Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How Much Will We Pay For Our Freedoms?, November 3, 2006
How much is too much when considering the price of our freedoms and liberties? Do all people, regardless of race, creed, sex, ethnicity, or political affiliation, deserve legal representation? Watch THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO and then ask yourself these questions. The Road to Guantanamo is about a group of friends known as The Tipton Three, Middle Eastern men who live in England and decide to travel to Pakistan where one of them plans to be wedded. Although they start out as four, one quickly disappears as they travel across the border into Afghanistan on a roadtrip. Unfortunately for them, this was right at the time the U.S. began its battle with the Taliban. Bombs drop around Shafiq, Ruhel, Monir, and Asif, the young men who start out on this hellish journey. They quickly try to get away but are led into even more dangerous areas by suspicious men with guns who lock them up in cargo trucks or force them to trek into the desert. Soon, U.S. and British forces arrive and take Shafiq, Ruhel, and Asif into custody. The whereabouts of Monir are never discovered. His body is never found. Filmed using actors and the original Tipton three, the documentary is a disturbing treatise on prisoners of war. That we see the bizarre circumstances leading to their "arrest" and incarceration is even more disturbing considering these men were officially residents of England. But because they have Middle Eastern blood in their veins, they are immediately labeled as terrorists or Taliban fighters or (unbelievably) Al Qaeda. The road that The Three travel is horrifying. Death hits near them on every stretch, nearly killing one or all of them at some point; whether its dysentery, Allied bombs, or torture. It is this last that we become painfully aware of as The Three enter Cuba and the "Gitmo" detention center. Never having been charged with a single crime, nor having evidence against them, the U.S. forces continually inflict terrible pains on the men. Isolation. Loud music for hours and hours. Sitting in the scalding heat day in and day out. Being knocked down time and again during interrogations when they don't give the interrogators the information they "want to hear." Held for a little over two years, The Three are finally released without charges and returned to England. No apologies. No legal recourse. Nothing is available to them. All of this sounds completely un-American and cruel. And it is. But there are some interesting points hit upon in the documentary that are simply left dangling, leaving it up to the audience to decide what they mean. Most importantly is that there's really no explanation as to why The Three decided to go into Afghanistan in the first place. They just do. One might assume that they did it as a kind of fun roadtrip that went terribly awry. But this isn't stated outright. Still, the cost of freedom is implicitly felt throughout the film as the audience watches these men denied any sort of legal representation and then subjected to torture techniques that skim the legalities of The Geneva Convention.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Full of Raw Energy and Power, Not Exactly Well-Balanced, March 21, 2007
Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross' "The Road to Guantanamo" employs an interesting narrative style usually called `docu-drama,' unique blend of reality and fiction. The method worked with "In This World" an account of two Afghan refugees living in Pakistan. Winterbottom again uses this method in order to re-create the experiences of "The Tipton Three" -- Ruhal Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal -- three British Muslins who were caught by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, and later detained by the US military before they were sent to, and then held in Guantanamo Bay detainment camp for two years. Instead of traditional narrative method with character development, the film opts for more direct approach with fast cutting and grainy semi-documentary images. It has a series of scenes of the harrowing tortures and humiliating abuse inflicted on the three and other detainees. The film is meant to raise anger in the viewers' heart, and its directors Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross are successful in that even if you think that there might be another side to the story. I admit the film's undeniable power and the palpable anger of the directors. However, in spite of them and the inserted footage of the interviews with the real three detainees, the film did not work for me as "In This World" several years ago. At some points "The Road to Guantanamo" becomes very hazy. Besides the somewhat vague accounts of how and why they went to Afghanistan, the three main characters remain rather bland and interchangeable, almost like ciphers. Or maybe that is the point. "The Road to Guantanamo" is a very emotional experience to me. After all, it is meant to be so. It is filled with raw energy and power that are remarkable, though I prefer more balanced approach to the subject matter.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Never to be forgoten, September 15, 2006
By now, I must have seen thousands of movies, Most of them faded away during time, but there are some great movies that you will never forget. The Road To Guantanamo is one of those movies that will linger in your memory for a long time to come. It will leave you shocked, it will make to think about the world we live in, the society, the culture and mostly the big events happening in during our life? This is a documentary movie, set in our past and current time and I assure you that every time you watch the news, there will be something linking to this movie for many years to come. Update: How much truth is in this film? Please read this peice of news article published on 19th sep 2006. GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A Saudi has been held in solitary confinement for a year at the Guantanamo Bay prison and is now so mentally unbalanced he considers insects his friends, lawyers said in a motion filed Monday seeking the man's removal from isolation. Shaker Aamer, a 37-year-old resident of Britain, was placed in isolated confinement Sept. 24, 2005, and has been beaten by guards, deprived of sleep and subjected to temperature extremes, according to the motion filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The treatment violates Geneva Conventions protections, Aamer's lawyers argued. The U.S. military denied he is being mistreated. "They choked him," the lawyer said. "They bent his nose repeatedly so hard to the side he thought it would break. ... They gouged his eyes. They held his eyes open and shined a mag-lite in them for minutes on end, generating intense heat. They bent his fingers until he screamed. When he screamed, they cut off his airway, then put a mask on him so he could not cry out."
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
