Review – Redacted

Brian De Palma has done better work. I started out wanting to support his decision to tell his tale in a fragmented combination of home video, French documentary, news clips and security camera footage. But after awhile it becomes intrusive, particularly when canards about the voyeuristic nature of the omnipresent media start to creep into the story. But more than that, this is far too heavy-handed. In particular, the graphic rape scene was hard to take. I understand that it was supposed to be upsetting, but I think society is still a little too accepting of sexual violence against women for this to reliably demonize the bad guys without simultaneously providing a pornographic thrill for at least some audience members. Further, this good-soldier-bad-soldier approach is too simple-minded to do justice to a mess as complicated as the war in Iraq. De Palma’s heart may be in the right place, but it needs to find a way to drag his head along for the ride. See if desperate