Roger Ebert on the movie "Rendition"

[babylonsister]

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=631388&category=ARTS&newsdate=10/19/2007

'Rendition' puts a face on official torture

By ROGER EBERT, Universal Press Syndicate
First published: Friday, October 19, 2007

This is being done in our name. People who are suspected for any reason, or no good reason, of being terrorists can be snatched from their lives and transported to another country to be held without charge and tortured for information. Because the torture is conducted by professionals in those countries, our officials can blandly state, "America does not torture."

Gavin Hood's terrifying, intelligent thriller "Rendition" puts a human face on the practice. We meet Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), an Egyptian-born American chemical engineer who lives in Chicago with his wife, Isabella (Reese Witherspoon). After boarding a flight home from a conference in Cape Town, Anwar disappears from the airplane, his name disappears from the passenger list, and Isabella hears nothing more from him.

He was taken from the plane by the CIA, we learn. His cell phone received calls from a terrorist, or perhaps from someone else with the same name, or perhaps it was stolen or lost and used by somebody else. He passes a lie detector test, but is hooded, flown to an anonymous country, and placed in the hands of an expert torturer named Abasi Fawal (Igal Naor). Anwar is held naked in a dungeon, beaten, nearly drowned, shocked with electricity, kept sleepless, shackled. Does it occur to anybody that he is more likely to "confess" if he is not a terrorist than if he is?

Isabella, played by Reese Witherspoon with single-minded determination and love, contacts an old boyfriend (Peter Sarsgaard) who is now an aide to a powerful senator (Alan Arkin). The senator intervenes with the head of U.S. intelligence (Meryl Streep). She responds in flawless neocon-speak, simultaneously using terrorism as an excuse for terrorism, and threatening the senator with political suicide. Arkin backs off.

Meanwhile, in the unnamed foreign country, we meet a CIA pencil-pusher named Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose job is to work with and "supervise" the torturer Abasi, who is an intelligent man and not a monster.

All these human strands eventually weave into the same rope, in a film that builds its suspense by the uncoiling of personalities. Gavin Hood, the South African director of "Rendition," first came into wide view with the wonderful "Tsotsi" (2005), which won the Academy Award for best foreign film. Now comes this big, confident, effective thriller with its politics so seamlessly a part of its story. Next for him: "Wolverine," based on the X-Men character. I hope we don't lose him to blockbusters. A film like "Rendition" is valuable and rare.

[Solly Mack]

1. As an aside, "Tsotsi" is an excellent movie

As to "Rendition" ..I'll watch it and I'll cry...and I'll mourn

[babylonsister]

2. As sorrowful as it surely is, I'm glad it's out there with all those 'names'.

Hopefully people will actually watch it and learn.

[Solly Mack]

6. Me too, babylonsister

[Frank Cannon]

12. Tsotsi was good, but I'm not sure about the upcoming sequel...

Joni Loves Tsotsi.

[justgamma]

3. I saw it yesterday.

It was disturbing. I kept wanting to yell "Not in my name!"

When it was over there was a couple outside the theater talking. He was trying to explain the movie to her and she totally didn't get it. It was infuriating. I wish I could expain more but that would be a spoiler.

[spanone]

4. 'we' don't torture, 'we' outsource it. 'we' only condone & pay for it.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. K&R

[EVDebs]

7. The blowback from erroneous renditions was inevitable. They did it anyway. Look at us now.

Habeus corpus, the foundation of common law Magna Carta England and US law, is GONE.

[WillyT]

8. Big K & R !!!

:kick:

[truedelphi]

9. Say the word "torture" and I always end up thinking of the Kabul taxi cab driver

The one whose cab was in the proximity of the embassy or other big shot building when an explosion occurred.

Lucky enough to survive not being blown to smithereens, the cab driver was picked up for questioning and tortured for days until he died. Every bone in his body was broken.

Personnel close to this story were mournful over the fact that with almost complete certitude, he had nothing to do with the bombing. He was just a big city cab driver, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Kolesar]

13. The US is as bad as the Soviets that we were "so fired up to hate" in another decade

Yes, I recall that story you recounted. I think I heard it on public radio.

[girl gone mad]

10. I like the review..

too bad the movie wasn't better.

[Tactical Progressive]

11. America is the torture nation now, even if we stop tomorrow

We did it. It's done. Were we to stop tomorrow there is no guarantee, Constitutional or otherwise, for anyone, American or otherwise, that we wouldn't start again as soon as it suited us, maybe even worse than now. It will always be part of what we are.

That's what Republicans have done to this great nation. The word 'traitor' doesn't even begin to describe the level of un-Americanism that Republicans and Conservatives represent.