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Rendition (film)
Encyclopedia
Rendition is a 2007 drama
film
directed by Gavin Hood
and starring Reese Witherspoon
, Meryl Streep
, Peter Sarsgaard
, Alan Arkin
, Jake Gyllenhaal
and Omar Metwally
. It centers on the controversial CIA practice of extraordinary rendition, and is based on the true story of Khalid El-Masri
who was mistaken for Khalid al-Masri
. The movie also has similarities to the case of Maher Arar
.
) is briefing a newly arrived CIA agent in a square in an unnamed country in North Africa (filmed in Marrakech
) when a suicide attack
kills the latter and eighteen other people. The target was a high-ranking police official, Abasi Fawal (Yigal Naor
), who is in liaison with the United States
and whose tasks include conducting interrogations, and even overseeing the application of techniques amounting to torture. Fawal escapes unscathed.
Egyptian-born Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally
), a chemical engineer who lives in Chicago
with his pregnant wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon
), their young son and his mother, is linked to a violent organization by telephone records indicating that known terrorist Rashid placed several calls to Anwar's cell phone. While returning to the United States from a conference in South Africa
, he is detained by American officials and sent to a secret detention facility near the location of the suicide attack depicted earlier, where he is interrogated and tortured. Isabella is not informed and all records of him being on the flight from South Africa are erased, although records remain of him boarding the plane at Cape Town International Airport
and making a purchase enroute.
For lack of more experienced staff, Freeman is assigned the task of observing the interrogation of Anwar, whose interrogator is Fawal himself. After Freeman briefly questions Anwar, he is doubtful of Anwar's guilt. However, his boss, Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep
), insists that the detention continue, justifying such treatments as necessary to save thousands from becoming victims of terrorism.
Growing worried, Isabella travels to Washington DC, where she meets up with an old friend, Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard
), who now works as an aide to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin
), and pleads with him to find out what has happened to her husband. Initially, she is informed that there had been a mistake in South Africa and Anwar was not on the flight, but Isabella presents Anwar's credit card record, which shows that Anwar had purchased something in the in-flight duty free shop, thus confirming that he was on the flight. Smith slowly pieces together details of Anwar's detention. He is unable to convince the senator, nor Corrine Whitman, who had ordered the rendition
, to give proper details of the detention, nor to release him. After the senator advises him to let it go, as he is currently fighting to have a bill passed in Congress and it is not the right time to start debating an extraordinary rendition
, Smith advises Isabella to get a very good lawyer he knows on the case, but she refuses. Upon hearing the confrontation from her office, his sympathetic secretary quietly tips Isabella off on when Whitman will be next in the office. The next day, Isabella confronts Whitman, but Whitman pretends not to know anything and avoids her questions. Frustrated, Isabella storms out of the office, only to go into labour in the hallway.
Eventually, Anwar confesses to have advised Rashid on how to make more powerful bombs, and to have been promised $40,000 in return. Freeman, suspicious that it is a false confession
, asks Anwar where the money is and Anwar's response is that it was supposed to be delivered to him in South Africa, but the courier failed to show up. Freeman's suspicions are confirmed when he has the names Anwar gives traced by Interpol
and draws a blank. He then Google
s the names and finds out that they are the names of the Egyptian soccer team from the year Anwar left Egypt. He also expresses doubt as to whether Anwar would be willing to put his life, family and job in danger for $40,000 when he earns $200,000 a year in his job. He quotes Shakespeare
's The Merchant of Venice
in a discussion with the minister of the interior on the value of intelligence gathered through torture:
Without the consent of his superiors, and not caring what happens to him, Freeman gets a warrant for Anwar's release and sends him back to America via a clandestine ship to Spain. When Lee Mayers, his immediate boss, calls him to tell him to give Anwar back to Abasi Fawal, he simply hangs up. Angered by the injustice Anwar has suffered, Freeman then leaks the details of Anwar's detention to the American press, creating a scandal that humiliates Whitman and Hawkins.
Another story line is shown in parallel. Abasi's daughter Fatima (Zineb Oukach
) has run away from home with her boyfriend Khalid (Moa Khouas). Fatima sees a picture of Khalid's brother, but he does not tell her what has happened to him. Abasi is told that Khalid's brother was an inmate at his prison and later died. Fatima is unaware that Khalid is a member of a terrorist group until his friends are arrested at a planned march and he leads her to the terrorist group's base. Near the end of the movie, Fatima discovers a notebook that contains pictures of Khalid and his brother together, showing that they were extremely close, as well as a picture of the two brandishing AK-47s, then some pictures of a grief-stricken Khalid standing over his brother's corpse, some pictures of her father and finally a statement saying that Khalid is doing a deed in revenge for his brother's death. Realizing that Khalid's brother met his death at the hands of her father and that Khalid is about to assassinate him, she runs off. It is then revealed that this second story took place before the suicide attack (From the briefing with the CIA agent in the beginning we know that the first story took place AFTER the suicide attack). At the town square Fatima begs him not to do it, arguing that the target is her father. After removing the pin of his detonator
he hesitates, and is therefore killed by the organizers of the attack. As a result he releases the handle of the detonator
, and the bomb explodes, killing Fatima also. In the present, Abasi rushes to Khalid's apartment and discovers his grandmother, who is stricken with grief over the loss of both her grandchildren and Fatima. Abasi then realises that his daughter died trying to protect him and is filled with grief himself.
The record of a phone call supposedly made by Rashid to Anwar is not explained in the film. However, earlier it was mentioned that phones are sometimes passed on from one person to another in order to avoid phone tracing (the DVD extras explain that there was a subplot dropped from the film that elaborated on this concept). Yet despite this reasonable doubt
the CIA officials refused to release him. It turned out that in South Africa, while Anwar's phone was off, there had been a call to it from an unknown person.
, it achieved a 47% Tomatometer from 146 reviews. And based on 34 reviews, the film averaged a score of 55 at Metacritic
. Roger Ebert
awarded the film four stars out of four, saying that, "Rendition is valuable and rare. As I wrote from Toronto: 'It is a movie about the theory and practice of two things: torture and personal responsibility. And it is wise about what is right, and what is wrong.'" In contrast, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone
applauded the cast, but noted that the film was a "bust as a persuasive drama". Travers declared the film the year's Worst Anti-War Film on his list of the Worst Movies of 2007.
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Gavin Hood
Gavin Hood
Gavin Hood is a South African filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for writing and directing the Academy Award-winning Foreign Language Film Tsotsi...
and starring Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
, Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
, Peter Sarsgaard
Peter Sarsgaard
John Peter Sarsgaard is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron...
, Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
, Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
and Omar Metwally
Omar Metwally
Omar Metwally is an American actor.Metwally was born in Queens, New York to an Egyptian father and a Dutch mother, and moved with the family to Orange County, California at age three where he was raised...
. It centers on the controversial CIA practice of extraordinary rendition, and is based on the true story of Khalid El-Masri
Khalid El-Masri
Khalid El-Masri is a German citizen who was kidnapped in the Republic of Macedonia, flown to Afghanistan, allegedly beaten, stripped, raped, and interrogated and tortured by the CIA for several months as a part of the War on Terror, and then released...
who was mistaken for Khalid al-Masri
Khalid al-Masri
Khalid al-Masri is the name of a person alleged to have approached two 9/11 hijackers on a train in Germany and suggested that they contact an alleged al Qaeda operative in Duisburg....
. The movie also has similarities to the case of Maher Arar
Maher Arar
Maher Arar is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who resides in Canada. Arar's story is frequently referred to as "extraordinary rendition" but the U.S. government insisted it was a case of deportation.Arar was detained during a layover at John F...
.
Synopsis
CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake GyllenhaalJake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
) is briefing a newly arrived CIA agent in a square in an unnamed country in North Africa (filmed in Marrakech
Marrakech
Marrakech or Marrakesh , known as the "Ochre city", is the most important former imperial city in Morocco's history...
) when a suicide attack
Suicide attack
A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...
kills the latter and eighteen other people. The target was a high-ranking police official, Abasi Fawal (Yigal Naor
Yigal Naor
Yigal Naor is an Israeli actor.Naor was born in Giv'atayim of Iraqi Jewish descent. He has appeared in the American movies Munich, Green Zone and Rendition...
), who is in liaison with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and whose tasks include conducting interrogations, and even overseeing the application of techniques amounting to torture. Fawal escapes unscathed.
Egyptian-born Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally
Omar Metwally
Omar Metwally is an American actor.Metwally was born in Queens, New York to an Egyptian father and a Dutch mother, and moved with the family to Orange County, California at age three where he was raised...
), a chemical engineer who lives in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
with his pregnant wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
), their young son and his mother, is linked to a violent organization by telephone records indicating that known terrorist Rashid placed several calls to Anwar's cell phone. While returning to the United States from a conference in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, he is detained by American officials and sent to a secret detention facility near the location of the suicide attack depicted earlier, where he is interrogated and tortured. Isabella is not informed and all records of him being on the flight from South Africa are erased, although records remain of him boarding the plane at Cape Town International Airport
Cape Town International Airport
Cape Town International Airport is the primary airport serving the city of Cape Town, and is the second busiest airport in South Africa and third busiest in Africa. Located approximately from the city centre, the airport was opened in 1954 to replace Cape Town's previous airport in the suburb of...
and making a purchase enroute.
For lack of more experienced staff, Freeman is assigned the task of observing the interrogation of Anwar, whose interrogator is Fawal himself. After Freeman briefly questions Anwar, he is doubtful of Anwar's guilt. However, his boss, Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
), insists that the detention continue, justifying such treatments as necessary to save thousands from becoming victims of terrorism.
Growing worried, Isabella travels to Washington DC, where she meets up with an old friend, Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard
Peter Sarsgaard
John Peter Sarsgaard is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron...
), who now works as an aide to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
), and pleads with him to find out what has happened to her husband. Initially, she is informed that there had been a mistake in South Africa and Anwar was not on the flight, but Isabella presents Anwar's credit card record, which shows that Anwar had purchased something in the in-flight duty free shop, thus confirming that he was on the flight. Smith slowly pieces together details of Anwar's detention. He is unable to convince the senator, nor Corrine Whitman, who had ordered the rendition
Rendition (law)
In law, rendition is a "surrender" or "handing over" of persons or property, particularly from one jurisdiction to another. For criminal suspects, extradition is the most common type of rendition. Rendition can also be seen as the act of handing over, after the request for extradition has taken...
, to give proper details of the detention, nor to release him. After the senator advises him to let it go, as he is currently fighting to have a bill passed in Congress and it is not the right time to start debating an extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
, Smith advises Isabella to get a very good lawyer he knows on the case, but she refuses. Upon hearing the confrontation from her office, his sympathetic secretary quietly tips Isabella off on when Whitman will be next in the office. The next day, Isabella confronts Whitman, but Whitman pretends not to know anything and avoids her questions. Frustrated, Isabella storms out of the office, only to go into labour in the hallway.
Eventually, Anwar confesses to have advised Rashid on how to make more powerful bombs, and to have been promised $40,000 in return. Freeman, suspicious that it is a false confession
False confession
A false confession is an admission of guilt in a crime in which the confessor is not responsible for the crime. False confessions can be induced through coercion or by the mental disorder or incompetency of the accused...
, asks Anwar where the money is and Anwar's response is that it was supposed to be delivered to him in South Africa, but the courier failed to show up. Freeman's suspicions are confirmed when he has the names Anwar gives traced by Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
and draws a blank. He then Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
s the names and finds out that they are the names of the Egyptian soccer team from the year Anwar left Egypt. He also expresses doubt as to whether Anwar would be willing to put his life, family and job in danger for $40,000 when he earns $200,000 a year in his job. He quotes Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
in a discussion with the minister of the interior on the value of intelligence gathered through torture:
- I fear you speak upon the rack
- Where men enforced do speak anything.
Without the consent of his superiors, and not caring what happens to him, Freeman gets a warrant for Anwar's release and sends him back to America via a clandestine ship to Spain. When Lee Mayers, his immediate boss, calls him to tell him to give Anwar back to Abasi Fawal, he simply hangs up. Angered by the injustice Anwar has suffered, Freeman then leaks the details of Anwar's detention to the American press, creating a scandal that humiliates Whitman and Hawkins.
Another story line is shown in parallel. Abasi's daughter Fatima (Zineb Oukach
Zineb Oukach
Zineb Oukach is a Moroccan film actress and model, known to worldwide audiences for playing the role of Fatima in the 2007 Gavin Hood film Rendition.-Early life:...
) has run away from home with her boyfriend Khalid (Moa Khouas). Fatima sees a picture of Khalid's brother, but he does not tell her what has happened to him. Abasi is told that Khalid's brother was an inmate at his prison and later died. Fatima is unaware that Khalid is a member of a terrorist group until his friends are arrested at a planned march and he leads her to the terrorist group's base. Near the end of the movie, Fatima discovers a notebook that contains pictures of Khalid and his brother together, showing that they were extremely close, as well as a picture of the two brandishing AK-47s, then some pictures of a grief-stricken Khalid standing over his brother's corpse, some pictures of her father and finally a statement saying that Khalid is doing a deed in revenge for his brother's death. Realizing that Khalid's brother met his death at the hands of her father and that Khalid is about to assassinate him, she runs off. It is then revealed that this second story took place before the suicide attack (From the briefing with the CIA agent in the beginning we know that the first story took place AFTER the suicide attack). At the town square Fatima begs him not to do it, arguing that the target is her father. After removing the pin of his detonator
Detonator
A detonator is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the latter two being the most common....
he hesitates, and is therefore killed by the organizers of the attack. As a result he releases the handle of the detonator
Dead man's switch
A dead man's switch is a switch that is automatically operated in case the human operator becomes incapacitated, such as through death or loss of consciousness....
, and the bomb explodes, killing Fatima also. In the present, Abasi rushes to Khalid's apartment and discovers his grandmother, who is stricken with grief over the loss of both her grandchildren and Fatima. Abasi then realises that his daughter died trying to protect him and is filled with grief himself.
The record of a phone call supposedly made by Rashid to Anwar is not explained in the film. However, earlier it was mentioned that phones are sometimes passed on from one person to another in order to avoid phone tracing (the DVD extras explain that there was a subplot dropped from the film that elaborated on this concept). Yet despite this reasonable doubt
Reasonable doubt
Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is the standard of evidence required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems . Generally the prosecution bears the burden of proof and is required to prove their version of events to this standard...
the CIA officials refused to release him. It turned out that in South Africa, while Anwar's phone was off, there had been a call to it from an unknown person.
Cast
- Omar MetwallyOmar MetwallyOmar Metwally is an American actor.Metwally was born in Queens, New York to an Egyptian father and a Dutch mother, and moved with the family to Orange County, California at age three where he was raised...
as Anwar El-Ibrahimi - Reese WitherspoonReese WitherspoonLaura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
as Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi - Aramis Knight as Jeremy El-Ibrahimi
- Rosie Malek-YonanRosie Malek-YonanRosie Malek-Yonan is an Assyrian actress, author, director, public figure and human rights activist.-Early life:Born in Tehran, Iran, Rosie Malek-Yonan is a descendant of one of the oldest and most prominent Assyrian families, tracing her Assyrian roots back nearly 11 centuries...
as Nuru El-Ibrahimi - Jake GyllenhaalJake GyllenhaalJacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
as Douglas Freeman - Moa Khouas as Khalid El-Emin
- Zineb OukachZineb OukachZineb Oukach is a Moroccan film actress and model, known to worldwide audiences for playing the role of Fatima in the 2007 Gavin Hood film Rendition.-Early life:...
as Fatima Fawal - Yigal NaorYigal NaorYigal Naor is an Israeli actor.Naor was born in Giv'atayim of Iraqi Jewish descent. He has appeared in the American movies Munich, Green Zone and Rendition...
as Abasi Fawal - J. K. SimmonsJ. K. SimmonsJonathan Kimble "J. K." Simmons is an American actor. He is best known for his roles on television as Dr. Emil Skoda in NBC's Law & Order , Assistant Police Chief Will Pope in TNT's The Closer, neo-Nazi Vernon Schillinger in the HBO prison drama Oz, on film as J...
as Lee Mayers - Meryl StreepMeryl StreepMary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
as Corrine Whitman - Bob GuntonBob GuntonRobert Patrick "Bob" Gunton, Jr. is an American actor. He is known for playing strict, authoritarian characters, with his best known roles as Warden Samuel Norton in the 1994 prison film The Shawshank Redemption, Chief George Earle in 1993's Demolition Man, and President Juan Peron in the original...
as Lars Whitman - Hadar Ratzon as Safiya
- Raymonde Amsalem as Layla Fawal
- Simon AbkarianSimon AbkarianSimon Abkarian is a French-Armenian actor.Born in Gonesse, Val d'Oise, of Armenian descent, Abkarian spent his childhood in Lebanon. He moved to Los Angeles, where he joined an Armenian theater company managed by Gerald Papazian. He returned to France in 1985, settling in Paris...
as Said Abdel Aziz - Wendy PhillipsWendy PhillipsWendy Phillips is an American actress, noted for playing David Selby's last wife, Lauren Daniels, during the final season of Falcon Crest and for playing Gerald McRaney's wife, Claire Greene, on both Touched by an Angel and Promised Land...
as Samantha - Peter SarsgaardPeter SarsgaardJohn Peter Sarsgaard is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron...
as Alan Smith - Christian Martin as Senator Lewis' Aide
- Alan ArkinAlan ArkinAlan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
as Senator Hawkins
Reception
Reviews for Rendition were mixed. At Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, it achieved a 47% Tomatometer from 146 reviews. And based on 34 reviews, the film averaged a score of 55 at Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
awarded the film four stars out of four, saying that, "Rendition is valuable and rare. As I wrote from Toronto: 'It is a movie about the theory and practice of two things: torture and personal responsibility. And it is wise about what is right, and what is wrong.'" In contrast, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
applauded the cast, but noted that the film was a "bust as a persuasive drama". Travers declared the film the year's Worst Anti-War Film on his list of the Worst Movies of 2007.