Dir. Brian De Palma, US/Canada, 2007, 91 mins
Cast: Izzy Diaz, Rob Devaney, Daniel Stewart Sherman, Patrick Carroll
Review by Carol Allen
The way that so much of our lives these days is both recorded and experienced through technological media is now increasingly reflected in movies, as in the tense Waterloo Station sequence in The Bourne Ultimatum and the upcoming [REC]. De Palma uses it very tellingly here to tell the disturbing story of a group of American soldiers stationed at a checkpoint in Iraq. Although the characters are all played by actors, the story, which reflects some of the real life outrages that have emerged from the war, is put together from what in the context of the film is material collected from found video sources - home camcorders, surveillance cameras, mobile phones, websites and television programmes - the last being an over earnest mock French television documentary.
The camcorder is owned by Angel (Diaz) a wannabe film maker who believes his video diary from the war zone will be his ticket to Hollywood. Through his incessant recording and the surveillance cameras around the checkpoint and the soldiers' living quarters we get to know Angel and his comrades - would be intellectual Gabe (Kel O'Neill), their earnest and inexperienced officer McCoy (Devaney); and a pair of brutal yobs (Sherman and Carroll). We also, via the checkpoint cameras, get to know the young schoolgirl Farah (Zahara Al Zubaidi) and her family, who are to be the victims of the shocking rape and murders that are at the centre of the film. I
At times it's a bit of a slightly awkward stretch to find a way to cover some parts of the story inside the convention De Palma has chosen, as when Devaney's wife's video blog about how she is missing her husband is used to give insight into his character, but overall it's a very effective and powerful dramatic device imaginatively used and adding up to a startling indictment of America in Iraq. The use of security cameras and computer technology is particularly ingenious. The main characters all come over clearly and the film is both gripping and horrifying as we see the situation developing. Apart from the soldiers' crimes there are other shocking moments, as when their veteran sergeant (Mike Figueroa) is blown to pieces on CCTV. The unexpected fate of Angel is another one. The lack of communication between the Iraqis and the Americans, and the soldiers' refusal or inability to understand the people whose country they are occupying comes over strongly. The actors all convince us that they are real people, particularly Devaney in his agonising guilt over his failure to prevent the outrage.
This is a powerful, moving and thought provoking piece of film making, which makes demands on its audience and is not always easy to watch but it is well worth the effort.
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