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UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Today's film was Laura Poitras' documentary The Oath (2010)

Two Yemeni brothers in law commit to Osama Bin Laden. One, the driver, gets captured. The other, the body guard gets out of his own accord and later put in jail in Yemen in time to be questioned just after 9-11.

The driver gets sent to Guantanamo to, eventually, be a landmark case on the legality of military tribunals. The bodyguard goes free but lives with the fear of Al Queda retaliation.

Poitras, who set about making a doc about the driver in Gitmo ends up with no footage that he will allow for use and so focuses on the bodyguard who is, well, more fascinating. The whole point of the driver's arrest, torture and conviction was that he was just a driver.

The ironies of the "war" on terrorism abound as do the ironies of the mumbo jumbo of jihadists and their unholy war. Or holy war.

I learned a lot. That the US wasn't totally evil in these matters. They are good to the bodyguard and use Geneva Convention interrogation. Even he feels good about it. I learned that there is a lot of culture clash in even the most fundamental aspects of this problem. The lack of language is only the beginning of it. I will say that I come away more convinced than ever that the Arabs are truly fucked up about their beliefs and their religion such as it is. Everything has an Allah connection. We have our christers but this stuff borders on nuts and goes over much of the time.

I liked this enough that I have ordered up another Poitras' doc on Iraq to be seen soon.

The reason is that there is life in her work. This is a tough subject and she lets the people tell their own story. Until they won't. And then she digs more deeply to talk to relatives and other observers.

There are no talking heads in this film. The most official it gets is to show the driver's lawyers and judicial military talking about their case or lack of it.

The pundits have long ago said enough. Now the people speak for themselves.

I would not mind seeing this again but I probably will not.

It was Oscar nominated. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films