Cheadle Free or Cheadle Dumb? (Traitor (DVD))

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Traitor (DVD)
Date:	03/11/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Competent thriller for average Americans

Disadvantages: All Muslims are bad?

Starring Guy Pearce and Don Cheadle
Genre...The War on Terror
Suited to....war film fans
Certificate -13?

Traitor is the latest in a long line of offerings in the post 911, "War on Terror" genre, these movies coming thick and fast now like the body bags piling up out there in the desert to be loaded on to C140s in our vulgar pursuit of cheap oil and gas. But the problem is the bulk of these films are American made and so don't really tackle the real reasons for the wars, the US government and media outlets being particularly guilty for their collusion in the perpetuation of the War on Terror, that complicity never really tackled in Hollywood, the very same movie studios belonging to those media and news groups who profit from war through the likes of CNN and the Foxx Networks. No one ever really questioned the absurd weapons of mass destruction claim at the time in the printed press and on the rolling news stations in America and so the Iraq War inevitably happened. Ted Turner built his CCN Empire purely off the back of Gulf War One and the commercial revenues and syndication that flowed as the bombs fell and the tracers flew. Syriana, with the righteous George Clooney on board, tried to get to the heart of the corruption but the film was almost deliberately too complicated and obfuscating to smother the message and so it couldn't really put the case. One of these films needs to own up to the fact that America starts wars just to make money. There are no morals here guys so why make movies with morals on the subject?

With its 13 Certificate and the fact Steve Martin came up with the idea for this (Yes, that Steve Martin) while filming Bringing Down the House (yep, that movie) is a less than subtle hint to how sanitised this is for that Middle American multiplex market. Casting Don Cheadle in the lead in context of his role in the movie doesn't work either and kind of sets up the twist too early. It's ambitious though, the film shot in a mere 48 days, through 17 cities spread over 3 continents, and all for the relatively low budget of $22 million dollars, Cheadle's own film company putting up most of the money. The actor must have felt this film would be good for his career. Talk about putting the breaks on it.


-The Cast-

Don Cheadle ... Samir Horn
Guy Pearce ... Roy Clayton
Saïd Taghmaoui ... Omar
Neal McDonough ... Max Archer
Alyy Khan ... Fareed
Archie Panjabi ... Chandra Dawkin
Raad Rawi ... Nathir
Hassam Ghancy ... Bashir
Mozhan Marnò ... Leyla (as Mozhan Marno)
Adeel Akhtar ... Hamzi
Jeff Daniels ... Carter
lorena Gale ... Dierdre Horn


-The Plot-

We are in the Yemen where Muslim convert and illegal arms dealer Samir Horn (Don Cheadle) is arming the local branch of Al Quieda, plastic explosives and Kalashnikovs on special. But when the deal is busted by the cops he's thrown in jail for a very long time, the rendition papers all but signed from the US. But that long time isn't that long when he and some other Jihadists are busted out and soon on the run, owing his freedom to Omar (Saïd Taghmaoui).

His bravery and calm on the break earn the attentions of an active European cell who recruit him as a bomb maker after Omar's introduction, targets already selected in Western Europe, bombs in Spain and Rome killing holidaymakers.

When a British Muslims car bomb doesn't go off he is captured by the FBI, where we meet Agent Clayton (Guy Pearce), increasingly nervous as America looks like it's the next target for this group for Thanksgiving. When Samir proves himself again with his first attack in Nice in France he is charged to head the operation in America.

Samir Horn: The truth is complicated.

-The Conclusion-

Once Samir and Omar set foot in the US the film throws up its flapping white spinnaker like a flag of surrender as far as its intellect goes, the obvious and not so obvious twists and tacks coming thick and fast as the film rounds the buoy, heading for the safety of the home port with the wind in its sails where its audience feels cosy. All too predictable is not the word! It's a shame really as it had potential early on as an air of unpredictability built with good guy Cheadle set in the bad black guy role.

For me Traitor proves enough is enough in the genre now and this is one film too many and its time to move on. The whole thing is getting boring on film with most of the bases covered in this ubiquitous news generation conflict. The angle of the Don Cheadle playing the treacherous Black American Islamic convert to Al-Quieda means he's unlikely to end that way. That casting just doesn't make sense. It's almost as if they picked the star first to sell a script that the studio was obliged to make a film about knowing that was the only way to sell it, and then Cheadle picking up the bill in fear it bombed... excuse the pun!

Since 'Memento', poor old Guy Pearce has become the perpetual second banana on screen to all manner of leading men and women, and again fails to shine here. With the cheesy two men of ideals playing chess metaphor and sweeping shots of Washington DC this film almost feels homesick without cliché. It's just so obvious all the way through and the ending quite ridiculous, lazily mocking the people who had the skill to bring down the Twin Towers, probably why America was caught with its kegs down in the first place. The 13 Certificate sums up its ambition to be an intelligent and serious film it's painted as.
Its time to stop making films about something that's happening for real out there and its best left to our TV screens and newsreel than endless mid-budget movies that won't tackle the real issues here to explain it. Saying that its well made and the lead performances by Cheadle and Guy Pearce competent and engaging, although you can see in their performances that they don't believe in this project either and it is just another paycheque. It will appeal to a younger audience as it feeds into the Bourne movie traits and maybe the crowd who don't really care about the politics will put up with this, as long as theirs plenty of explosions and macho American bombastic behaviour like the dreadful 'Kingdom' with Jamie Foxx in the same genre.


"This guy's gotta be in a state of shock. He planned on waking up in Paradise to 72 virgins. Blow yourself up to get laid, this is gotta be some crazy s**t!"

= = = = Special Features = = = =

-Audio Commentary-

Director Jeff Nachmanoff doesn't explain why he softened his film up for a mainstream audience here for guns and bombs not politics.

-Action Featurette-

As the title suggests we have a simplistic look at the behind the scenes explosions and stuff.

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Imdb.com - 7.1 out of 10 (18,451 votes)
RuN-TiMe 114 minutes
Any 2 films for 2 nights for £5 deal at Blockbusters (high street)
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Agent Clayton: "Where I grew up the Klan burned crosses in front of people's houses and called it Christianity. Then my daddy and the folks from the church would drive over and put them out. Seems every religion has more than one face".

Summary: The War on Error.