Product Description

A fictional story inspired by true events REDACTED is a unique cinematic experience that will force viewers to radically reconsider the filters through which we see and accept events in our world the power of the mediated image and how presentation and composition influence our ideas and beliefs. A profound meditation on the way information is packaged distributed and received in an era with infinite channels of communication REDACTED utilizes a variety of created source material video diaries produced documentary surveillance footage online testimonials news pieces to comment on the extreme disconnect between the surface of an image and the reality of ideas and the truth especially in times of strife.Centered around a small group of American soldiers stationed at a checkpoint in Iraq REDACTED alternates points of view balancing the experiences of these young men under duress and members of the media with those of the local Iraqi people illuminating how each have been deeply affected by the current conflict and their encounters with each other. The charged apotheosis of Brian De Palma s filmmaking career REDACTED caps off a body of work which has explored the politics of image-making and reception more fully than any living filmmaker.System Requirements:Running Time: 90 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/MILITARY & WAR Rating: R UPC: 876964001229 Manufacturer No: 10122

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11061 in DVD
• Brand: MAGNOLIA HOME ENTERTAINMENT
• Released on: 2008-02-19
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.25 pounds
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.com
Brian De Palma's ferocious Redacted is one of a number of cinematic protests against the Iraq War and the withholding of information and images about the war from the U.S. public. But it is also shares De Palma's perennial interest in the relationship between film and violence, a relationship that has changed significantly in the real world because of the Internet, cable news, and the ubiquity of camcorders on the ground in Iraq. In a world more intent than ever on watching everything, De Palma has fashioned Redacted to look like a daisy chain of found footage taken from disparate sources. These include an American soldier's video journal (which, not insignificantly, is also supposed to be that soldier's audition piece for film school), a French documentary, a security camera at the edge of an army compound, and streaming video online from insurgents and military families alike. Taken together, Redacted recreates the kind of Iraq War scenes we've heard about for years: soldiers kidnapped or felled by booby traps, pregnant women and children shot by American guards at military checkpoints because Iraqi drivers misunderstand orders, etc. With mood and setting firmly established, Redacted then tells the story of an atrocity ripped from headlines in 2006: the rape and murder of an Iraqi teen, as well as the murder of her family, by American soldiers who then proceed to cover up their crime. Meanwhile, other soldiers, well-meaning witnesses to what happened, implode with doubt and uncertainty about what to do. In a way, Redacted is really about the paralysis of ordinary Americans confronted by the horror of our collective misjudgment about Iraq. It's a work of fiction using actors, meaning that De Palma employs a verisimilitude which sometimes doesn't sit well with anyone who has seen a lot of Iraq War documentaries featuring real troops and real Iraqis. But De Palma is trying to do something very difficult, i.e., make the case that in war, truth really is the first casualty. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Hillbilly Reunion!!!
Look, first of all, I don't give a rat's *ss what war you've fought in; if you're not black or native American, and have never had to fight to eat a damn hamburger, or get beat, shot at or killed, for whistling at a woman or for having the nerve to want to sit where you felt like on a bus, or for having the audacity for wanting to drink from a PUBLIC water fountain; if you haven't had to deal with any of these basic issues, don't spout off about being patriotic--you've had more to fight for--and die for--than those you'll call un-american. I'll bet that the same redneck who'll label a fine movie like this un-american would complain that some klansman lynching photo was propaganda, that we'd have to get the klan side of some black man being roasted for whistling at some white woman. If you want to rate the movie's merits, fine, but keep patriotism out of it. No one's more patriotic than people who'll fight and die for a country that deprives them of the basic rights of full citizenship. No one's more patriotic than a man who'll die for a country that has to pass a law for him to be a full citizen every seven years. This is a great movie. No, Rambo shouldn't get the oscar for best picture, Bubba!!

This movie should be banned
First off since I have been stationed in Germany for 8 years and have served 2 combat tours in Iraq, this movie is like a kick in the gut. Do Americans really feel this way about Iraq. I watched the movie, and then thought about the real thing. I tried to keep an open mind but no it just wasn't going to happen with this movie.

I will start off with certain technical aspects of this movie that I noticed. Keep in mind Deployed total of 4 times to the Middle East in the last 10 years, 2 Intrinsic Actions which were 6 months a piece and 2 OIFs. 12 months in Samarra, and 15 in Ramadi. And one more thing a am actually in a combat related Job so actually hunting insurgents not just on check points and guarding convoys.

My first problem was not with the acting or even the subject of the movie as the killings did actually take place. But it was with the lack of research the movie maker had on actual everyday operations in Iraq. One note I would like to add is that in one scene towards the beginning of the film its shows a city which doesn't look like an Iraqi city at all. After that is shows the US checkpoint. Well I don't know but the last time I checked the US Army uses the M1A1 Main Battle Tank, not a Challenger 1 Britsh Tank.

This movie is a dicrace to Americans not just Soldiers or the Bush Administration. Its a kick in the face. The feeling I get from the news is that Americans like Terrorists more than its own troops. Well thats Ok becuse all of you who say the troops want to go home and all that. I say that I dont want to go home. I will keep going to Iraq or to wherever my country sends me. I speak for a lot of soldiers when I say that we do not need saving from a bunch of people who try to speak for Soldiers.

Every movie that I have seen does not even come close to the Iraq that I experienced and I was in some pretty bad places. One movie out there that is worth watching is The Kingdom with Jamie Fox, even though it takes place in Saudi Arabia there are a lot of similarities to the war in Iraq.

Fictional documentary on war in Iraq
Brian DePalma's presentation on war on Iraq. The idea was to make the film from a soldier's point of view and it involves real life incident of group of an American soldiers who rape 15 year old Iraqi girl, kill her and her family and set them on fire to cover the evidence. Film is made from both party's point of view on the war, perpetual extension of duty for the soldiers who serve there and risk their lives every day and difficulty of ordinary Iraqis to live their lives under such circumstances. For Iraqi's even crossing security checkpoints guarded by American soldiers can be deadly in cases of emergency when they need medical help for woman giving birth. Director is not justifying either party, but he plainly tries to make a point that war is bad and it is mostly the civilians that pay the highest price. While I can hail this movie for its attempt of promoting pacifism, I found it to drag at times primarily because the actors in it were very bad.