Review of Redacted (2007) by Damien D — 26 Oct 2007

Pretty exhausted 'postmodern' film with no more to say than: the war in Iraq is violent and wrong; marines are intrinsically stupid and when they're bored they get violent; if we stand by and watch what they do without intervening then we are all equally responsible. By attaching together a number of filming styles, quoting, cutting and pasting, and re-doing exisiting performances of brutality, De Palma forces his audience into a voyeuristic position where in fact nothing we didn't know already is added to the picture. The point is made in the first few sequences: "the first casualty of war is the truth". Sorry, but I already knew. "Full Metal Jacket" and "Jarhead" offer a better treatment of the same themes. Ultimately manipulative and exploitative in a Michael Moore kind of way.

(For an extended rant on the exploitative use of music and documentary language in this film, see me in four years when my PhD is published!).