Redacted

Director: Brian De Palma Brian De Palma

Overview

Director Brian De Palma turns his lens on the Iraq War with this "fictional documentary" about the experience of U.S. soldiers involved in the conflict. Based on a news item about the rape of an Iraqi schoolgirl by wayward grunts assigned to patrol a checkpoint, the film depicts a scenario not unlike the one De Palma covered in Casualties of War. Shot on high-definition video, Redacted also addresses the ever-evolving manner in which war is covered by the media by focusing on such journalistic innovations as blog coverage and web reporting.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/19/2008
UPC:	0876964001229
Original Release:	2007
Rating:	R
Source:	Magnolia Home Ent
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:30:00
Sales rank:	51,847

Special Features

Closed Caption; Higher definition: Redacted episode; Behind the scenes; Refugee interviews; Photo gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Izzy Diaz	Angel Salazar
Daniel Stewart Sherman	Specialist B.B. Rush
Patrick Carroll	Reno Flake
Rob Devaney	Lawyer McCoy
Francois Caillaud	McCoy's buddy in bar
Mike Figueroa	Sgt. Vazques
Ty Jones	Msgt. Jim Sweet
Ohad Knoller	Army psychiatrist
Paul O'Brien	Barton's Father
Kel O'Neill	Gabe Blix
Abigail Savage	Tattooed Kid
Bridget Barkan	Judy McCoy
Zahra Al Zubaidi	Farah
Blake Neely	Composer
Jonathan Cliff	Composer

Technical Credits

Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma	Director,Screenwriter
Mark Cuban	Producer,Executive Producer
Jason Kliot	Producer
Stephen Traynor	Producer
Simone Urdl	Producer
Joana Vicente	Producer
Todd Wagner	Producer,Executive Producer
Jennifer Weiss	Producer
Billy Hopkins	Casting
Paul Schnee	Casting
David Harris	Special Effects
Graham Hills	Special Effects
Kerry Barden	Casting
Jason Kilot	Producer
Jessica Kelly	Casting
Lara Atalla	Casting
John Thomson	Sound/Sound Designer
Paula Fairfield	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

In the years following the start of the second Iraq war, numerous filmmakers tried to grapple with the thorny issues at play there. But few made quite so clinical an approach as Brian De Palma in Redacted. Since many of those films were considered misfires, a different approach might not be such a bad thing. De Palma presents an array of media -- a French documentary, an al-Qaeda website, a blog by a soldier's wife -- as if stockpiling evidence for a trial designed to determine some kind of universal truth. The story's backbone is the amateur footage shot by a soldier named Angel (Izzy Diaz), who hopes to parlay his observations into acceptance at film school after returning home. Through this we meet the five central characters. All of this is fictitious, of course, leaving Redacted in the category of "fictional documentary." The results can feel simplistic and on the nose, but that's partly intentional. De Palma's scenario is constructed specifically to have an every-soldier feel to it, dealing primarily with the brutal rape of an Iraqi teenager and the killing of her family. In this way, De Palma indicts all American soldiers in all wars (accusations of such behavior ran rampant in Vietnam), and even the very mentality engendered by invasions and occupations, regardless of who's doing the invading/occupying. Nor does he let the locals off the hook, intimating that they look the other way when roadside bombs kill American soldiers. De Palma's serious purpose doesn't mean he's overcome by sobriety, however. Some of the camaraderie among soldiers is disturbing, but some is downright funny. In all, the cast of unknowns convinces us they're real grunts just caught up in a cycle far bigger than they are, one that has repeated down through the decades, where no one is really innocent.