TraitorSeptember 15, 2008
If you have seen this movie, would you please leave your review in comments. Several folks have recommended it…
Thanks a bunch. Kevin Dayhoff
Official Trailer: Traitor (NEW) Posted on YouTube May 23, 2008
August 27, 2008
In a World of Extremists, Shades of Gray Add Ambiguity By A. O. SCOTT
Published by The New York Times: August 27, 2008
“Traitor,” a somber, absorbing and only moderately preposterous new thriller written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, manages an impressive feat of economy, condensing a vast and sometimes contradictory compendium of post-9/11 fears and anxieties into 110 swift minutes. The terrorists are all around us! The government is not doing enough to catch them! It’s doing too much!
The movie, despite its unassuming style and tightly focused story, tries to cover every side and cater to just about every possible ideological objection, an effort at comprehensiveness that seems noble and a little nutty. There are, for instance, two F.B.I. agents, Clayton and Archer. Archer (Neal McDonough) is prone to making insensitive remarks about Islam and the Bill of Rights, and to smacking around suspected terrorists; Clayton (Guy Pearce), a minister’s son with a soothing Southern accent, delivers calm homilies on religious tolerance and holds a Ph.D. in Arabic studies.
[…]
His point is not to suggest an easy symmetry — or, goodness knows, moral equivalence — between terrorists and American law-enforcement officials. Rather, the film’s sometimes clumsy efforts at topicality illuminate the conflicted psychology of its main character, Samir Horn (Don Cheadle). Samir, the son of an American mother and a Sudanese father, is an observant Muslim and a veteran of the Army Special Forces, a highly trained warrior whose allegiances are, at first and for a gratifyingly long time afterward, decidedly ambiguous.
… has less in common with Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne than he does with some of the cold-war specters dreamed up by John le Carré in his prime. Samir’s doubleness is built into his biography, and whatever choice he makes is likely to constitute some form of betrayal.
[…]
… Mr. Nachmanoff succeeds more often than he fails. A screenwriter (“The Day After Tomorrow”) making his debut as a director, he does not attempt the breathless pace and kaleidoscopic cutting that have become the dominant manner in globe-trotting action-suspense filmmaking. (See “The Kingdom” and especially the last two Bourne pictures.) …
The story moves around a lot — from Yemen to Canada, from Chicago to Marseille — and involves a lot of interesting minor characters, from Samir’s former girlfriend (Archie Panjabi) to the intelligence bureaucrat (Jeff Daniels) who knows his deepest secrets.
Read Mr. Scott’s entire review here: In a World of Extremists, Shades of Gray Add Ambiguity By A. O. SCOTT
The review from monstersandcritics.com can be found here: Traitor - Movie Review By Ron Wilkinson
Aug 29, 2008, 19:51 GMT
Great old-fashioned spy thriller action with a solid backdrop of religious tension amidst the dilemmas of war. A solid plot and good performances make this entertainment that makes the viewer think
[…]
In the end we are all faced with the ultimate dilemma of any war: is there any end that justifies the means?
Release: August 27, 2008
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense violent sequences, thematic material and brief language
Running Time: 110 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
The review from monstersandcritics.com can be found here: Traitor - Movie Review By Ron Wilkinson
200809014 Traitor released August 27 2008
