Review of Redacted (2007) by Sam G — 18 Dec 2008

3 lessons for any would-be directors to learn from that movie :

1�°/ as good as a concept is, it all comes down to the execution.

2�°/ if you can't cast or direct your actors properly, don't even go the editing table (see rule n�°1).

3�°/ big manipulative strings won't make viewers your puppets. Beheading, murderous rape, bad actors who try to act like bad guys and bad actors who are pretending to depict good guys are supposed to tell us what exactly ? War is ugly and some soldiers are baaad, while others are goood ? Platoon already told us that with far more subtelty - but De Palma even had to steal the tagline from that movie ("The first casualty of war is innocence"). It's a rip-off, and the fact that it tries to teach lessons by claiming to be uncompromising while failing to tell a relevant story make this more childish than any PROPER documentary on wars in Middle East (and there have been a few, at least on this side of the Atlantic).