A Masterpiece From A Master

I just saw the new Brian Di Palma Film "Redacted".
http://imdb.com/title/tt0937237/

It will be released in theaters tomorrow.

Wow, I have enjoyed his work, on and off, over the years, but I was totally blown away by this.

You have to watch the movie all the way through, don't leave the theater for some popcorn, the ending is the payoff, and so disturbing that I am shaking a half hour after it ended.

Di Palma made his name in thrillers, a la Hitchcock, or a Stanley Kubrick, in films like Body Double, Scarface, Dressed to kill.

He's an older man now and this film may very well be one of his greatest and Di Palma both wrote and directed this film. Based entirely on actual accounts of this horrific event in Iraq, the film is directed and shot in a way that starts out as if it were the video diary of one of the platoon members of this ill-fated bunch of marines. No Hollywood special effects, none of the glitz and glamor of "Scarface", or "The Untouchables".

It almost feels like a home made movie, with bits of news footage, roving at times to footage shot through security cameras. A fly on the wall, voyeuristic view in all in it's graininess. Clips from web pages integrate into the film, a French documentary, scenes that look like news footage, are woven together into a tapestry that is both unique, inventive and highly creative. A further testament to the brilliance of this director. no one has done this, and all who follow (and they will follow) can only aspire to this level of mastery of the film image, he has reinvented the genre and set the bar high indeed.

The casting is inspired and all turn in award winning performances. No big Hollywood names but accomplished actors doing what actors are suppose to do.

The score reminded me of Kubrick in Clockwork Orange or Eyes Wide Shut, almost like a funeral dirge, repetitive and morose, but it completes the perfection that is "Redacted".
As the film crescendos so does the score and the effect is nothing less than brilliant.

The ending is so powerful that you must take your hat off to this master. Very few are the films where I can say I would not change a single frame, this is one of them. Throughout the movie the approach seems almost too simple, and somewhat unsophisticated by hollywood standards, until you get to the very last shot, only then do you realize the brilliance of what he has done.


The anti-war theme is not new to Di Palma, he did his 'Viet Nam" piece in "Casualties of War" with Sean Penn and Michael J Fox (similar themes)(http://imdb.com/title/tt0097027/). But that was 1989, many years after the end of the war, and after Kubrick had done Full Metal Jacket in 1987, and others had treated the subject.

But this war is still raging, and this film may well define it.

Don't miss it. Watch the whole film until the very end.

I promise you an extraordinary emotional experience.

MTMIND