Brian De Palma is planning his next movie, and luck for us it has nothing to do with Mars. Instead, he’s revisiting the topic of American soldiers raping helpless villagers. In 1989 he did it with the Vietnam movie Casualties of War, and now he’s changing battlefields to go to Iraq.
Production Weekly says the movie is called Redacted, and it’s based on the events surrounding the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by four American soldiers. As an explanation, he offers that the soldiers were sleep deprived, under stress, and hopped up on energy drinks and sleeping pills. Red Bull has never made me want to rape, but then I haven’t been drinking it in heavy combat.
The film will not necessarily be a movie with actors. Instead he’s making something more like a documentary out of it. Apparently the above depravity actually happened, and De Palma’s going to tell you about it using clips from news broadcasts, documentary footage, trial video, and excerpts from one of the involved soldiers’ video blogs. Note to would be war-crimes committers: If you rape a civilian don’t brag about it on YouTube. Not smart.
Redacted is bound to be incredibly controversial. There’s a vocal sub-group of patriotic zealots in the US who tend to blow their top any time the armed services or it’s soldiers are criticized for anything. Imagine how much they’ll scream if someone makes a movie exposing civilian rape and murder, true or not.
