I saw this movie a couple of hours ago and I had no really major expectations. At the end I must say I enjoyed it and it was a great watch but I'm not so sure about the real message behind the movie.
The story is based on the ways of interrogation, the methods used and the directly result of it. "Younger", played by the well known actor Michael Sheen, sustaines that he has 3 nuclear bombs placed in 3 different cities across the U.S. territory. In order to reveal their locations he demands two things: one is that the U.S. Gov. won't further support financially or military any other puppet regimes or dictatorships in Islamic nations and the second is that the president will withdraw all the U.S. forces from all the Islamic countries. Of course, his purpose is not only that but to prove that the world is selfish, incoherent and self-destructive. Now I agree with almost all of that but why every movie that is based on terrorism must be about Islam? Why in every movie we need to condemn only the U.S.? There's not just the U.S. Gov. that enslaves other countries and there aren't just Muslim terrorists. It bothers me because it's such a cliché and it lowers my rating for the plot.
Samuel L Jackson delivers a strong, powerful and yet disturbing performance as an self-contracted interrogator who's social life is common to any other usual person despite his methods used in interrogating terrorists or spies. He decides that fizical and physical torture is the best weapon that he could use against a world where "we're afraid and they're not, we doubt and they believe". Despite his torture "Younger" still won't reveal the locations so "H" decides that is time to step up and do the unthinkable which after killing Younger's wife in front of him is to torture his kids in his presence. Along this on-going questioning and torturing sits H's opposite agent Helen Brody played surprisingly good by actress Carrie Anne Moss. She is convinced that even in times when you have no times so you appeal to no-limit situations we still have to remain humans even if that costs us 10 million lives.
This is where the question really stays: In such a situation would someone in this world saved 2 kids by letting other 10 million people being killed? I don't think there's a person in this world who would do that because it's illogical. Now the movie itself wants to send out a clear message. I don't know if it's just a tool of manipulation and all that but I don't want judge it based on my opinions of the world and conspiracies so I will judge it as it is, as the movie it is. It sends out two different messages: one is that sometimes the human beings during some critical situations tend to stop being that human and would do anything to survive, even the unthinkable but also that if the will of the enemy is strong enough even the unthinkable and the inhuman methods won't solve the critical situations that we might one day (hopefully not) face, proving that the inhuman methods aren't always the best methods.
Now enough with the story itself and the acting which were handled very well, the movie was edited pretty good for a low budget flick. The cinematography was good and there was no meaning in a great soundtrack or score to the movie simply because for me it was intense enough. The movie is delivered and the story is well built, the acting is strong so I'd give it a nice Must-See for 2010.
The story is based on the ways of interrogation, the methods used and the directly result of it. "Younger", played by the well known actor Michael Sheen, sustaines that he has 3 nuclear bombs placed in 3 different cities across the U.S. territory. In order to reveal their locations he demands two things: one is that the U.S. Gov. won't further support financially or military any other puppet regimes or dictatorships in Islamic nations and the second is that the president will withdraw all the U.S. forces from all the Islamic countries. Of course, his purpose is not only that but to prove that the world is selfish, incoherent and self-destructive. Now I agree with almost all of that but why every movie that is based on terrorism must be about Islam? Why in every movie we need to condemn only the U.S.? There's not just the U.S. Gov. that enslaves other countries and there aren't just Muslim terrorists. It bothers me because it's such a cliché and it lowers my rating for the plot.
Samuel L Jackson delivers a strong, powerful and yet disturbing performance as an self-contracted interrogator who's social life is common to any other usual person despite his methods used in interrogating terrorists or spies. He decides that fizical and physical torture is the best weapon that he could use against a world where "we're afraid and they're not, we doubt and they believe". Despite his torture "Younger" still won't reveal the locations so "H" decides that is time to step up and do the unthinkable which after killing Younger's wife in front of him is to torture his kids in his presence. Along this on-going questioning and torturing sits H's opposite agent Helen Brody played surprisingly good by actress Carrie Anne Moss. She is convinced that even in times when you have no times so you appeal to no-limit situations we still have to remain humans even if that costs us 10 million lives.
This is where the question really stays: In such a situation would someone in this world saved 2 kids by letting other 10 million people being killed? I don't think there's a person in this world who would do that because it's illogical. Now the movie itself wants to send out a clear message. I don't know if it's just a tool of manipulation and all that but I don't want judge it based on my opinions of the world and conspiracies so I will judge it as it is, as the movie it is. It sends out two different messages: one is that sometimes the human beings during some critical situations tend to stop being that human and would do anything to survive, even the unthinkable but also that if the will of the enemy is strong enough even the unthinkable and the inhuman methods won't solve the critical situations that we might one day (hopefully not) face, proving that the inhuman methods aren't always the best methods.
Now enough with the story itself and the acting which were handled very well, the movie was edited pretty good for a low budget flick. The cinematography was good and there was no meaning in a great soundtrack or score to the movie simply because for me it was intense enough. The movie is delivered and the story is well built, the acting is strong so I'd give it a nice Must-See for 2010.