Redacted (film)
Encyclopedia
Redacted is a 2007 American war film written and directed by Brian De Palma
. It is a fictional dramatization, loosely based on the 2006 Mahmudiyah killings
in Mahmoudiyah, Iraq. This film, which is a companion to an earlier film by De Palma, 1989's Casualties of War
, was shot in Jordan
.
Redacted premiered at the 2007 Venice Film Festival
, where it earned a Silver Lion
"best director" award. It was also shown at the Toronto Film Festival, the New York Film Festival
and the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema
. The film opened in Spain, and in fifteen theaters in limited release
in the United States on November 16, 2007. The film received mixed reactions from critics and a poor financial response in its limited U.S. release.
commenced in Jordan
in April 2007 and ended in May 2007.
said "it could be the worst movie I've ever seen." However, Kyle Smith
gave the movie a 3 star (out of 4) rating, saying, "(It) is a piece of anti-war propaganda
whose aims I don't agree with, but it jolted me nonetheless." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave it a 3 and 1/2 stars (out of 4) stating that “the film is shocking, saddening and frustrating.". In a critical piece about the depiction of war by Hollywood, award-winning journalist John Pilger
described the film as "admirable".
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
, the film was rated "rotten", with only 43 percent of the 93 reviews being positive (including 48 percent of 27 "top critics" reviews) and the average rating 5.3/10. On Metacritic
, the film had an average score of 52 out of 100, based on 30 reviews.. The French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma
chose it as the best film of 2008.
also said that the theatrical release had "bombed" in the U.S. Total U.S. gross amounted to only $65,388. International release added $716,053 for a total worldwide gross of $781,441. The film's budget
was $5 million.
were prosecuted for the rape and murders perpetrated. The film ends with an official investigation underway, and does not depict a trial
or conviction
. Kurt Loder
wrote that "all five of the soldiers involved (in the rape and murder) were arrest
ed and charged, and three have been tried and sentence
d to 90, 100 and 110 years in prison." In addition, at the time of the film's release, the alleged ringleader, Pfc. Steven Dale Green, was being tried in a federal court
in Kentucky
, reportedly facing the death penalty.
However, De Palma pointed out that the film itself is fictional; HDNet
's lawyers told him he could not use anything real about the true event – he had to fictionalize it, and was not allowed to refer to the real event in any way.
of treason
, and called for the general public to avoid watching the film. Republican Duncan Hunter
, Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee complained in a letter to the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America
that the film "portrays American service personnel in Iraq as uncontrollable misfits and criminals" and "ignores the many acts of heroism performed by our Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors in Iraq." However, critic Kyle Smith
opined that "De Palma isn't trying to insult the troops but illustrating how any war puts men in impossible situations." De Palma himself has commented "the right wing is gonna come at this film. I mean, I've done something that is, it just can't be done. You can't ever say anything critical of the troops." He argued that the film provides a realistic portrait of U.S. troops and how "the presentation of our troops has been whitewashed" by media. He expected that its graphic images would stir public debate about the conduct of US soldiers.
Commentator Bill O'Reilly
has called for protests of Redacted and against Mark Cuban. O'Reilly claims that the film demeans US soldiers and may incite violence against them, and he has called on ticketholders to bring signs to Dallas Mavericks
games and all theaters showing the movie, stating 'Support the Troops'. Mark Cuban has responded, saying "The movie is fully pro-troops. The hero of the movie is a soldier who stands up for what is right in the face of adversity... I think that the concept that the enemy will see these films and use it as motivation is total nonsense. We have no plans of translating these movies to Arabic or other Middle Eastern languages...It's really easy to hate, its really hard to think issues through on their own merits. Anything that makes people think about issues is a good thing." Cuban also pointed out that, through the Fallen Patriots charitable fund that he set up and finances, over $2.5 million dollars has been donated to soldiers in need. He went on to publish an email he received from a soldier wounded in Iraq, who wrote "they've already formed their opinions of us and very little we do or say is going to change their minds. One movie, regardless of its subject matter, is not going to overcome their personal feelings".
press conference for the film, De Palma mentioned that Redacted is itself redacted
, due to Magnolia Pictures
owner Mark Cuban "being disturbed" by the ending photo montage's imagery. A voice from the audience called out "That's not true"; with the speaker identifying himself as Eamonn Bowles, president of Magnolia Pictures. The producer of the film later appeared on stage to explain that the images were taken out not because they were disturbing, but because of concerns about the possibility that relatives of the dead persons appearing on the photographs might bring lawsuits for emotional distress and the like. Magnolia, he said, had been put in "an untenable legal position" making the movie uninsurable.
In an interview conducted the day after the uproar at the press conference, Cuban said, "There is no way I am going to include images of people who have been severely wounded or maimed and killed when the possibility exists that their families could unknowingly see the images and recognize a loved one." He also said that Magnolia had offered De Palma the option of buying the film back from the distributor in order to release it himself and "absorb 100 percent of the risk", but that De Palma did not accept. DePalma responded, "That's not true. He never offered me that opportunity, he never answered my phone calls."
. The suspect was identified as a 21-year-old man, Arid Uka, a German citizen of Albanian
descent, who had worked at the airport. Uka claimed that he shot the soldiers because of a video he had watched on YouTube the day before, which supposedly showed U.S. Army
soldiers raping a Muslim
Iraqi
girl. The March 6, 2011 edition of the German television show Spiegel TV Magazine
identified the video as a clip from the movie Redacted. In a confession, Arid Uka stated that he shot at the U.S. airmen because he believed that they were going commit additional rapes based on what the video footage from Redacted had portrayed.
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
. It is a fictional dramatization, loosely based on the 2006 Mahmudiyah killings
Mahmudiyah killings
The Mahmudiyah killings and gang-rape of a 14-year-old girl by U.S. troops occurred on March 12, 2006, in a house to the southwest of Yusufiyah, a village to the west of the town of Al-Mahmudiyah, Iraq. Five United States Army soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment were charged with the crimes: ...
in Mahmoudiyah, Iraq. This film, which is a companion to an earlier film by De Palma, 1989's Casualties of War
Casualties of War
Casualties of War is a 1989 war drama directed by Brian De Palma, with a screenplay by David Rabe, based on the actual events of the incident on Hill 192 in 1966 during the Vietnam War. It starred Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn....
, was shot in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
.
Redacted premiered at the 2007 Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
, where it earned a Silver Lion
Silver Lion
The Leone d’Argento refers to a number of awards presented at the Venice Film Festival. The Silver Lion is awarded irregularly and have gone through several changes of purpose. Until 1995, Silver Lions were infrequently awarded to a number of films as second prize for those nominated for the...
"best director" award. It was also shown at the Toronto Film Festival, the New York Film Festival
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival has been a major film festival since it began in 1963 in New York. The films are selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center...
and the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema
Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema
The Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the month of April, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.The festival is managed by the Ministerio de Cultura del Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, it is not...
. The film opened in Spain, and in fifteen theaters in limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
in the United States on November 16, 2007. The film received mixed reactions from critics and a poor financial response in its limited U.S. release.
Production
Principal photographyPrincipal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
commenced in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
in April 2007 and ended in May 2007.
Critical reception
Redacted has received wildly mixed reviews. Michael MedvedMichael Medved
Michael Medved is an American radio host, author, political commentator and film critic. His Seattle, Washington-based nationally syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the U.S...
said "it could be the worst movie I've ever seen." However, Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith is an American critic, novelist and essayist. He is a staff film critic for the New York Post. His film reviewing style has been called "an exercise in hilarious hostility" by Entertainment Weekly....
gave the movie a 3 star (out of 4) rating, saying, "(It) is a piece of anti-war propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
whose aims I don't agree with, but it jolted me nonetheless." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave it a 3 and 1/2 stars (out of 4) stating that “the film is shocking, saddening and frustrating.". In a critical piece about the depiction of war by Hollywood, award-winning journalist John Pilger
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
described the film as "admirable".
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the film was rated "rotten", with only 43 percent of the 93 reviews being positive (including 48 percent of 27 "top critics" reviews) and the average rating 5.3/10. On Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the film had an average score of 52 out of 100, based on 30 reviews.. The French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du Cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs — Objectif 49 and...
chose it as the best film of 2008.
Box office
On the weekend of its U.S. release the movie was viewed by approximately 3,000 people, grossing only $25,628. Brandon Gray, publisher of Box Office Mojo, said the low per-theater ratio made the film a flop for De Palma. Richard Johnson ran an article titled "De Palma Iraq flick bombs". The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
also said that the theatrical release had "bombed" in the U.S. Total U.S. gross amounted to only $65,388. International release added $716,053 for a total worldwide gross of $781,441. The film's budget
Budget
A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...
was $5 million.
Relation to the real life incident
De Palma has been criticized for not including the fact that all of the soldiers involved in the real-life Mahmudiyah killingsMahmudiyah killings
The Mahmudiyah killings and gang-rape of a 14-year-old girl by U.S. troops occurred on March 12, 2006, in a house to the southwest of Yusufiyah, a village to the west of the town of Al-Mahmudiyah, Iraq. Five United States Army soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment were charged with the crimes: ...
were prosecuted for the rape and murders perpetrated. The film ends with an official investigation underway, and does not depict a trial
Trial
A trial is, in the most general sense, a test, usually a test to see whether something does or does not meet a given standard.It may refer to:*Trial , the presentation of information in a formal setting, usually a court...
or conviction
Conviction
In law, a conviction is the verdict that results when a court of law finds a defendant guilty of a crime.The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal . In Scotland and in the Netherlands, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which counts as an acquittal...
. Kurt Loder
Kurt Loder
Kurt Loder is an American film critic, author, columnist, and television personality. He served in the 1980s as editor at Rolling Stone, during a tenure that Reason later called "legendary". He has contributed to articles in Reason, Esquire, Details, New York, and Time. He has also made cameos on...
wrote that "all five of the soldiers involved (in the rape and murder) were arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
ed and charged, and three have been tried and sentence
Sentence (law)
In law, a sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...
d to 90, 100 and 110 years in prison." In addition, at the time of the film's release, the alleged ringleader, Pfc. Steven Dale Green, was being tried in a federal court
United States district court
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, reportedly facing the death penalty.
However, De Palma pointed out that the film itself is fictional; HDNet
HDNet
HDNet is a men's interest television channel in the United States, broadcasting exclusively in high-definition format and available via cable and satellite television...
's lawyers told him he could not use anything real about the true event – he had to fictionalize it, and was not allowed to refer to the real event in any way.
Political controversy
The film has attracted political controversy, with claims that it portrays U.S. soldiers in a negative light, and may contribute to anti-American sentiment in Iraq and elsewhere. On March 2, 2011 Arid Uka, a Kosovo Albanian, murdered two United States Air Force Airman in Frankfurt, Germany. Uka confessed to the murders and attributed his motivation for the murders to a scene showing U.S. soldiers raping a teenage Muslim girl taken from the movie, Redacted, and posted on Facebook. Sites like "boycottredacted.com" have accused Brian De Palma and the producer Mark CubanMark Cuban
Mark Cuban is an American business magnate and investor. He is the owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, and Magnolia Pictures, and the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet....
of treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
, and called for the general public to avoid watching the film. Republican Duncan Hunter
Duncan Hunter
Duncan Lee Hunter is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the House of Representatives from California's 52nd, 45th and 42nd districts from 1981 to 2009....
, Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee complained in a letter to the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
that the film "portrays American service personnel in Iraq as uncontrollable misfits and criminals" and "ignores the many acts of heroism performed by our Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors in Iraq." However, critic Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith is an American critic, novelist and essayist. He is a staff film critic for the New York Post. His film reviewing style has been called "an exercise in hilarious hostility" by Entertainment Weekly....
opined that "De Palma isn't trying to insult the troops but illustrating how any war puts men in impossible situations." De Palma himself has commented "the right wing is gonna come at this film. I mean, I've done something that is, it just can't be done. You can't ever say anything critical of the troops." He argued that the film provides a realistic portrait of U.S. troops and how "the presentation of our troops has been whitewashed" by media. He expected that its graphic images would stir public debate about the conduct of US soldiers.
Commentator Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (commentator)
William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television...
has called for protests of Redacted and against Mark Cuban. O'Reilly claims that the film demeans US soldiers and may incite violence against them, and he has called on ticketholders to bring signs to Dallas Mavericks
Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks are a professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas. They are members of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association , and the reigning NBA champions, having defeated the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.According to a 2011...
games and all theaters showing the movie, stating 'Support the Troops'. Mark Cuban has responded, saying "The movie is fully pro-troops. The hero of the movie is a soldier who stands up for what is right in the face of adversity... I think that the concept that the enemy will see these films and use it as motivation is total nonsense. We have no plans of translating these movies to Arabic or other Middle Eastern languages...It's really easy to hate, its really hard to think issues through on their own merits. Anything that makes people think about issues is a good thing." Cuban also pointed out that, through the Fallen Patriots charitable fund that he set up and finances, over $2.5 million dollars has been donated to soldiers in need. He went on to publish an email he received from a soldier wounded in Iraq, who wrote "they've already formed their opinions of us and very little we do or say is going to change their minds. One movie, regardless of its subject matter, is not going to overcome their personal feelings".
Film reaction
During a New York Film FestivalNew York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival has been a major film festival since it began in 1963 in New York. The films are selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center...
press conference for the film, De Palma mentioned that Redacted is itself redacted
Redaction
Redaction is a form of editing in which multiple source texts are combined and subjected to minor alteration to make them into a single work. Often this is a method of collecting a series of writings on a similar theme and creating a definitive and coherent work...
, due to Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor, and is a holding of 2929 Entertainment, owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban. Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films....
owner Mark Cuban "being disturbed" by the ending photo montage's imagery. A voice from the audience called out "That's not true"; with the speaker identifying himself as Eamonn Bowles, president of Magnolia Pictures. The producer of the film later appeared on stage to explain that the images were taken out not because they were disturbing, but because of concerns about the possibility that relatives of the dead persons appearing on the photographs might bring lawsuits for emotional distress and the like. Magnolia, he said, had been put in "an untenable legal position" making the movie uninsurable.
In an interview conducted the day after the uproar at the press conference, Cuban said, "There is no way I am going to include images of people who have been severely wounded or maimed and killed when the possibility exists that their families could unknowingly see the images and recognize a loved one." He also said that Magnolia had offered De Palma the option of buying the film back from the distributor in order to release it himself and "absorb 100 percent of the risk", but that De Palma did not accept. DePalma responded, "That's not true. He never offered me that opportunity, he never answered my phone calls."
2011 Frankfurt killing of U.S. airmen
On March 2, 2011, a man shot and killed two U.S. airmen at the Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt, Germany2011 Frankfurt Airport shooting
The 2011 Frankfurt Airport shooting occurred on 2 March, 2011 at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. The shooter, Arid Uka, was arrested and charged with killing two United States soldiers and seriously wounding two others...
. The suspect was identified as a 21-year-old man, Arid Uka, a German citizen of Albanian
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
descent, who had worked at the airport. Uka claimed that he shot the soldiers because of a video he had watched on YouTube the day before, which supposedly showed U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
soldiers raping a Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
Iraqi
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
girl. The March 6, 2011 edition of the German television show Spiegel TV Magazine
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
identified the video as a clip from the movie Redacted. In a confession, Arid Uka stated that he shot at the U.S. airmen because he believed that they were going commit additional rapes based on what the video footage from Redacted had portrayed.
Listening
- Interview with Brian De Palma, from Fresh Air program, November 14, 2007