Posted on 11/19/2007 2:32:07 PM PST by Dane
War PornBrian De Palma's Redacted is schlock fantasy. By Fred Kaplan
Brian De Palma's Redacted is a movie that gives war criticism a bad name.
It's a nasty piece of work—and not in a good way. He means to shock, but his film is merely distasteful. He thinks he's exposing the hidden horrors of war, but it comes off more like The Last House on the Left than Goya or even the jailhouse photos from Abu Ghraib. Some have denounced the film as anti-American or as propaganda for al-Qaida, but that exaggerates its potency. De Palma's grist is too thin for a sophisticated terrorist's mill.
The film's structure is very clever. Rather than making a straight drama, as he did with Casualties of War (his similarly themed Vietnam movie of 18 years ago), De Palma designs Redacted to look like a pastiche of documentary footage covering an American unit in Iraq—some of it seemingly shot by a French news crew, some by a soldier who aspires to be a film student, some taken from jihadist clips on the Internet, but, in fact, all of it staged with actors and shot by De Palma.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
I know there are some on FR who believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but to them I say, the idle left will never learn.
De Palma’s a hack. Always has been.
Martin, maybe you should do a Pittsburgh ping, after all the person who financed this dung, was Mark Cuban, born and bred in Mt. Lebanon.
De Palma is a dead career walking.
De Palma gets b!tch slapped by a lefty. OOOhhhhh Brian, that’s gotta hurt.
I know there are some on FR who believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but to them I say, the idle left will never learn.
***
They MIGHT learn if people stay away in droves. Seems that all these anti-war propagandists listen to is the almighty dollar.
Who is Cuban?
Owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
Martin, maybe you should do a Pittsburgh ping, after all the person who financed this dung, was Mark Cuban, born and bred in Mt. Lebanon.
***
Wow! Never knew that. Mt. Lebanon is a nice upscale town. One of the few bright spots in the Pittsburgh area.
Good critics put Art above politics.
Operations: melanie.lusk@dallasmavs.com
Promotions: gina.calvert@dallasmavs.com
I want to see these bastards in a bread line. Don't spend your money on Hollywood.
Film is supposedly Sean Penn's area of competence. Penn made "All The King's Men" and "Shanghei Surprise". How dare he criticize anyone about anything.
Penn is also a racist. Had Marina del Ray flooded, do you think he'd be armed with a shotgun and wearing body armor like he was in NOLA?
And Tim Robbins, you're an ass too, but I liked Howard The Duck. The acting was so bad, it was good.
De Palma’s made exactly one good movie, THE UNTOUCHABLES. And that’s more attributable to screenwriter David Mamet and producer Art Linson.
And don't call me "surely", :*)
Been watching Airplane reruns much? :=)
IMHO, Cuban is the guy you go after on this one. He paid for it. Boycott the Mavs and HDNet.
...and the acting of Sean Connery!
Cuban made a fortune in the 90’s selling an internet deal to Yahoo for a few billion. He is acts like an idiot at times in regard to the Dallas Mavericks of which he is majority owner but no mistake he is not a fool....very good businessman. That being said, he lives in another world and probably screwed the pooch on this venture. Personally, I think he is a pain in the a$$, but that may be jealousy talking..
It’s not “War Porn” it’e MasoTreason. The LeftiPertvs have Death Camp Envy, and won’t be happy until they are “good people” and are being rounded up for beatings, torture, and transport to concentration camps, *here* in the US....They not only want to be degraded, mutilated, and used for medical experiments, they are furious that we don’t want to be, right along with them, and are absolutely outraged that we would dare fight back against those who would enslave and kill them as they fervently dream for.
It is of course, the DemoLeftie Death Cult of being eternally the VICTIM.
That’s what I thought...
One more reason to boo the Mavs when they come to town.
IMHO, Cuban is the guy you go after on this one. He paid for it.
Oh I totally disagree, I thought Cuban was the one that nixed showing the ugly stuff - redacted Redacted as it were.
To be sure. De Niro helps put the movie over too.
Medved still has the best/worst review LOL. It’ll be a rough time in Hollywood for these films until someone decides to make “Deuce Four” or a similar film.
Roger Ebert used to be called a good critic. He’s been absolutely unable to put art above politics in the past decade although he claims erroneously that he does.
Boycott the studios too. Tank all of their affiliated product for the “season”.
You can always catch up on films via homevideo or cable.
Starve the beast. Defund the Left.
OK, now that's gonna leave a mark.
Anyone who loves this country will not pay for a Dallas Mavericks ticket.
Well kind of, but I bet you dollar to donuts that Mr. Kaplan was rooting this whole project on, and when the project turned out to be a disaster, he jumps ship, ala Tom Harkin(Sen. D-Iowa), after Howard Dean's scream.
JMO, the one thing commie democrats have ready is a knife to stab you in the back.
That's splitting turds. It's still $h!+ no matter how you slice it.
This movie wasn’t made by Hollywood.
How about the minimum wage for all of Hollywood? Fidel would approve.
Marky Mark Cuban paid for the dung, it was his choice to lay in that same dung he proudly paid for.
Sounds like a ripoff of "The Blair Witch"
TPOTC wasn’t a political film.
It *almost* saves the film from the World’s Stupidest Movie Plot Device of All Time, the jury switcheroo. When I saw that film in KC , the whole audience burst out laughing at that piece of cinematic dumbassery.
Please Borges, leave the Bill Clinton/Hillary Rodham parsing at the door.
Hollywood loves this stinker.
One of the nasty things (of many) about this film is that it is done documentary style. There are those in the middle east that are going to believe that there are actually clips from fighting in Iraq.
That’s why DePalma couldn’t find financing for this cheaply made film and had to go to Cuban right?
And by your logic...the NBA loves this film.
LOL! And fidel castro never funded communist revolutions by proxy either? Correct.
Borges, IMO, you are a good person and American, but woefully naive about the Hollywood system you may still work in, but probably retired from.
Yes the blacklist still haunts Hollywood, but a much greater haunting will come to them if they pursue this folly of giving succor and sustenance to the islamofascists.
I was flipping thru Channels last weekend, Saturday night and Redacted was showing on HDNet. I thought it would be pay per view, but I clicked on it, it came on. I watched about 15 minutes catching the rape scene. I almost had to puke. It portrayed the marines like a bunch of pyschopathic rapists. I still can’t figure out how I had access to it free before it came out in the theater.
Why do you say that? Passion touched the hearts of conservative Christians and infuriated the secular left. I can't say what Mel Gibson's intention was in making the film. Perhaps it wasn't political. But the film certainly took on political ramifications and many of the reviews indicated a sneering hostility by critics who are on the other side in the culture wars.
Please, the only thing the NBA is interested in doing is promoting gangsta culture, and they are losing rating share.
Your colleagues in Hollywood could learn something from that, but no, they go to a new idiot sugar daddy, and his name is mark cuban.
De Palma probably considers that to be high praise (as most Hollyweird libtards would).
Yes Mt. Lebanon is a beautiful place, and so is another Pittsburgh suburb, Fox Chapel. The difference is that Fox Chapel is considered WASP, while Mt. Lebanon is considered Jewish, no problemo with that by me.
Myself, I have a laugh at the religious distinctions that dictate Pittsburgh suburbs, and everybody always got along, except for Mt. Lebanon native mark cuban, who IMO, just wanted to be part of the Hollywood crowd.
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