Rendition

Rendition opened this week in Madison. See it. It is at the Sundance 608 and Star Cinema.

As Roger Ebert noted,  This is being done in our name...

If there is one thing history and common sense teach us, it is that if you torture someone well enough, they will tell you what they think you want to hear. As successful interrogation experts have patiently explained to Congress, much more useful information is obtained using the carrot than the stick. Yet 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?

...It is now so well-established that the United States authorizes the practices shown in this film that when President Bush goes on television to blandly deny it with his "who, we?" little-boy innocence, I feel saddened. He may eventually be the last person to believe himself. What the film documents is that we have lost faith in due process and the rule of law, and have forfeited the moral high ground.

Oh, one more thing. It is a great movie. Reese Witherspoon matured into a great actress. The remaining roles are wonderfully portrayed from Jake Gyllenhaal as CIA agent Douglas Freeman to his counterpart, Yigal Naor as Abasi Fawal, who does George Bush's dirty work.

Comments

[Disillusioned]

Yes, it's all very disturbing, unbelievable in fact. If you contrast these events and discussion topics with what were were taught about our nation when we were young, and what we beleive our society is based upon, well it's a struggle to even accept what is happening is real.
At least you have written a blog post on something important, worth paying attention to as opposed to the absurdist picayune self-absorbed insider B.S. that passes for blog posts these days. Too many posts are the psychological equivalent of a paunchy 58 year old nerd guy admiring himself nude in a mirror. Uck. Natch, the other paunchies dole out the kudos for that sort of thing - wonder why.