During 24 months, 2,000 Iraqis were killed at checkpoints with merely 60 proved to be insurgents

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.reuters.com/article/reviewsNews/idUSN0228523020070902

"Redacted" a shocking and deeply moving Iraq drama

VENICE, Italy (Hollywood Reporter) - Veteran director Brian De Palma's filmmaking skills seldom have been as razor-sharp as they are in his sensational new film, "Redacted," about members of a U.S. Army squad who rape and murder a 15-year-old Iraqi girl and slay her family.

Made on HD video and employing images from digital cameras, video recorders, Internet uploads and old-fashioned film, De Palma's movie is a ferocious argument against the engagement in Iraq for what it is doing to everyone involved.

The harrowing film should find responsive audiences everywhere. It screened in competition at the Venice International Film Festival.

Made so expertly that it appears to be assembled from genuine footage, the film details the extraordinary psychological pressure suffered by young soldiers on checkpoint duty in occupied areas of Iraq. It then follows one unit as two of its members skew monstrously out of control.

De Palma's screenplay is outstanding, and he draws wonderfully naturalistic performances from his youthful cast. While sympathetic to the young men who lose their way in horrible circumstances, the film is nevertheless unflinching in its depiction of the horrors that can result. snip

By then, footage from a French documentary about the unit has made clear how the monotony and constant fear of maintaining checkpoints grinds down the men. Constantly being told they have to remain on-duty for a further tour, they are drained and on edge. The documentary reports that during 24 months, 2,000 Iraqis were killed at checkpoints with merely 60 proved to be insurgents. In one such incident, a pregnant woman and her baby are killed when her brother taking her to the hospital races through the unit's checkpoint thinking he's been waved on.

[Bozita]

1. 60 of 2000? That's THREE fucking percent accuracy!

I feel a need to bang my head into a wall.

[lapfog_1]

2. I'm guessing about the same as picking 2000 Iraqis from the

population at random and shooting them all.

[sailor65]

Don't bang your head just yet

it's a movie. Only a couple of facts seem to have been used, the rest is the usual tripe.

[sailor65]

3. Very misleading thread title

May I suggest "Second-rate filmaker plays fast and loose with facts to once again make American Servicemen look like monsters."

There. Much more accurate.

[Richard Steele]

6. If you have any proof of your claims, please share it with the rest of us.

What facts, exactly, are you claiming that the filmmaker distorted?

[FreakinDJ]

7. A fictional story based on real events

A fictional story

Its in the article = try reading before bashing

[sailor65]

9. I'm criticizing the thread title, not the OP n/t

[Richard Steele]

12. I did read that article, actually.

"Fictional story based on real events" is hardly equivalent to
"playing fast and loose with facts to make servicemen look like monsters".

The poster who wrote that is accusing the filmmaker of some
seriously biased distortion. That's not the kind of thing I'm
just going to take anyone's word for, so I asked if he has any
PROOF of this alleged anti-servicemember bias.

[sailor65]

8. Read your own link.

The whole movie is built around an actual rape case. Everything else was dramatized.

And here:
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.cfm/page/article/id/8353

In the above; "When I went out to find the pictures, I said (to the media) give me the pictures you can't publish," he said, adding that because of legal dangers he too had to "edit" the material.

"Everything that is in the movie is based on something I found that actually happened. But once I had put it in the script I would get a note from a lawyer saying you can't use that because it's real and we may get sued," De Palma said.

"So I was forced to fictionalize things that were actually real."

Same old story; "I have lots of information, but I can't give it to you because (Fill in the blank). Really, it's all really, really, real, but gosh, I had to back off because of legal concerns! You'll just have to trust me that I have the facts that I can't give you!"

Now, who does the above sound like, a filmaker, or *? If it had been * that said this, you'd see it for the crap it is. Don't ignore the pile of crap just because it's a movie maker.

And as far as the one fact of the movie goes, the rape;
"Five soldiers have since been charged with the attack. Four of them have been given sentences of between 5 and 110 years. "

So in the real case, as always, the UCMJ deals with its own more harshly than the average civilian court.

[Richard Steele]

10. I posted no link.

And that sounds like a filmmaker to me.

While it is, of course, important to remember that this is a "dramatization",
I daresay it's not the filmmaker who has made those particular servicemen
"look like monsters". They took care of that on their own.

[sailor65]

14. Ok, you got me there

i thought you were the OP asking me for a link.
So........
read the OP's link.


And the only actual "Monsters" in the film are the ones who committed the only actual crime in the film, the rape.

The one to whom the thread title refers in the movie are MADE UP.

[Richard Steele]

16. OIC. Thanks for explaining that.

But I believe the numbers quoted in the thread title
have nothing to do with the "dramatized" movie.

That figure comes from a description of the DOCUMENTARY
that was filmed of that unit.

[Selatius]

11. I find it funny far right wing types love to resort to insults and smears

If all you can do is attack De Palma by questioning his movie-making credentials instead of discussing the war, you've already lost the argument and that you should go home.

[sailor65]

13. I'm attacking the fact that the film

is being treated as much more fact than it really is. My posts on DU have consistently shown my feelings about the WAR, so don't even try it.
The thread title is predjudicial, period.

Let me put it more simply, in deference to you.....
(Example Thread Title) "Yet another Gay man cruises bathrooms for anonymous disgusting sex......."

I'll bet that would be pretty damn inflammatory to our Gay community as a title for a Craig thread, now wouldn't it? And I'd be a real jerk for titling a thread that way. Regardless of the text that follows.

Well, I'll take the liberty as a member of our MILITARY community to take exception to predjudicial thread titles.



And BTW, isn't accusing me of being one of them (RW) against the rules?

[Richard Steele]

15. The thread title isn't from that film- it's from a DOCUMENTARY on that unit.

So you seem to be aiming your complaint
at the wrong target altogether.

[BlooInBloo]

4. Well with brown folks, the 1% doctine has traditionally applied, in the US and abroad.

[aquart]

5. Aww, we're still playing cowboys and indians. And they're the Indians.

[pansypoo53219]

17. no

the americans are the 10 little indians. or 20 with the surge.

but i have trouble with the sympathy for soldiers who are stuck there part. the guy wo committed it was basicy a rotter who should never have been given a gun to kill.

[Richard Steele]

18. kicked for Monday

[robinlynne]

19. I was watching an interview with some soldiers who are being indighted for murder

exactly for shooting civilians. When the soldier told his story it made absolute sense to me. I would probably shoot too if I were him and afraid for my life. When the Iraqi people tell their stories, I empathize 100%.

I think the point is: THIS IS WHAT WAR IS. Why the hell do people act like war can be civilized? Like all the terrible things which happen could have been avoided. We invaded a sovereign nation. We are occupiers. There aint no way to make this pretty. The only way is to get out of there. There is no better, pretty, nice way to wage war! It is all about killing people until they submit.