Knocked back by ‘Redacted’

By Joe Brown

Friday, Jan. 11, 2008 | 12:36 p.m.

"You wanna hear a war story?" -- an American soldier in "Redacted"

A Las Vegas audience got its first look at the controversial new Brian DePalma film, "Redacted," Thursday night, and was initially left speechless after the closing credits.

The 90-minute, Iraq War-focused drama, which a surtitle says "visually documents imagined events," is filmed in a disorienting montage of styles from a soldier's videocam diary to French documentary footage to night-vision surveillance to videoblogs, left the capacity crowd at the Galaxy Theatres Neonopolis in stunned, perhaps even traumatized, silence. The director of "Carrie," "Scarface" and "Casualties of War," among others, DePalma‚s films have often invoked elements of horror, pornography, conspiracy theory and graphic violence, and uses these elements to explicitly make his polemical points in "Redacted."

Las Vegas itself is a central plot point and metaphor in the film, and is frequently mentioned by the characters.

A 30-minute panel discussion followed the screening, with candid commentary by David Schmoeller, a writer/director and assistant film professor at UNLV, Joseph "Andy" Fry, UNLV Distinguished Professor of History, and Joshua Longobardy, who reports on current news social issues and politics for the Las Vegas Weekly.

After a few rounds of questions, members of the audience, stirred to outrage, couldn't contain themselves and began shouting their opinions on the film, the war and the administration.

(Full disclosure: This Sun blogger moderated the discussion, and was as shaken and disturbed by the film as everyone else--and was as eager to talk about it after a few moments of recovery.)

Last night's screening kicked off the CineVegas Art House Screening Series. Each week the festival screens a different independent, foreign, underground cult or documentary film that otherwise might not be shown in Las Vegas. "We specifically chose to show 'Redacted' because no one else in Las Vegas would have played it," said CineVegas spokesperson Kelly Frey. "As a cultural organization and film festival in town, we feel it's our role to show all sorts of films reflecting a variety of viewpoints. We want to give the public the opportunity to see these films and have a forum to discuss them."

"Redacted" was released in the U.S. in Nov. 17. For a gallery of critical responses, click here.

All proceeds from last night's screening went to Nevada Public Radio. CineVegas will continue to screen "Redacted" at the Neonopolis until Thursday, Jan. 17. Tickets are available at the theater's Web site. If you see "Redacted," please come back and tell us what you think in this blog's Comments section.