Traitor - A Deeper Understanding of Terrorism - Review
Traitor is probably the most under-rated film of 2008. The movie starring Don Cheadle, whom we last saw in Ocean's Thirteen, and Guy Pearce has been directed and written by new guy Jeffrey Nachmanoff. This international spy thriller is best described by a user in IMDB- "a thinking man's spy thriller".
Based on an idea by Steve Martin (that's right, the grey haired comedy actor himself), this contemporary and intelligent action thriller centers on Samir Horn (played by the excellent Don Cheadle), a Muslim American of Sudanese descent who, as a child, saw his father killed in a terrorist attack. Moving to the States, Horn serves in the military, where he later becomes entangled in covert operations and shadowy terrorist networks. Enter by-the-book FBI agent Roy Clayton (another impressive performance by Guy Pearce) and his offsider Max Archer (Neal McDonough), who head up an investigation into an international terrorist outfit that Horn may or may not be tangled up in.
Of all the post 9/11 films dealing with terrorism, Traitor is the movie which understands what Terrorism is. Jeffrey Nachmanoff's crackling screenplay breathes a new life into this espionage thriller. This is not just another Bourne Ultimatum considering the amount of emotional conflict in the protagonist and its heavy understanding of Terrorism. I was pleasantly surprised Hollywood turned out a movie dealing with terrorism which does not blame Muslims as a whole, rather shows them is a good light barring a few.
Considering the highly volatile topic of the movie, it could have easily turned into a cliched action thriller in which an American hero shoots up a lot of Muslim Terrorists and save the world. Instead the movie chooses to tread the more humane and sensible path dealing with the internal conflicts of an undercover agent(which is no surprise since the name of the movie is Traitor). The research that went into the movie is commendable. The modus operandi of the terrorists is very deftly explained from the way they exchange messages without interception to how a terrorist organization works.
The most striking thing was the deep understanding of Terrorism by the Director-Writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff. He really brings out what terrorism is all about. In the movie a character says "Terrorism is Theater. And Theater is always performed for an audience". The character continues to say that they need to make the people feel "nowhere is safe". This is exactly what the terrorists in our world have been doing. They grab attention.
The director also exhibits a considerable understanding of the Quran, Islamic holy book. The terrorists use the Holy Book and interpret it the way they want and use those interpretations to brain wash people and eventually join the Jihad. The people who are selected to die are told that they would go to heaven and will have 72 virgins when they reach there. People are lured with the promise of heaven to become martyrs for Jihad. But all through the movie we can see Samir, a devout Muslim, quoting the Quran and rubbing it in the faces of the Terrorists. He quotes many instances and brings out the false way Terrorists interpret the Holy Book. At on point on of the Terrorists justifies the fact that he drinks alcohol(which is forbidden according to Islam) by citing a reason called Taqiyya. At that point Samir refutes the claim and explain what really Taqiyya means citing the Holy Book. Many other instances are abound in the movie.
The movie also brings out subtly the comparison between the Terrorists, and the Government who is trying to catch them. There is a scene is which Amir meets with his Intelligence Handler after it is decided that Samir is to help with the bombing of 30 buses across America. He meets with his handler and the handler asks him to go along with the bombing of 30 buses to get to the leader of the Terrorists. Then Samir asks "How far are you willing to take this? We've got blood on our hands. We've killed innocent people". Handler responds by saying "Yeah, and if we stop now, they will all have died for nothing. This is a war. You do what it takes to win". This piece of conversations makes it clear of how similar the mindsets of the terrorists and the authorities are. The metaphorical ramifications of this particular conversation are numerous. One of the easily identifiable ones is a direct message to the Government of America. Samir's words serves as a finger pointed directly at the American Government for its atrocities in Iraq.
The movie also succeeds in bringing a human charm to the fanaticism. Its a welcome change from the stereotypical portrayal of crazy fanaticist. The movie takes into account the fact that fanaticism doesn't really mean crazy. The fanaticist are as normal as any of us are, but with their perspective screwed with by Islamic fundamentalists who present a wrongly interpreted version of Quran and thus bind them to Jihad by means of religion. Omar, with whom Samir strikes up a bond is shown to be a human at heart and who is used by his leader for the Jihadi cause.
Considering the seriousness of the theme, its not surprising to see the intensity in the performances of the actors . Don Cheadle plays up to the intensity of Samir and pulls it off beautifully. Guy Pearce also plays his character with determination and style making his FBI agent a single minded intense character. Said Taghmaoui(Omar) is also very impressive and succeeds in giving the terrorists a different dimension.
My Verdict- I couldn't have picked a more apt time to watch this movie. In the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks this movie presented to me an insight into terrorism like no other movie in recent times has. Of all the post 9/11 Hollywood films dealing with terrorism, Traitor is the movie which understands what Terrorism is. I was pleasantly surprised Hollywood turned out a movie dealing with terrorism which does not blame Muslims as a whole, rather shows them is a good light barring a few. Considering the highly volatile topic of the movie, it could have easily turned into a cliched action thriller in which an American hero shoots up a lot of Muslim Terrorists and save the world. Instead the movie chooses to tread the more humane and sensible path dealing with the internal conflicts of an undercover agent(which is no surprise since the name of the movie is Traitor). Don't expect another Bourne movie filled with high octane action sequences from start to end, but expect a decent spy thriller which treads a fine line between intelligent cinema and commercial action movie. At least watch it to get a more deep understanding of what terrorism is and how they operate.
Buy the DVD at Amazon :
Traitor DVD
Traitor [Blu-ray] + Digital Copy
Based on an idea by Steve Martin (that's right, the grey haired comedy actor himself), this contemporary and intelligent action thriller centers on Samir Horn (played by the excellent Don Cheadle), a Muslim American of Sudanese descent who, as a child, saw his father killed in a terrorist attack. Moving to the States, Horn serves in the military, where he later becomes entangled in covert operations and shadowy terrorist networks. Enter by-the-book FBI agent Roy Clayton (another impressive performance by Guy Pearce) and his offsider Max Archer (Neal McDonough), who head up an investigation into an international terrorist outfit that Horn may or may not be tangled up in.Of all the post 9/11 films dealing with terrorism, Traitor is the movie which understands what Terrorism is. Jeffrey Nachmanoff's crackling screenplay breathes a new life into this espionage thriller. This is not just another Bourne Ultimatum considering the amount of emotional conflict in the protagonist and its heavy understanding of Terrorism. I was pleasantly surprised Hollywood turned out a movie dealing with terrorism which does not blame Muslims as a whole, rather shows them is a good light barring a few.
Considering the highly volatile topic of the movie, it could have easily turned into a cliched action thriller in which an American hero shoots up a lot of Muslim Terrorists and save the world. Instead the movie chooses to tread the more humane and sensible path dealing with the internal conflicts of an undercover agent(which is no surprise since the name of the movie is Traitor). The research that went into the movie is commendable. The modus operandi of the terrorists is very deftly explained from the way they exchange messages without interception to how a terrorist organization works.
The most striking thing was the deep understanding of Terrorism by the Director-Writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff. He really brings out what terrorism is all about. In the movie a character says "Terrorism is Theater. And Theater is always performed for an audience". The character continues to say that they need to make the people feel "nowhere is safe". This is exactly what the terrorists in our world have been doing. They grab attention.
The director also exhibits a considerable understanding of the Quran, Islamic holy book. The terrorists use the Holy Book and interpret it the way they want and use those interpretations to brain wash people and eventually join the Jihad. The people who are selected to die are told that they would go to heaven and will have 72 virgins when they reach there. People are lured with the promise of heaven to become martyrs for Jihad. But all through the movie we can see Samir, a devout Muslim, quoting the Quran and rubbing it in the faces of the Terrorists. He quotes many instances and brings out the false way Terrorists interpret the Holy Book. At on point on of the Terrorists justifies the fact that he drinks alcohol(which is forbidden according to Islam) by citing a reason called Taqiyya. At that point Samir refutes the claim and explain what really Taqiyya means citing the Holy Book. Many other instances are abound in the movie.
The movie also brings out subtly the comparison between the Terrorists, and the Government who is trying to catch them. There is a scene is which Amir meets with his Intelligence Handler after it is decided that Samir is to help with the bombing of 30 buses across America. He meets with his handler and the handler asks him to go along with the bombing of 30 buses to get to the leader of the Terrorists. Then Samir asks "How far are you willing to take this? We've got blood on our hands. We've killed innocent people". Handler responds by saying "Yeah, and if we stop now, they will all have died for nothing. This is a war. You do what it takes to win". This piece of conversations makes it clear of how similar the mindsets of the terrorists and the authorities are. The metaphorical ramifications of this particular conversation are numerous. One of the easily identifiable ones is a direct message to the Government of America. Samir's words serves as a finger pointed directly at the American Government for its atrocities in Iraq.
The movie also succeeds in bringing a human charm to the fanaticism. Its a welcome change from the stereotypical portrayal of crazy fanaticist. The movie takes into account the fact that fanaticism doesn't really mean crazy. The fanaticist are as normal as any of us are, but with their perspective screwed with by Islamic fundamentalists who present a wrongly interpreted version of Quran and thus bind them to Jihad by means of religion. Omar, with whom Samir strikes up a bond is shown to be a human at heart and who is used by his leader for the Jihadi cause.
Considering the seriousness of the theme, its not surprising to see the intensity in the performances of the actors . Don Cheadle plays up to the intensity of Samir and pulls it off beautifully. Guy Pearce also plays his character with determination and style making his FBI agent a single minded intense character. Said Taghmaoui(Omar) is also very impressive and succeeds in giving the terrorists a different dimension.
My Verdict- I couldn't have picked a more apt time to watch this movie. In the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks this movie presented to me an insight into terrorism like no other movie in recent times has. Of all the post 9/11 Hollywood films dealing with terrorism, Traitor is the movie which understands what Terrorism is. I was pleasantly surprised Hollywood turned out a movie dealing with terrorism which does not blame Muslims as a whole, rather shows them is a good light barring a few. Considering the highly volatile topic of the movie, it could have easily turned into a cliched action thriller in which an American hero shoots up a lot of Muslim Terrorists and save the world. Instead the movie chooses to tread the more humane and sensible path dealing with the internal conflicts of an undercover agent(which is no surprise since the name of the movie is Traitor). Don't expect another Bourne movie filled with high octane action sequences from start to end, but expect a decent spy thriller which treads a fine line between intelligent cinema and commercial action movie. At least watch it to get a more deep understanding of what terrorism is and how they operate.
Buy the DVD at Amazon :
Traitor DVD
Traitor [Blu-ray] + Digital Copy
