Hola all. Massawyrm here.

You know, ten, maybe twenty years from now, film historians, buffs and general practitioners will look back on this era and most likely note how it was some sort of geek golden age. When superhero films flooded the Cineplex, and science fiction/fantasy fare found itself Oscar nominated, if not Oscar winning. And when those historians and buffs and general practitioners look closer, they will also note that this was a profound, deeply important period of socio-political filmmaking, when big name stars, directors and producers lent their talents to making fantastic films that really meant something. That served to change the way we look and think about the process and what our country is doing to the world. They will look back in wonder, noting such high grossing documentaries as Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine and An Inconvenient Truth as well as such high caliber efforts as The Kingdom, Lions For Lambs, Stop-Loss, Jarhead, Rendition, and Battle for Seattle - even perhaps comedies like An American Carol or W.

Those film lovers will look back in awe, drinking deeply of the talent that was poured into these efforts and often wonder aloud “Why the fuck didn’t anyone give a shit?” Because, you know, we don’t.

I’ve written about this before and it bears repeating. We are a nation crippled by war fatigue. Our politicians have spent every last bit of good will they garnered off of their reactions to the attacks of 9/11, and have long since trademarked, pimped and profited off that event until the milk from that tit went completely dry. Now with banks going belly up, the housing market in the toilet, our manufacturing infrastructure gutted, two wars without end, airports looking more like some Paul Verhoeven dystopian nightmare than a means of travel, gas prices almost three times what they were 7 years ago and a the Canadian Dollar worth more than our own, you’ve gotta ask yourself: why the fuck should we give a shit? I mean, who really wants to go to the movies to get a lecture on how bad things have gotten?

Which brings me to Traitor, the Don Cheadle vehicle (which he also had a hand in producing.) Written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, as well as a strange story by credit from the very unexpected Steve Martin, this film never hides for a moment its intentions. It is a thesis on what exactly constitutes a terrorist, terror and who really is the bad guy. But more importantly it is thematically identical to Ridley Scott’s brilliant Kingdom of Heaven (for the record it is the directors cut I consider brilliant, not the butchered theatrical version.) Traitor is about what it truly means to be a man of God – to be religious. And it is a crash course in the principles of Islam and their application in the current environment of Muslim Extremism. In other words it is a film that desperately needs to be seen by two types of people: blood thirsty terrorists of the Muslim world and catch phrase spouting, fox watching, heartland types who often accidentally confuse the word Muslim with the word Terrorist in casual conversation.

But just how many of those are going to drop the cash to see a film by the American infidel and jet setting, world saving crusader of goodness and known ultra liberal conspirator of George Clooney’s, Don Cheadle?

I imagine these filmmakers feel somewhat akin to the scientists that loaded up all that Chuck Berry and well wishing from here on earth into Voyager, overflowing with hope that one day an alien race might find it and know we’re out here – when in truth the odds of ANYTHING finding a slow moving hunk of metal in the vastness of space which we’ve shipped it off to is so astronomical that it’s not even worth working out the math. And that’s before you factor in the odds of Voyager slamming into a stray rock before it gets anywhere near intelligent extraterrestrial life. Really we loaded all that stuff in there to make US feel better – like we’re actually doing something about finding intelligent life rather than just sitting here talking about it.

And that’s Traitor in a nutshell. Don’t get me wrong, it is a fine, wonderfully constructed movie with its heart in the right place. The film makers took the time and care to remove every liberal sentiment, every pontifical speech about the current administration and then washed it several times in values of the red state idealism until it came out looking and feeling like a Conservative think piece. One of the heroes of the film is a southern Baptist terrorist hunting FBI agent played pitch perfect by Guy Pierce. The American government is very much the good guy – the intrusions on our freedoms never addressed as these guys do everything they can to stop one of the worst terrorist attacks of all time – which may or may not be carried out by Don Cheadle’s Samir Horn.

Samir is a man of God, a true man of God who lives only to serve HIS will. But what exactly is HIS will? Is it to blow the infidels to smithereens? Or to help the United States government stop his cohorts from doing so? All the while his actions are being tracked by two intrepid FBI agents whose banter serves to explain Samir’s dilemma as some sort of Greek chorus in very Sorkin-esque dialogues summing up the nature of religion, terror and what it all means when you put it together.

And it is executed very, very well. The film is thrilling, tightly paced and has a killer ending that both exhilarates and caused the audience to laugh at its sheer ingenuity. It’s smart, elegant and perfect in its sheer simplicity. The dumbest of cretins will walk out with a real sense of the difference between religion and those thugs that exploit it for their own ends. Unfortunately, it is being dropped to languish in a weekend with Disaster Movie and Fox’s redheaded bastard stepchild of a sci-fi film Babylon AD, all of which will be rolled over by the half dozen solid to brilliant comedies that have been released in the past month. Nobody is going to see this thing. Certainly not those that really need to. The lesson will go unlearned except by those that didn’t need the lecture to begin with.

All of the excellent acting, the well-written dialogue, the neatly directed sequences – all of it will be for naught. I walked out of this film and raced home to write this review in hopes of having it done and out of the way, only to find that the moment I did so all I could muster was a shrug. There was no passion, no fire, no interest. It was entertaining enough as I watched it, but I found myself feeling little afterwards except mildly depressed about the things it was talking about. It’s just another cinematic body to throw on the pyre with all those other topical films I mentioned. Maybe ten, twenty years from now people will be able to look back and see how masterful some of these films are. How masterful this film is.

But right now? Despite being one of the better socio-political thrillers no one is really going too care much. If you’re a fan of Cheadle or Pierce – or like me both – than this is definitely worth your time. Both guys brought their A game to this. But otherwise you pretty much already know if this is your thing or not.

Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.

Massawyrm

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