Oklahoma Film Critics Circle

Phil Bacharach DVD Review: Redacted

The controversy that surrounded the theatrical release of Redacted generated much heat and precious little light. Based on a March, 2006, incident in which five U.S. soldiers raped an Iraqi girl and murdered members of her family, the film attracted far more interest in political circles than it did at the multiplex, where it seemingly played for roughly 20 minutes. Conservative pundits excoriated writer-director Brian De Palma for his anti-Iraq War screed, with Bill O’Reilly going so far as to call De Palma’s low-budget movie treasonous.

Now that the smoke has cleared, the brouhaha over Redacted clearly seems overblown. The film is not a work of treason, but agitprop.

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