I used to pay a lot more attention to upcoming movies than I do these days, and somehow the film “Redacted,” which opened this weekend (but is not playing in Barstow), slipped by me.
“Redacted,” directed by Brian De Palma, is a fictionalized retelling of the rape and murder of an Iraqi teen and the killing of her family by a group of U.S. soldiers.
The inspiration should be known to those in Barstow who follow the news. Former Barstow resident Sgt. Paul E. Cortez was one of the men who was responsible for the real-world incident on which De Palma is basing his film. Cortez pleaded guilty to rape and several counts of murder and was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
From what I’ve read through various stories and reviews of the movie, De Palma put his account together based on a number of different sources. I’m curious as to whether he included some of the information about Cortez’s difficult life here in Barstow we uncovered while reporting the story.
Reviews are extremely mixed and critics seem to be pretty polarized, not unexpected when dealing with a fictional telling of a real-world story. I want to see the movie and judge it for myself (based on reading some of the reviews, I think I can tell which character is meant to be Cortez), but I don’t think it’s likely to come here. I’ll be visiting Los Angeles at the end of the month, and if it’s still playing, I’ll see if I can’t find a way to see it.
Why I’ll never join a political party
November 28th, 2007, 4:25 pm by Scott ShackfordWhat happens when a political organization forgets that its job is to represent its constituents and instead assumes that its the job of its constituents to represent them? Loyalty oaths.
Apparently, according to The Roanoke Times, the Virginia GOP is requiring those who wish to vote in the Republican primary there to sign an oath that they’ll vote for the Republican candidate for president in 2008, regardless of whom it might be.
What an insult to the Republican voter in that state — and to the very idea of freedom and liberty.
Right now the Republican candidates for president are noteworthy for the diversity of their positions in a number of areas. They all stand on different places on the Republican platform. It is extremely insulting and unbelievably inappropriate for a political party to attempt to demand its members vote for somebody for whom they do not ultimately support.
Last week I mentioned in a commentary to coincide with the birthday of Freedom Communications founder R.C. Hoiles that I would never vote for a presidential candidate who would permit the use of torture to interrogate prisoners. So if I were a Republican in Virginia, I may want to vote for Ron Paul or John McCain in the primary and express my concern that the GOP return to its commitment to the rule of law. But what if Rudy Giuliani landed the ultimate nomination? I will not vote for that man. He doesn’t even understand the concept of “limited government.”
I don’t know what to say. I’ve never been a Republican, so I don’t know what it’s like, but I’ve read a number of traditional conservatives who have stated that they feel the party is abandoning them and its principles. This is a good example. I can’t imagine any political organization that purports to uphold liberty and freedom demanding loyalty oaths from its members. It’s like something that would be required at a worker’s meeting in the old Soviet Union.
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