Redacted (2007) January 31, 2008

Henry James' comment that fiction is the highest form of truth is powerfully borne out in Brian De Palma's portrait of U.S. infantrymen manning a remote checkpoint near a small village in Iraq. Peopling 'Redacted' are heavily armed American youth standing guard at a checkpoint during the intense daytime heat and the night's freezing cold. Their positions are defined by heavily barbed wire designed to halt the flow of traffic and local civilians. Ever at the ready they fight boredom and fear any person or car approaching could be a suicide bomber.