'Redacted' lacks emotional impact in recalling real wartime atrocity
"Redacted" takes on a grisly challenge: to tell the story of the gang rape and murder of a girl by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
From the opening frame, the audience is dreading a depiction of these horrific acts and waiting for some context that will make it worth enduring.
By the time the rape scene arrives, it's almost unbearable to watch. Yet because we've never really understood or believed the characters, it doesn't carry the emotional weight it should.
Though based on a true incident, "Redacted" feels unreal.
The primary storyteller is Pfc. Angel Salazar (Izzy Diaz), who records a video war diary of his time in Iraq, hoping to use the images to get into film school.
Through the jerks and zooms of his hand-held camera, the troops ride each other and try to pass long stretches of dazed inactivity, punctuated by sudden violence.
Some scenes are convincing. A roadside checkpoint conveys the tension and confusion of the clash between American military and Iraqi culture.
But in an attempt to portray conflicting perspectives of the war, director Brian De Palma lurches from one point of view to another.
A French documentary interrupts and gives way to press accounts, video blogs, terrorist Web sites and military interrogation videos.
The perspective shifts so often and so abruptly that, while ambitious, it comes across as a clumsy, artificial gimmick.
The use of no-name actors avoids the distraction Hollywood stars would bring to the story, but the acting is lacking.
While Daniel Stewart Sherman conveys the menace of frustrated grunt B.B. Rush, Patrick Carroll fails to convince viewers his character, Reno Flake, possesses the kind of aggression that would drive him off the rails.
As Lawyer McCoy, Rob Devaney portrays the emotional toll of trying to do one's job in a frightful, seemingly hopeless situation.
But scenes of soldiers confronting each other, asking for remorse, breaking down in tears and lashing out in violence feel forced and isolated, like acting exercises.
Where other war movies such as "Apocalypse Now" or De Palma's own "Casualties of War" have given some idea of how military operations might degenerate into atrocities, "Redacted" comes across as an isolated act by depraved individuals.
Yes, war can drive men to great evil, and U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians are caught in a terrible situation.
We know that going into "Redacted," but we don't know much more coming out.
"Redacted"
1 1/2 stars out of four
Opens today
Patrick Carroll as Reno Flake
Rob Devaney as Lawyer McCoy
Izzy Diaz as Angel Salazar
B.B. Rush as Daniel Stewart Sherman
Written and directed by Brian De Palma. Produced by Jason Kliot and Joana Vicente. A Magnolia Pictures release. At the Century Centre Cinema, Chicago. Rated R (violence including rape, sexual situations, language). Running time: 90 minutes.