Redacted

Aroview: In typically melodramatic, unorthodox and ironic fashion, Brian De Palma returns with this wartime drama based on the true story of a group of American soldiers positioned at an Iraqi checkpoint who take part in one of the worst war crimes since the start of the invasion.

Relaying events through multimedia 'sources' (including a soldier's video diary, blogs, Youtube clips and a stylised French doco), De Palma investigates the moral implications of atrocities experienced second-hand through an acerbic mix of artful ambivalence and B-movie overkill. Though not quite insightful enough to be considered a microcosm of morally bankrupt behaviour, and too gratuitously excessive to generate suspense, this formally ambitious undertaking is nevertheless a crude yet effective expression of anti-war sentiment and, above all, a sly manifest on media spectatorship and the questionable veracity of images.

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