US News
'Redacted' fails at domestic box office
By M&C US News Nov 25, 2007, 22:27 GMT
US movie director Brian De Palma shows the trophy after he was awarded as best director with the Silver Lion for his film \'Redacted\' at the 64th International Exhibition of Cinema Art, better known as Venice Film Festival, in Venice on 08 Spetember 2007. EPA/CLAUDIO ONORATI
The public is staying away in droves from war-themed films such as “Rendition," “Lions for Lambs" and “In the Valley of Elah," but audiences are really avoiding “Redacted," De Palma's picture about US soldiers who rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, then kill her and her family.
The New York Post reports that the movie was produced by billionaire owner of 2929 Productions, HD Net chairman and NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who insisted on deleting grisly images of Iraqi war casualties from the montage at the film's end.
Cuban offered to sell the film back to director Brian De Palma at cost, but the director demurred.
“Redacted" - which “could be the worst movie I've ever seen," said critic Michael Medved -took in just $25,628 in its opening weekend in 15 theaters, which means roughly 3,000 people saw it in the entire country.
Despite an A-list director Brian De Palma, a huge wave of publicity, high praise in the Times, The New Yorker and websites like Salon - not even people who presumably agree with the movie's antiwar thesis made the effort to see it.
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Older Talkback
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'if you don`t give this guy your dollars, then at least give him some credit for being a superb film producer.'
Brian De Palma couldn't direct his way out of a wet paper bag. To call him a 'hack' is to do a disservice to all the hacks that have produced good work in their life. This idiot makes movies like 'body double' and 'Dressed to Kill' which were thoroughly incompetent rip offs of directors who deserved to be called 'suburb' like Hitchcock.
This complete POS that De Palma as excreted on the screen is available for free on the internet. Download it and sit through as much as you can stand. Anyone but the most blinkered, tasteless fool with a political ax to grind will come away from watching it with the same conclusion: A piece of garbage produced by a talentless piece of garbage.
What sort of movies do you love ?
Soft sloppy love stories or Alice in Wonderland animated cartoons, movies that help the Hershey bar munching couch potatoes to live in a fantasy world of all-that`s-nice and mind blocking make-believe.
Well carry on munching and refrain from playing with the big boys adult material. There is a real world out there and this guy is trying to show it.
'What sort of movies do you love ?'
I like films that are well crafted, intelligent, and have some allegiance to truth. The movie you are defending, you pompous ass, has none of those elements. It is slapped together, hyperbolic, intelligence insulting, poorly reasoned, poorly executed and amateurish propaganda. If you want to see good propaganda go rent Triumph of the Will or October.
'Soft sloppy love stories or Alice in Wonderland animated cartoons, movies that help the Hershey bar munching couch potatoes to live in a fantasy world of all-that`s-nice and mind blocking make-believe.'
What a clown. You keep buying the cr*p that you want to believe in, but pretending something is well done because it espouses the political agenda that you want to further is not going to get you anywhere. (Not that you are going anywhere anyway.) 'Mind blocking make-believe'? Particularly ironic choice of words in defending Redacted.
'Well carry on munching and refrain from playing with the big boys adult material.'
So you would be one of these 'big boys'? Funny; You sound like a sanctimonious, arrested adolescent to me.
Good! If anyone is allowed to make money off of this war, they should have to share it with those that fought this war. Everyone that served gets 1 share, minor wounded get 2 shares, crippled get 3 shares and families of those that died get 5 times as much.
...it never ceases to amaze me how these hollywierdos will make a movie about the worst, most repulsive, ugliest subject they can scrounge up, while ignoring the terrific stories of thousands of men and women who have, bravely, served their country.
How many movies and TV series have danced to soldiers as rapists, or murdurers, etc., while the laudable stories of true heros go untold? If you were to beleive Hollywood, soldiers are evil, stupid, ignorant, bad mannered, ill-tempered, animals who just kill for the fun of it and abuse everything and everyone.
Buy a ticket to the big boys? Not on your life! I'd rather be sodomized.
Since when has Hollywood done a movie showing a balanced view? Whatever U.S. soldiers have done wrong, it pales in comparison the crimes of Fallujah and other Iraqi atrocities.
I am reminded of the movie 'Shadow of the Hawk,' where Jan-Michael Vincent tries to rescue a man in a burning limo...only instead of accepting help, the man in the limo tries to catch Jan-Michael on fire. That basically has been the treatment the U.S. military has received from people like Brian DePalma, Sean Penn, and their Iraqi terror squads.
Oh, and Rowan Williams, the British killed far more in India (30+ million)(read Great Victorian Holocausts) in their time of mis-rule. So, no 'high road' for the church-state relic.
Do these automatic systems intentionally misspell or leave out words, simply to make people look foolish? Just wondering.
I strongly suspect the kind of erratic rhetoric you spewed out has been across my path before. It was insulting childish garbage then and has not changed.
You obviously have a tremendous talent for conducting arguments in the school playground, but seem out of your depth in the adult world without resorting to abuse and personal nonsense. Ah well, not all of us are fortunate enough to be above that kind of exhibition.
I agree with all the other comments basically, they are quite true. I NEVER inferred that US soldiers were barbarians, just that war brings out the worst in everybody involved. All countries are the same.
I do in fact absolutely idolise the US military, especially the ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and I do not care what they have done, or who to. I think every one of them is a superb ambassador for the US. AND to top THAT, I am a No. 1 fan of America, so don`t rock the boat.
Film producers DO make films showing the good points of military actions, they have done this a 1000 times over, but give them credit for sometimes showing the bad side of war.
Your entire script is just a load of juvenile nonsense. Please grow up yourself before you start talking to grown-ups.
THe question whether the US troops are behaving good or bad is plainly irrelevant once it is established that the grounds for the invasion were based on lies and misrepresentations .It is like wondering of the Nazi-troops during WW2 behaved goos or bad when they invaded POland in 1939 .Even there Hitler had to dream up Polish aggressive intentions to start the war .Nothing has changed ,and finding something right in something wrong doesn't make it right,right ?Meanwhile we know one thing for certain,the murders and rapes occurred,and nobody wants to be reminded of it in the USA,that too is easy to derive from the comments made by the usual neocons AN the author of the article,apparently waving his finger to De Palma and telling us all;see what happens to your investment when you dare to show what is going on in Iraq ?'I guess he wants to make sure the message reaches anyone with money and the will to make another similar movie .A subtle way of censuring ...
Americans are tired of anti-war and anti-USA movies from liberal Hollywood, etc. Everyone enjoys a great movie, but I personally do not like being preached to by the personal views of the rich and so called liberal elite (movie stars, producers, Mark Cuban, etc.). We are smart enough to make up our own minds. I along with the majority of Americans see our military as HEROES. These movie makers take actions of a very few and try to bash the entire military. They live under the freedoms fought for by our brave military and they use those freedoms to try and undermine them.......pathetic !! Thank goodness for the internet, talk radio, Fox News, etc......... people don't have to listen to the biased mainstream media or liberal elite. God Bless America !!!!
Nobody with any degree of intelligence will believe both the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan during the past decade were started by the White House paper weights to punish the terrorists who flattened the Twin Towers, or that ridiculous crap about weapons of mass destruction.
Of course they were not, it was just an excuse to screw the oil out of Iraq to fuel the US insatiable appetite for gobbling up all the worlds oil resources at a cheap cost, 5 times lower than other countries. America the planetary glutton.
Little turd-ball Bush, did not care a damn about 2000+ Americans being killed in the WTC or another 3000 being crippled or their health being affected, all he wanted was an excuse to get the OIL. The man is a degenerate imbecile and as head of a powerful and proud nation is a dangerous disaster to the whole world. He is no different than Hitler was in his greed for OIL, no matter how many American lives he has to sacrifice.
Nobody believes the US troops are hideous monsters that go around killing and raping ad lib. Be sensible, the US forces are as good as any in the world, but every army is guilty of the most hideous crimes. It is an ingredient of warfare. It does not matter. Who dares, wins and to win is the main objective.
Anybody who just likes to see the bright, nice and acceptable side of life is an idiot. You all love your big steaks, but would you all like to see the pain and suffering of the animals which have to be killed and mutilated to provide them ? NO, but it is there nevertheless. Welcome to the hypocritical never-land.
So, be an ostrich and bury your heads in the sand, if you want a cocooned life free from all those nasty, horrible I-don`t-wish-to-know-about things.
15 theaters?
Hmmm...so it was supposed to bring in $35 Million from 15 theaters?
How big were those theaters? 200, 150 seats.
The neocons are quick to jump on this test opening.
Give it 1,500 theaters and like the King o Spain, tell Fox News to 'shut up'!
This will make far more as a rental DVD than box office...and it will be on TV, before next years election.
So that all you sanctimonious head-in-sand people are made aware that your well mannered, well behaved Mummy`s darling college boys are in fact capable of extreme savagery, here are a few examples ; -
MY LAI - US massacre in Viet Nam. 2nd Lt. William Calley ordered slaughter of an entire village. His penalty - a slap on the wrist.
HANGANG - Korea. US Massacre under a bridge of civilians and military.
NOGUN-RI - Viet Nam. US massacre of civilians under a bridge.
MUKARADEEB - Iraq. US massacre of civilians.
CINICATTI - Sicily. US massacre of civilians and military.
BISCARI - Sicily. US massacre of military.
PLUS - many others.
Have a nice day !
Of course there are 'outlaws' in the military just like there are everywhere else because there are all types serving, but that doesn't mean it is rampant - probably average in perspective. What I object to isn't necessarily war movies, but any film that has to depict the worst humanity has to offer in the form of entertainment. Sitting through savagery and debauchery isn't my idea of a good evening out, but, unfortunately it is to too many.
' It was insulting childish garbage then and has not changed.'
It wasn't childish or garbage, thank you. It was actually restrained in light of how sanctimonious you are.
'You obviously have a tremendous talent for conducting arguments in the school playground, but seem out of your depth in the adult world without resorting to abuse and personal nonsense'
That isn't a rebuttal to anything I have said now is it? For instance, you could point out something in my critique of this POS that De Palma dropped on a plate that you disagree with. You might reference other war films or documentary's and compare and contrast... You could backpedal on the whole 'Soft sloppy love stories or Alice in Wonderland animated cartoons, movies that help the Hershey bar munching couch potatoes to live in a fantasy world of all-that`s-nice and mind blocking make-believe' horse cr*p or at the very least, when that is tossed back in your face you might not resort to whining that you got a taste of your own rhetoric. You could actually try to read what I wrote and defend this truly amateurish insult to the audiences intelligence. Did you even see it? Probably not.
'Film producers DO make films showing the good points of military actions'
What film can you name that shows the military in a positive light that has been produced in the in the last 10 years?... the past 20? Saving Private Ryan would probably be the exception to the rule. Not that I even NEED a a story that I agree with to enjoy the film. There have been many that I disagree with the thrust of the argument but the storytelling or production values have won me over.
This little film school project gone bad that De Palma is trying to foist off as art is just garbage on EVERY measure...
kind of distasteful violence. who would want to go watch a little girl get raped, and then her and her family murdered by the rapists? it's simple, people avoided the movie because it's just not an entertaining subject unless you're a misogynist. there's nothing political going on here at all, just people standing up for good taste, which this movie isn't.
YES you are the same harsehole that gave me a load of schit on another article.
I don`t give a monkey`s for your views, they are kid`s stuff and if you repeat everything stated, your garbage will be twice as long as it should be.
Anyway, have a nice time thinking you are intellectual when in fact you could not even complete a crossword without losing your pen, a high school drop-out ?
Sorry, dumb bell, some have it and some don`t, you ain`t.
AND before your little brain says I cannot spell that beautiful language called English - YOU don`t know the first thing about computer programming.
In come all the wimps about showing nasty pictures of death, rape and destruction. You all want to live in fairyland, well the world is not like that.
We all have seen the details of Nazi treatment of undesirables, generally called the Holocaust, where over 6 M people were exterminated by various means, predominantly by gassing with Zyklon B.
YOU Americans can be very proud of yourselves eating your salmon and cucumber sandwiches in the cosiness of your little homes, believing that everything out there is all sugar and spice. BUT I suppose you choose to forget your barbaric treatment of the Japanese - remember Enola Gay ?
Ah yes, Mr. All-American Boy Tibbett and his nice American chums, dropped Fat Boy and Little Boy on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - BANG ! there goes a huge number of human beings, all civilians - completely evaporated and the rest grotesquely crippled or consigned to cancer in years to come. Not to mention reducing two cities back to the Stone Age and contaminating the earth for a 1000 years with radiation.
Hiroshima = 66,000 dead, 69,000 injured
Nagasaki = 39,000 dead, 25,000 injured
And that was just the immediate blast.
A total of 135,000 in Hiroshima and 64,000 in Nagasaki.
200,000 died of cancer in years to come.
Nice one yanks ! And YOU have the audacity to condemn a superb film producer for portraying a piddling little bit if hanky panky in Iraq !
Get lost you load of hypocritical American crap, I hope you feel proud of yourselves, but you really don`t like the thought of your nice American boy`s raping young girls and killing their families in Iraq - do you ?
You sickening jerks.
'YES you are the same harsehole that gave me a load of schit on another article.'
Perhaps, you aren't all that memorable.
'I don`t give a monkey`s for your views'
Well then, don't comment on them idiot.
'they are kid`s stuff'
Gee, your idea of playing follow the leader is pretty 'adult'.
'Anyway, have a nice time thinking you are intellectual when in fact you could not even complete a crossword without losing your pen, a high school drop-out ?'
Not a rebuttal to anything I wrote... Is it?
'Sorry, dumb bell, some have it and some don`t, you ain`t.'
And yet another non rebuttal to anything I have said. Indeed, even your insults are infantile.
'AND before your little brain says I cannot spell that beautiful language called English - YOU don`t know the first thing about computer programming.'
Gee, good of you to assert yourself with that. Nothing that smacks of insecurity there. You are right, I do not know computer programing. I hire flunky's like you to do it for me. So congratulations, you may or may not know computer programming. You are a complete idiot on every other subject we have touched upon though.
'YOU Americans can be very proud of yourselves eating your salmon and cucumber sandwiches in the cosiness of your little homes, believing that everything out there is all sugar and spice. BUT I suppose you choose to forget your barbaric treatment of the Japanese - remember Enola Gay '
LOL! Pass the salmon and cucumber sandwiches as I raise my glass to those who ended the WW2! Idiot.
Here comes the Bogey Man again.
Thanks to every one of you for the compliments and unequivocal flattery bestowed upon me. I feel so honored and somewhat embarrassed at such a friendly and warm appreciation of my literary efforts.
My only regret is that the subject matter appears to be compiled in a rather advanced way for you to comprehend. I`ll try to be simpler next time.
Enjoy your films.
'My only regret is that the subject matter appears to be compiled in a rather advanced way for you to comprehend. '
Really, such overcompensation... You display it here over and over. Perhaps if you weren't so arrogant people would just quietly feel sorry for you instead of having a laugh at your pompous attempts to cover your inferiority complex.
You Americans are such a naive and conceited lot, it is almost unbelievable.
All you are able to do when faced with a superior dialogue and facts is resort to childish remarks and playground abuse. Ah well, so much for your educational system.
We can watch every evening documentaries and films showing the utmost gory details of war in glorious color and everybody enjoys it tremendously, PROVIDING America wins.
What a load of idiotic high school drop outs you are, completely incapable of an unbiased view of world events. The good old stars and stripes is so ingrained on your brains, like the Muslim doctrine is ingrained in their scumbag brains ! Good will always triumph over evil - what a load of Hollywood crap and YOU believe it.
Bunkum ! you have completely ignored the massacre list I gave, you have completely ignored the devastation and civilian lives you blew away in Japan, all because the great America can do no wrong so long as it wins. WELL IT CAN bum-heads and DOES, time and again. You are a world joke.
Having watched human bodies torn and blown to pieces or with unbelievable injuries as a result of your nice American boys actions, I then see in amongst all this bloody carnage, that it is necessary to bleep out swear words and to blurr out tits and bums !!!!!!!! How degenerate can you get ?
All this horrific carnage and you are afraid of seeing a tit or a bum - you need your heads examined, your sense of values are insane.
It is perfectly OK to see all the battle carnage that your nice boys inflict, but you cannot stomach the reality that these lovely American boys decide to forcibly get their ends away on some innocent Iraqi girl and kill her parents. Hurts don`t it ? Well my uneducated high school drop outs, that is FACT, grow up !!
You really are the most incredible mass example of utmost conceit and hypocrisy that it is possible to imagine.
Next time you see one of your brave warriors with all his silly little medals and dozens of stupid colorful badges hanging on his chest (you just love badges - it is a wonder these gladiators can stand upright because of the weight of them), it may look impressive, but ask him how he got them.
OK, I suppose I`ll get yet another load of schit from you on this, but I have the consolation that I am dealing with immature people and make that adjustment, I read it, have a laugh and then bin it.
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WAR HAS FORMED WORLD HISTORYNov 26th, 2007 - 00:05:19
Unfortunately YES it has. War is horrific, but is a by-product of human behaviour and has been ever since early human creatures evolved millions of years ago and has remained with us ever since.Countries give countless medals to war heroes, some are even given the very highest awards in the land. Some even become Presidents.Every imaginable atrocity has been carried out over and over again, nothing is new. It will never stop as long as mankind inhabits the earth.NO I am not a bible thumper, pacifist, lover of humans or crank, I am just outlining reality. Every army that has existed and does exist, carry out atrocities. In battle when you hate the enemy enough and have seen your comrades brutally tortured or killed, that is what happens - like for like.If film makers wish to depict the savagery of war in a real sense, then there is nothing wrong with this. It does 'ordinary' people good to see the bloody horrific and factual evidence of war. Whether the squeamish and feeble-minded stay away, then you cannot blame them. Who wants to see the blood and guts of battle, or the brutal treatment of civilians, or the rape of girls and women by their own 'decent' soldiers portrayed in glorious colour on screen ?Censors often molly coddle us delicate minded people by cutting out or blooping the nasty parts to save us mere mortals from puking up or having nightmares. Nice one censors, but I personally can do without your cotton wool protection, I am able to conduct my own way through life.So, all you people who like to see Mary Poppins, Mickey Mouse or some other fairy tale fantasy, no problem, that is your right.BUT don`t say that this man has made a bad film, he has only put down on film what actually happens. OK, it means that without the public buying it he makes a thundering financial loss, but that is the movie business, it`s called RISK.Finally, if any American thinks that US soldiers simply could not behave in this way - FORGET IT, you name it and they have done it, many times over in every action they have taken part in.Nothing wrong with the boy next door or dear Daddy behaving like a savage, in the army that is what he is trained to be, THAT is war my friends, it changes the mind of the players. Then they all become Mr. Nice guy on their return.If you don`t give this guy your dollars, then at least give him some credit for being a superb film producer.
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