London Telegraph Writes About Boycott Redacted.com
Telegraph:
Brian De Palma’s Redacted, a film based on the real life rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by US soldiers, has become the latest war and terror themed Hollywood release to fail at the box office.
The drama from the director of Carrie, Scarface and Casualties of War took just over $25,000 during its US opening weekend when it was shown at only 15 cinemas nationwide.
By contrast, Disney’s fairy tale romantic comedy Enchanted took more than $50 million during its opening five-days, which ended on Sunday.
The film, for which De Palma won the Silver Lion best director award at this year’s Venice Film Festival, was inspired by online reports about a US Army squad raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl before shooting her in the face, torching her body and killing her entire family.
“Everything you see in the movie is something I got off the internet, including the masked character who confesses to some atrocity and wants everyone to know about it,” De Palma told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I changed the names. I fictionalised things. But it’s all based on real stuff that I saw.”
The film, which was shot documentary-style on digital video in just 18 days, revisits the themes of Casualties of War, about the rape of a Vietnamese farm girl by US troops.
But Redacted has met mixed reviews and triggered outrage among some conservatives with calls for a boycott (a website, www.boycottredacted.com, was set up) and talk show host and critic Michael Medved claiming it “could be the worst movie I’ve ever seen.”
“It appears that De Palma is just the latest moviemaker eager to foist a heavy-handed anti-war picture on the public, and frankly some of these shrill screeds are starting to look silly,” wrote reviewer Kam Williams.
The film’s dire performance follows the public’s similarly lacklustre response to other recent releases themed around the Iraq war and post-September 11 policy. In the Valley of Elah, from Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis and based on true events linked to the Iraq war, has made less than $7 million since its September release despite a cast including Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon.
The Robert Redford-directed political drama Lions for Lambs, with Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep, also sank with minimal trace, taking less than $14 million in three weeks - less than half its production cost.
Even The Kingdom, starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, about an FBI squad targeting Saudi terrorists, made only $47 million, a low figure for a widely-released action movie with high-profile stars.
Earlier this year, A Mighty Heart, about the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, made just over $9 million after eight weeks.
Commentators say the films’ subject matter is proving too close to home for many cinema-goers, who seek escapism. In some cases, the releases have just not been good enough.
“These movies have to be entertaining,” Lew Harris, editor of Movies.com, said. “You can’t just take a movie and make it anti-war or anti-torture and expect to draw people in. That’s what happened with Rendition and it has been a disaster.”
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The continuous rejection of this bullshit bodes well for the upcoming elections.
If the low turnout was simply because it was a badly made film it would still open well then die, which is normal for a bad film.
bty, nice pic of the prick
November 28th, 2007 at 10:47 ami heard that the movie grosse only $25,000.. that is an absolute disgrace in the movie industry,,that didn’t even cover the cost of the adds in the nyslimes..my son is home fm iraq and they made it back with all of their troops and no purple hearts, this time,,now did anyone hear about that??? and that is fm ramadi,,
November 28th, 2007 at 11:00 amGets mighty expensive making flicks JUST to see your self-righteous opinion(s) and political masturbation(s) up on the big screen.
Hollywood thinks the American public “just doesn’t get it”. Hollywood had better “get” a gut-check … before their “industry” suffers from more than just a writers’ strike..
November 28th, 2007 at 11:05 am@ dad 3/7
A HUGE welcome Home to your son and his fellow troops. Damn great news!
November 28th, 2007 at 11:07 amI don’t see how it could possibly be a bomb. It wouldn’t have bombed if the American public had any taste. After all, it won the most “fantastically wonderful absolutly greatest best thing ever produced and directed in the history of mankind” award in Venice.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:23 amIf I put lipstick on a pig and said the pig hated America hollywood leftists would lick its bung hole.
dad 3/7: Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 28th, 2007 at 11:32 amDid I mention Mullah Cuban is now an anathema in Dallas and about as wanted as syphilis?
Of course, Mullah Cuban is loathed everywhere but nothing like being a turd in the public swimmng pool of your home town.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:10 pmdad 3/7
Sir, regarding the return of the 3/7, it was duly noted on this very site:
https://pat-dollard.com/2007/11/20/marine-ramadi-battalion-returns-after-7-months-first-ever-with-zero-combat-casualties/
We heard about it. We know about it. F*ck the rest.
Have a great Christmas with him home.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:17 pmdad 3/7
Take the lad out for an ice cream …
Sounds hokey, but trust me.
November 28th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
And who said that the Science Fiction movie “Plan 9 from Outer Space” was the worst movie ever made! Now that SF movie does not have that title anymore thanks to De Palma’s movie “Redacted”. So I hope De Palma’s likes that title of the worst movie/documentary ever MADE! HA HAHAha haah haha haha, gulp, gag, dam swallow my gum….. 
November 28th, 2007 at 12:49 pmDad 3/7, I agree with drillanwr. Ice cream. My son is only 6, i take him out regualrly while he can appreciate it, soon that won’t be the answer, then when he moves out he will look back and we will have those emothional once every decade out for ice cream.
Most importantly, I read about the mighty 3/7 return, and as a vet, I am so happy for their return, and a safe one at that. I keep thinking what will be the world situation when my one and only is of age. will he need to serve, or will he volunteer like his old man did, do a short 4 or ten year stint, and then be done with it like the old man.
Most of all I pray for all our troops, that they make it home safe, and for the families of those who did not. And being extremely selfish, I pray that we can take care of the slime out there now, so in 12 years or so my son doesn’t have to pay the ultimate price for the rest of us.
Any way, I hope these fucks make more movies that bomb, because then they will have less and less to donate to the dhimicrats and other traitorous bastards that would prefer to be our elected officials and betray us and our children to the extremists
November 28th, 2007 at 1:09 pm