Redacted

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Redacted ★★ 2007 (R)

A group of soldiers, compromised by the experience of war, find themselves in increasingly brutal and amoral situations, culminating in the group rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl. Izzy Diaz (Salazar), who's filming his experiences in Iraq in hopes of getting into film school, is disgusted by the actions of his comrades but fears retribution if he reports them. DePalma, who addressed similar issues in “Casualties of War,” uses true stories from the Iraq War as inspiration and a “fictional documentary” technique, in which the entire film appears to be composed of assembled footage shot by Diaz, documentary makers, or other “real” sources. Story is powerful but ultimately heavy-handed, and the performances are inconsistent. Intense, depressing, and highly divisive, the pic received accusations of anti-American bias and bombed at the box office. 90m/C DVD . US CA Kel O'Neill, Pat Carroll, Izzy Diaz, Rob Devaney, Daniel Stewart Sherman, Ty Jones; D: Brian De Palma; W: Brian De Palma; C: Jonathan Cliff.

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