Great movie, that highlights how a government sacrifices civil rights and personal freedom in the name of actually protecting them. There was a time before 9/11 (when the death penalty was quite common for some crimes), the legal system of the Western civilized world was based on the premise {it is better to let ten guilty men go free than to kill/hang one innocent man}. Today, After 9/11, that appears to have changed to {it is better to kill/sacrifice ten innocent men than to let one terrorist go free} : at least that's what this movie is highlighting. The take home message is, that while the constitution of the U.S.A. guarantee's it's citizens certain rights and freedoms (on paper), they can be taken away at any time by that same Govt. if they believe you are a national security threat; and that belief doesn't have to be supported by any real or hard evidence. Perhaps in time History will record this as the 21st Century's evolution of the Spanish Inquisition and Witch Hunts a few centuries ago. A powerful movie that shows how just how delicate an individual's security and safety really is, when the State perceives you as a threat, and no matter how hard you try to convince it otherwise, you'll be tortured until you confess to what the State wants to hear, so that it can justify your purging.

One of the better movies that I have seen concerning terrorism. This is a very well-done movie about fear and prejudice. I like that the movie never addresses exactly how the telephone calls occurred.I also wonder how many people really understand the ending, where the CIA guy (Gyllenhaal) sneaks the guy out of prison onto a small cargo ship. I really wonder how many people understand the implications of that.You CANNOT let someone who is innocent go free. If you torture the guy and he turns out to be innocent, you MUST KILL HIM! Because... What would happen if people found out that you tortured an innocent guy? If you torture a guy, and he turns out to be innocent... You MUST KILL HIM!That is a bone-chilling reality that is brought to light in this film.

From director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), I knew a couple of the lead stars of this film, and I knew it was something to do with terrorism, I was just looking forward to giving it a go. Basically in a square in North Africa, a suicide bomber attacks and kills eighteen people, including the boss of CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) who was also there, interrogator and torturer Abasi Fawal (Igal Naor) was the target, but he escaped unharmed. Egyptian born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), his wife is Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi (Reese Witherspoon), they live together in Chicago with their young son, he has been recently in contact or involved with a violent organisation and known terrorist Rashid Salimi (Omar Salim). Returning from South Africa to the United States, Anwar is detained by officials and held in a detention facility near the site of the attack, Isabella is not informed of this, and despite being pregnant she travels to Washington to piece together what is going on, but she is only held back by security and is emotional getting no answers. Freeman is assigned to observe the interrogation of Anwar by Abasi Fawal, despite his own questions and torturing where he concludes Anwar is innocent, his boss insists it continues, justifying it is necessary to save thousands of potential terrorism victims, but it is obvious Freeman has his conscience playing with him as he watches the torture continue. Eventually Anwar does break and confess what he knows, he advised terrorists on how to create a bomb and was promised $40,000 for doing so, but Freeman thinks this confession is false, and he confirms this searching names on Google, they are the names of Egyptian football players, he also doubts that the man would take £40,000 and risk losing his family when his job earns him $200,000. Freeman orders the release of Anwar, without the permission of his superiors, and lets him escape, getting on a ship to Spain, he does eventually reach the U.S. and returns to his family, while the CIA analyst releases the details of the detaining to the American press, this story is read by the person who ordered this rendition, Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep). But the story switches the reveal that the interrogation and torture all happened before th attack seen earlier, Abasi's daughter Fatima (Zineb Oukach) ran away from home with her boyfriend Khalid El-Emin (Moa Khouas), unknown to her, he is a terrorist, he is the one who was the suicide bomber. Fatima finds out from photographs that her father tortured and killed Khalid's brother, and she finds out her boyfriend's plan, she turned up at the square to stop him attacking, but he is killed by the organisers, therefore forcing him to let go of the detonator and forcing the explosion, killing Fatima with him. Also starring Alan Arkin as Senator Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard as Alan Smith, Spider-Man's J.K. Simmons as Lee Mayer and Bob Gunton as Lars Whitman. Gyllenhaal is fine as the man battling with his morals, Witherspoon with her slightly short time on screen does great as the emotionally concerned pregnant wife, and Streep I agree despite being good at playing the cold-hearted superior is a little pantomime villain. I could just about follow what was going on, there is a relatively good twist having the attack happen after the events you see, when you assume it was before, and besides the bombing sequence the most prolific moments are during the interrogations, it is a little cluttered with characters and plot, but a good enough political thriller. Worth watching!

CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) barely survives a suicide terrorist attack in North Africa. Meanwhile, Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is an Egyptian taken by the authorities in Washington airport and transported to the middle east. His pregnant wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon) isn't notified and she seeks help from an old acquaintance Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard) who is an assistant to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin). Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep) is the boss who refuses to back down.The evidence against Anwar is several phone calls from a known terrorists. It seems that the question about the phone calls could be more easily answered with telephone records. It just seems like they didn't follow the clues correctly. It's very frustrating to be told of these phone calls, and yet there seems to be so little information about them in the movie. And the information in the movie seems so scant and unreliable. In the end, I can't tell what if anything he's done or not done.There are some big time actors in some juicy roles. The juiciest has to be Reese Witherspoon's role. She has the big time confrontation with Meryl Streep. But the Arab story is just as good with an interesting twist in the end.I just wish the phone calls evidence was more clear one way or another. Whether the audience accepts his guilt or innocence is of the utmost importance. And it needed to be settled more concretely.