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THE REPORT is about the alleged report which exposes the CIA for their use of torture on suspected terrorists. Most of what has been going on is already well known, including the inhuman torture methods as these have since been publicized following the Oscar Winner for Best Documentary, Alex Gibney’s TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE.
Gibney’s film examines the U.S. policy on torture and interrogation, specifically the CIA’s use of torture and their research into sensory deprivation. The CIA re-terms the word torture with the phrase enhanced interrogation. The film includes discussions against the use of torture by political and military opponents, as well as the defense of such methods; attempts by Congress to uphold the standards of theGeneva Convention forbidding torture; and popularization of the use of torture techniques in TV series such as 24.
Burn’s film is highly different and employs actors to re-enact real life characters in the true story. THE REPORT plays as a political thriller that explores matters of vital importance to the present. THE REPORT takes a deep dive into recent revelations that have lost none of their capacity to shock and appall.
Dan Jones (Adam Driver) is the man assigned to research and submit a report. He is asked twice during the movie. “Did you sleep?” to which he answers. “I used to but it gets in the way of my work.” Jones, a staff member of the US Select Committee on Intelligence, is tasked with helming a Senate investigative report into the CIA’s use of torture after 9/11. Some $80 million was spent; 119 detainees were interrogated. Hundreds of hours of recordings of those interrogations were destroyed. What happened? Who is accountable? Faced with one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after another, Jones spent half a decade finding out. The CIA expected Jones to do the study , uncover a few facts but never expected Jones to go through all the extreme lengths to find out the truth and to uncover it to the American people.
Burns elicits excellent performances from his entire cast. Adam Driver and Annette Benning both deliver award winning performances. One cannot imagine anyone else playing those two roles.
Some might complain about the film’s talkiness. It is talky but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The dialogue from the script, also written by Burns is sharp and witty, and able to carry ones attention throughout the film. A few of the torture scenes are re-enacted to emphasize the terrible use of torture by the CIA.
Everybody knows the ineffectiveness of torture as a interrogation tool to get information from the enemy. Which is basically the tortured person saying anything to get the torture to stop. Most of the information surrendered are either information the U.S. already knows or lies. The script offers little debate on the matter, as the fact is already well known and stablished inTAXI TO THE DARK SIDE. The REPORT is an excellent companion piece to that film film and succeeds, despite all the bad stuff the American CIA has done, in extolling the United States as a democracy who can call out its bad people. If only they would made these people pay for their crimes.
Festival Reviews 