REDACTED

(US, 2007, d. Brian De Palma)

After The Black Dahlia and such films as Femme Fatales, Redacted is not the film one would expect from Brian De Palma in 2007. It is a strong, even fierce, polemic against the American presence and behaviour in Iraq.

De Palma had made a film about the Vietnam War in the late 1980s, Casualties of War, with Michael J. fox and Sean Penn. He knows what he is talking about in terms of making war films. He has written and directed this one – even though it gives the impression that it is documentary with a variety of styles.
The styles include the video diary of one of the soldiers (and he wants to use it to get into film school when he gets back from Iraq). There is also a French documentary with French commentary about the checkpoints and what happens for the Iraqis as well as about the behaviour of the Americans. There are also some embedded journalists, interviews during action as well as reports on television. Then there are internet chat rooms where the soldiers speak with their family. There are also video clips on the web sites showing atrocities, even including the execution of one of the Americans. There is a final collage of graphic photos.

The film focuses on a small unit, the audience getting to know their personalities, their interactions, and their work. They are at a checkpoint, doing long, hot, boring sweaty work. They are under orders to let no cars through - but the point is made that many Iraqis can't read and so do not know what is required from the signs. There is a graphic incident where the Americans gun down a car trying to get through the checkpoint only to kill a pregnant woman.

The film has its basis on reports from actual atrocities in Vietnam. Particularly graphic is an unwarranted attack on a home and the abduction of the father of the family. Two of the soldiers then decide to return to rape his young daughter. They do so - and massacre the family.

The film presents images of the ugly American, in their language, referring to the Iraqis as sand niggers and wanting them to be blasted into oblivion. They feel under threat, do not have a wider picture of the situation there or in the Middle East, and have not been very well briefed before their tour in Iraq. They are full of attitudes of American supremacy, patriotism and the despising of the Iraqis.

The film is brief, packs a punch, will not be comfortable viewing for those who are in favour of the Iraq war. It will reinforce the presuppositions about those who are against the war. A companion narrative piece to Redacted would be Paul Haggis' in The Valley Of Elah - which has many overlaps in showing the behaviour of some American forces.

Nick Broomfield’s The Battle for Haditha takes a docudrama approach to the same events.

1.The situation of the Iraq war? Audience response to the war? For or against the film and its stances? A piece of visual polemic?

2.The title, the credits and the censoring, redacted as editing? Brian De Palma and his redaction of the war in Iraq?

3.The use of Jordan locations, for the city of Samarra? The visualising of the checkpoint, the terrain, the base for the soldiers, the Iraqi houses? Authentic atmosphere? The musical score – especially the repetition of the theme from Barry Lyndon?

4.The visual styles: the video and its use, and the scene of execution of the American? Television news reportage? The French documentary? The internet images, internet chat rooms? The interviews, the barracks, the final photos and the collage? An aesthetic style for protest, exposure, rhetoric, seeking of the truth? The influence on America and its allies?

5.Angel Salazar and his type, his hopes, doing the video diary, wanting to use it to get into film school? The diary, the dates and times? His interviewing his squad: Blix, McCoy?, Rush and Flake? His introduction to them, the talk, Blix and his reading John O’Hara?, the reading out of Somerset Maugham’s story, Appointment in Samarra? The others reading Hustler? The language? At the base, the drinking, cards, arguments? At work, the checkpoint, the mine blowing up, the sweat, death? The discipline and lack of discipline? The inspecting officer? Orders? The adequacy of the briefing before the Americans arrived in Iraq – and the expressions of their patriotism, bigotry?

6.The portrait of ordinary men, Flake and his being in prison, the poor, volunteering, the age getting lower for volunteers? Educated or not? The boredom, the heat, the heavy equipment, going to sleep on the post, surveillance, checking for mines? Carelessness?

7.The American invasion of Iraq, American security, Al Qaeda, the aftermath of September 11, issues of terrorism? Automatic suspicion? The use of Arabic and English? The Iraqis illiterate and not being able to read the checkpoint signs? The sense of American superiority, English being the only language, facing up to death, a spirit of vengeance?

8.Salazar, following Rush and Flake, the discussion over the cards, his decision, the attack and the taking of the father? The television news? The men and their return, having seen the girls go to school, Rash and his delay in searching the older girl? The plan, their felt need for sex, the rape, the shooting? McCoy? being ordered out to be on guard? Salazar going in, filming?

9.Salazar and the consequences, the nightmare, his responses in the interrogation? McCoy? and his blaming himself? Flake and Rush and their interviews, smug, arrogant, self-justifying?

10.The TV news, following the Americans into the house, asking questions, the interviews? The embedded journalists?

11.The internet images, for Iraq, against? The posting of the execution of Salazar? The communications, the chat rooms, McCoy’s? wife, McCoy? asking his father for moral decisions? The outburst of the vicious anti-American girl?

12.Work on the checkpoint, the search, the long days, the two girls walking to school, the shooting, the pregnant woman, going to hospital, her death, the brother thinking he was being waved through? Flake and the interview, not wanting to blame himself, mocking saying sorry?

13.The American soldiers and their attitude towards life, to the Iraqis, sand niggers, Hajis, Ali Babas? The children playing ball? No respect for life?

14.The film as antiwar, the stance that it took, the rhetoric, the fallibility of ordinary people, soldiers and officers, their limited experiences, biases, sense of superiority, letting off steam, the use of sex and drugs as outlets, blames?

15.The moral conscience of the film?

16.The final collage and the images?

17.Brian De Palma and his point of view, creating a fiction to give face to reality?