6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.4 |
When Anwar El-Ibrahimi, an Egyptian-American chemical engineer whose family emigrated to the United States when he was a boy, seemingly disappears during a flight from South Africa to Washington, D.C., his pregnant wife, Isabella, does everything she can to find him. She enlists the help of an old college friend, Alan Smith, an aide to Senator Hawkins, who uncovers the shocking fact that Anwar is suspected of aiding terrorists and has been shipped off to a third-world country for interrogation on the orders of Corrine Whitman, the CIA's head of anti-terrorism. Douglas Freeman, a CIA analyst working in North Africa, starts to question his assignment after witnessing the brutal interrogation.
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Peter SarsgaardDrama | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, Portuguese, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Ever since winning the 2006 best foreign language Oscar with his dazzling Tsotsi, South African director Gavin Hood has worked in mainstream Hollywood. His first venture in American films grew from the same sense of urgent social engagement that Hood brought to his adaptation of author Athol Fugard's novel about a young hoodlum struggling to survive in the slums of Johannesburg. Shaped in the form of a thriller, Rendition harkened back to a Seventies style of filmmaking, where current events and concerns were filtered through a semi-realistic drama that gave faces and voices to abstract concepts. (Think 3 Days of the Condor, Serpico or, for those who remember it, The Big Fix.) Unfortunately for Hood and his collaborators, Rendition appeared at a time when viewers were so overdosed on news and opinions about the "war on terror" that they weren't interested in hearing about it at the movies as well. Like every other fiction film about the aftermath of 9/11, Rendition died at the box office (although it did somewhat better abroad). Not until 2012 was the losing streak broken with Zero Dark Thirty, probably because that film offered some sense of light at the end of the tunnel. (While The Hurt Locker won awards, it didn't fill theaters.) But Rendition is worth a second look. For one thing, it's exceptionally well-made, with solid performances, first-rate production values and an intricately plotted script that is careful not to create easy targets or cardboard villains. Kelley Sane's screenplay allots every point of view a fully rounded, credible human representative, even those who authorize and conduct interrogations by torture. (No hairs are split about the definition of the word, nor could they be, given what's shown.) The CIA officer in charge of the rendition program is played by perhaps the most credible American actor alive today, Meryl Streep, and the program itself is clearly identified as a pre-9/11 creation by the administration of Bill Clinton. (Unless I missed it, neither George W. Bush nor any official who served under him is mentioned.) More importantly, though, times have changed. I am writing this review during a week when the news has been filled with reports of a CIA contractor who blew the whistle on government data-gathering activities. The program that has been disclosed may be less lurid than the practices dramatized in Rendition, but the whistle-blowing parallels one of the film's plot turns with remarkable similarity. The ferocity of reaction to the disclosure suggests a new willingness to examine government measures taken in the name of public safety. Ultimately, the public may approve of those measures, but first it has to know exactly what it's approving.
Rendition was shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe (Memoirs of a Geisha), who worked closely with director Hood to develop specific visual styles for the various locales, as described in Hood's commentary. Finished on a digital intermediate, the film arrives on Blu-ray in a 1080p, AVC-encoded presentation whose sumptuous appearance presents an ironic contrast with the frequently grim subject matter. Sharpness and detail are superior throughout, so that, for example, in the Morocco locations the fine textures of buildings, faces, clothing and landscapes can be discerned even in long and medium shots. Black are deep and true, which becomes crucial in, e.g., an important nighttime sequence in a shipyard late in the film. Colors range from the chilly blues and grays of Washington to the warmer earth tones of the El-Ibrahimi home to the hot siennas and ochres of North Africa; the sole exception is Anwar's prison, where darkness prevails. As with most films finished on a DI, there is almost no visible grain, but this is inherent in the source (assuming that, as is customary, the source was the DI). High-frequency filtering, artificial sharpening, compression and other artifacts were nowhere to be seen in the moving image.
Rendition's soundtrack, presented in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1, isn't showy, but it's powerful and effective. Each of the film's different environments has a subtle but distinctive presence that, together with its color scheme, helps differentiate it and orient the viewer as the story shifts among the locales. The streets of the city are alive with the sounds of pedestrians, mopeds, automobiles, peddlers and chatter. The corridors of power are hushed except for the click of keyboards, the ring of phones and the rush of ventilation. The lower levels of the prison are full of eerie echoes, sudden silence and just-as-sudden loud noises. The dialogue, which is primarily English with some subtitled Arabic, is generally very clear, although a few of the Arabic actors speak English with thick accents. For scoring duties, Hood turned once again to his Tsotsi composers, Paul Hepker and Mark Kilian, who supplied a suitably atmospheric sound, using Middle Eastern instruments and harmonics that provide a mournful and ultimately tragic undercurrent.
The extras have been ported over from the 2008 DVD.
After Rendition, Hood directed the more commercial (and commercially successful) X-Men Origins: Wolverine. After some TV work, he is now completing the much-anticipated Ender's Game. Good filmmakers adapt to their times, and Hood is a storyteller first and foremost, which is why Rendition ranks near the top of the "issue" films that dealt with the war on terror. One can only hope that the public will once again become interested in such films, if not on movie screens, then on pay cable, so that a talent like Hood will have further chances to apply his skills to urgent topics of the day. It's the rare filmmaker who can bring such thoughtful passion to a divisive subject. Highly recommended.
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