Review - Redacted

Redacted is the latest discharge from Brian de Palma, director of no fewer than seven films in my DVD collection, including the 1989 feature Casualties of War. That film told the story of US soldiers in Vietnam who, frustrated by the constant tension of war, abduct, rape and murder a Vietnamese girl, with Michael J. Fox in a career performance as the single dissenting voice in the squad.

Redacted is Casualties of War meets Iraq's Most Horrifying Home Videos. Except it's nowhere near as provocative as Casualties of War, while being cornier than your average installment of You've Been Framed. De Palma uses a documentary style to retell the story of American boys gone wild overseas (based this time upon real events, although heavily dramatised); everything we see is cobbled together from camcorder video, Iraqi newscasts, security camera footage and a fictional French war documentary entitled Barrage (Checkpoint). Which gives the endeavour a made-for-TV feel. Indeed, the production was co-financed by HDNet TV and looks like it was filmed entirely digitally.

Now I'm quite fond of quirky little independents like Tape being shot on DV. And equally fond of big budget efforts like Collateral being shot on digital. So long, and this is crucial, so long as they're done well. This really isn't. Not to say that it's totally without merit, but this just feels like de Palma's clumsy attempt at bringing his earlier work right up to date for the YouTube generation. Not entirely sure why though.

While I'm on about the war, Nick Broomfield dealt with another true-life Iraq War atrocity in the far superior Battle for Haditha, which is on Channel 4 this evening at 9pm. Check it out.