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The Dumbing Down of Redacted

By Ken Nielsen (reviewer)

Redacted
By Brian De Palma
(Film Farm, 2007)

Brian De Palma should be ashamed and embarrassed for making such a film. It insults all troops in the Middle East fighting for a lie, the storyline sucked, it was technically flawed in terms of its military jargon, and the acting was worse than a b-horror flick. He took the mostly unintentional and somewhat original quirks and flaws of other films (Kids, Blair Witch Project, etc.) and used them as gimmicks to exploit viewers' emotions while attempting to explore a very serious incident in Iraq - the rape, killing and burning of a home and its inhabitants in 2006. These gimmicks undermine the extremely disturbing significance of the event.

This film is an outright insult to the soldiers serving and who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It depicts soldiers as one-dimensional stereotypes and has no analysis of the causes of the war. Thus, the movie comes off as completely out of tune with reality, aside from its beginning pseudo-documentary film style. Additionally, De Palma, supposedly a friend of the left, couldn't have given war hawks better ammunition to use against the anti-war movement than his portrayal of soldiers in such a weak and negative light.

My only hesitation in writing this short review of De Palma's piece of crap is that it might encourage readers to see for themselves how bad this film really is. Don't waste your time or money. In my opinion, your time would be better spent watching grass grow or pounding your head with a hammer, and your money would be better spent by sending it to our brothers and sisters in IVAW.