Ludus as Prelude

Abstract

Brian de Palma’s flawed but bitingly insightful film Redacted.(2006), based in part on an actual rape/murder in Al-Mahmūdīya (Iraq) in 2006 by five U.S. Army soldiers, takes as its subject the war in Iraq, the media representation of the war in Iraq, various modalities of representation in multiple types of media, and ultimately the problem of representation in general. The video footage shot by the character Angel Salazar, a U.S. soldier whose squad staffs a checkpoint in Sāmarrā’, Iraq (which he aspires to use in his application to film school after his tour of duty), purports to be “authentic,” providing the viewer with the “real” story, the Truth of the war in Iraq, based on “actual events.” He claims that his film will not be a “Hollywood action flick” and will have no “adrenalin-pumping soundtrack, no logical narrative to help make sense of it. Basically here, shit happens,” he maintains. Later he claims about his film: “… this is about the truth, bro. This is about what’s goin’ down. This is about the truth, 24/7. This camera, it never lies.”