20/46/news&columns/feature2.cfm

i guess he must be pissed because it questions the war

Uh.

well, there goes that bet: Which of Armond's manias will triumph?

whenever i hear about a potential conflict, say, samuel l jackson in a boorman film, washington in a demme film, de palma using digital video in a leftist iraq film, etc, i always look forward to see which way he goes.

Hmmm ...

No, sir. I don't like it. But give me a couple hours.

Watched it yesterday. The first part was so good I was prepared to be all "THE CRITICS DON'T GET IT" but once the Casualties Of War plot kicked in things got haywire fast. Casualties Of War wasn't ABOUT "nam," but about a soldier's moral dilemma. This film is so macro in goal that the rape plot just bogs it down in micro elements, most horribly when the rapists give long nutso rants in front of static security cams. Kael noted in her Scarface review that he's great when he's filming actions but two people in front of a static camera and he's totally inept, and that's SO true here.

Instead of revamping Casualties Of War, he should have gone for Hi, Mom! Focusing more on the broader absurdity in the media than the fact that drunken assholes who probably rape in peacetime too are given guns when sent off to die in Iraq. It kind of reminds me of Mickey Rourke screaming "IT'S VIETNAM ALL OVER AGAIN!" while trying to clean up Chinatown in Year Of The Dragon. DePalma's got more cause but his anger is making him really clumsy.

does he hate America?

"The war allows RAPE to happen!" as a thesis is offensive both ways, because a. the war would still be awful if it didn't and b. people get away with rape all the time.

x-post he hates the SYSTEM

is 2 DePalma pans in a row a record for Eric?

both movies have moments so startling and excellent that I'll still run off to see the next one, but I'm worried Femme Fatale's going to wind up THE DePalma film of the decade.

or, as Jonathan Rosenbaum said ... of his career.

Instead of revamping Casualties Of War, he should have gone for Hi, Mom!

When I write this up, I intend to discuss the film's biggest faux pas: restaging the "Be Black Baby" sequence as this film's rape centerpiece. I hate to agree with Armond here, but at least as far as that sequence (and just about everything that follows) goes, his (Armond's) outrage is totally justified.

is 2 DePalma pans in a row a record for Eric?

Didn't actually PAN Dahlia other than to say it was not up to his standards. I haven't seen Wise Guys, but I'm sure that up against The Untouchables is a far more unrewarding twofer, though Redacted is probably the worst of the lot.

Oh, and Femme Fatale is clearly going to be the De Palma film of the decade. That's not really a bad thing.

yeah, I realized that after I reminded myself of what he did in the 90s.

anyone care to opine on Bonfire of the Vanities? It's the only nineties De Palma I haven't seen. Is it worth another look? I saw the poster. Bruce Willis had hair!

It's nothing special.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RkPDjqbPIu8

My mom was a huge Tom Hanks fan through about Apollo 13, all his 80s-early 90s shit was in our VHS collection so I saw this movie quite a few times as a kid. Really hollow, not very DePalma-y. I REALLY need to get my hands on The Devils Candy again, as I read that book before I became a huge fan of his.

http://m1.2mdn.net/viewad/1639505/vertical4.gif

perhaps this will be of comfort to BdP: Do you know what that John Cusack Iraq war-widower movie that came out last month pulled in, total, during a December run in about 7 theaters?

$36,613. Total. Random home movies could do that.