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Title: Rendition
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Whenever I turn on CNN News I’m reminded that the War on Terror is still going on, that suspected terrorists are being tortured by the Bush Administration, and that we are losing the war (though I want to stress that I don’t think we’re losing the War on Terror, we’re just not winning it). Hollywood is known for being a very liberal and democratic society, one that is so strong that coming out as a republican could result in the same effect of a son telling his Christian family that he is gay; potential rejection. And when you make this group angry, they fight back, and hard. For years Hollywood has opposed the War on Terror, all the while with the Bush Administration brushing off the oppositions, mainly because, hey, these are actors, what can they do? Well, for starters, they could make a movie publically opposing you.
This year we’ve gotten several anti-war movies released with several more on the way. In my eyes “Rendition” is just another piece of liberal garbage that has better star power then most of the propaganda out there. The movie is never cautious with it’s objections or political agenda. While most movies might be more concerned to sneak a political message into a film for maximum effect, “Rendition” is first a political message, second an actors movie, and third a second rate story. Having the likes of Academy Award winning actors like Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, and Alan Arkin might get me to go to a movie but it can’t make me care. The story: An Egyptian-born American named Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is on his way home from South Africa when he is arrested without warning as a suspected terrorist.
To insure that America does not gain a reputation for torturing victims, Anwar is shipped to another country outside of the United States, where he is tortured by a foreigner (the the torture is coated in the politically correct term, Rendition). A CSI analyst named Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) is sent to observe the torture but ordered not to partake in it. The US government erases all files of Anwar even getting on the plane, but Anwars wife (Reese Witherspoon) gets a bill from her credit card company showing that he made $70 worth of phone calls on the airplane phone. Despite this evidence the US is unwilling to let Anwar go, and despite the fact that after a whole week of getting no confession, the torture continues, until a confession is made.
This is not the first time this has happened, nor is this the first time a movie has been made on the subject. A 1993 film “In The Name of the Father,” a movie that received a stunning seven Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture), was about how several innocent Irish people were arrested for a bombing, and tortured until they gave a confession. There are two differences between that movie and this one though. The first difference in that the cast for “In The Name of The Father” was small but effective. The cast in “Rendition” though is large but weak. Most of the actors in this film could do this part in their sleep, and many of them look bored to be making this film. The second is that “In The Name of The Father” was based on actual events, where “Rendition is built from pure speculation.
The director for this movie is Gavin Hood, who write and directed the Academy Award winning film “Tsoti.” Considering how personal his previous film was, I guess it comes as no surprise that given a bigger budget he would just make a personal film with bigger stars in it. This time though the story does not come off as personal, just the message. And this message comes off as preachy and dull. While this form of torture is wrong, the reality is that many bombings and mass killings were prevented by using this technique. That’s not a defense of what is being done, just an observation of how short sighted and ignorant the message comes off. And if the message comes into question, then the movie just ends up suffering even more.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -
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