Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-24 18:40:48

Welcome to the Guantanamo Hilton

Part movie, part documentary, Micheal Winterbottom's docudrama accurately portrays the fate of thousands of people caught between the Taliban, the Northern Alliance, and the great green machine, the U.S. Army. Three naive young men fly from England to Pakistan soon after 9/11, purportedly to prepare for a wedding, and almost immediately find their way into Afghanistan. They wander onto a battlefield with no clear intentions, plan, or preparation; silly tourists cluttering up the battlespace while the twenty-first-century U.S. Airforce unleashes its arsenal all around them. Shot on location, the confusion, carnage, and casual Afghani brutality is riveting. Eventually captured and handed over to the U.S., much surprise is expressed at the treatment the two surviving detainees received. But that treatment will come as no surprise to several million Americans, themselves veterans of the U.S. military. Anyone who has been through some of the more stringent military training, such as basic training before the 1980s, Ranger School, Special Forces, or survival-escape-evasion, will be quite familiar with stress positions, screaming, loud noises and strobe lights, sensory deprivation, punching, kicking, more screaming, extremes of heat and cold, lack of food or sleep, and so on. In short, do not wander onto a battlefield unless you are absolutely committed and prepared. "The Road to Guantanamo" is an excellent introduction for those who are unaware of the business-end of the so-called war on terror, and it is a detailed account that is impossible to dismiss. That it has a happy ending is proof of U.S. toughness, but ultimately, humanity. You have to take account of the fact that many regimes the world over, or throughout history, would have simply buried these guys out back.

ruthandjan 2012-05-24 04:03:45

Appreciate this movie on two levels

This movie can be appreciated for it's message, which is shocking andpowerful. It shows how the reality of war at ground level destroys anypretense of morality preached by the wagers of that war. The movienever addresses the basis for this war, it doesn't pick sides, it neverpasses judgment on whether the war was necessary. Its message is thatwhile we sit at home and think that we are the good guys and that thewar is reflecting our moral sense of what is right or wrong, the truthof what our soldiers are doing in our name is very different. Themarines treat the prisoners like animals yet in the end the prisonerscome across as the most human, and the marines are the real animals.The cynical may say that "war is hell so get used to it" but this movieshows what that hell looks like and why we should never get used to it.The second level that this movie can be appreciated for is the greatskill of the filmmakers. These are actors. These are sets. People arefollowing a script. Yet you are immediately convinced you are watchinga powerful documentary and that everything you see is happening forreal. You are there on the battlefield, you are there in the planeswith the prisoners shackled to the floor, you are there in the cells.The illusion is so complete you wonder sometimes how they got thecameras in there. If you are a grizzled film veteran and think that itis no longer possible for you to suspend your disbelief, this film willshow you that there still are some things that you haven't seen before.

emuir-1 2012-05-20 18:01:57

If they did not hate us before, they are sure going to hate us now.

Many reviewers have criticized this film for being one sided and toldfrom the perspective of the Tipton Three, but as we are not allowed tosee what goes on inside Guantanamo, and the inmates are not chargedwith any crime or allowed contact with their families or legal counsel(they don't need it as they have not been charged with a crime), wehave to go on what accounts have filtered through.A country which asserts itself as the moral compass of the world, andwhich is based on freedom, liberty and justice for all, has to be heldto a higher standard of accountability. Justice for all mean ALL, notthose whom we pick and choose. The very fact that detainees are heldoutside the US without trial, and in conditions which we have seen inpictures of Abu Ghraib indicates that they are not playing by their ownrules. Many US ideals have been jettisoned in the name of patriotism,and "If you're not with us, you're with the enemy!" rhetoric.Four young chavs nurtured in the safety and comfort of Britain'swelfare state, with its free health care, education and social securityfor those who don't find work, go off to Pakistan for a wedding, andsuffer a little culture shock, not to mention the intestinal distresscaused by the food and water in foreign parts. Having been accustomedto cheese stuffed pizza, burgers, supermarkets and shopping malls, theyare somewhat shocked to find meat sold in the open with clouds of flieseverywhere, and according to one, the food smells like sh*t withspices.While in Pakistan, they decide to check out next door Afghanistan justprior to the US bombing. While this may have been from a sense ofyouthful adventure, their actions don't bear close scrutiny, whetherfrom naive stupidity or idealism or ulterior motives. They may havebeen no different from young idealists who went to fight in the SpanishCivil War, young Canadians and Americans who enlisted in the BritishForces in WWII, mercenaries anywhere, or naive adventurers caughttrying to smuggle drugs through the far east, but once in Afghanistanthey quickly find that war is not an adventurous lark after all. Theyare rounded up by the Northern Alliance after a brutal bombing raidleaves many dead or horribly wounded, and after barely surviving amonth in captivity, they are handed over to the US special forces.As this is a British film, the US are depicted as loudmouthed, bullyingthugs, without too much brain matter - when one detainee is asked wherehe comes from and replies Titpon, the interrogator snaps "Wheresat";regardless, they ship the young men off to Guantanamo Bay prison campwhere they brutalize them physically and mentally for two years to tryto force the young men to confess what they want them to say - thatthey are card carrying members of Al Qaeda on first name terms withOsama bin Laden. Considering the mind set of a military which chargedthe Muslim prison chaplain at Guantanamo with treason for ministeringto his flock, I rather suspect that the depiction of the interrogatorsis not far from the truth. Why the facts of the men's story could notbe verified for more than two years is a good question. They were beingaccused of belonging to Al Qaeda and hobnobbing with Osama Bin Laden in2000, when they were actually engaging in petty crime in Britain andhaving to report to the police on a regular basis. In the politicallymotivated American idea of justice, if you confess to a crime, whetheror not you are guilty, you will get off lightly. If you refuse toconfess, because you are not guilty perhaps, it will go much harder foryou (just watch Court TV) because you have wasted their time? The facts are that a number of detainees being held without trial orany access to legal counsel have committed suicide. We have seen theway prisoners were treated at Abu Ghraib, and newsreel footage ofpeople condemning those who blew the whistle. We have also seen theJuly 11, 2005 bombings in Britain carried out by young men very similarto the Titpton Three. All the bombers were described as decent youngmen and boys-next-door types. One of them was even an elementaryschoolteacher! I personally feel that the Tipton Three were up to nogood and quite possibly were trying to join the fighting in some way oranother, but they were not aware of what they were getting into untilit was too late to turn back. I kept remembering a comment made to mewhen Iraq was invaded: If they did not hate us before, they are suregoing to hate us now.The location shooting, combined with actual newsreel footage give thisfilm a superb look which make it a great viewing experience, regardlessof whether you feel that it is one-sided or unpatriotic. I hope thatthe film is shown on US TV on a widely seen channel, rather than anobscure channel which only preaches to the converted.

joey tribbiani 2012-05-20 10:57:58

Film making has finally taken one giant leap for mankind

I recently watched Brokeback Mountain and I see similarities in thetype of context being given across in both these films. Yet thedifference is the execution of Guantanemo far outweighs the emotionalstrategies of Brokeback.For me both films convey an expression over important social factorsthat affects everyone today and for which most have an opinion. Yetwhile Brokeback went to extremes by using Cowboys (who are supposedlythe ultimate macho straight image) to hijack social mentality,Guantenamo remained pure and loyal to the job at hand.The cinematography, plot, acting, direction is all pure but alsochronologically perfect to the story being told. So perfect that one isleft with a comprehensive view of events surrounding these individuals.Individuals who didn't have a stage for their perspective, in a worldwhere the stage is overtaken by the western media.It's difficult for a film of this quality to gain expression in favourof a universal view in this world. One simply has to attempt to watchthe film and maybe gain some appreciation for it. Brokeback had thebacking of a marketing department and the sentimentality of asubculture of people, in homosexuals, that have many wide rangingchannels to express themselves.In this case, the Muslim young men who were brought into thissituation, didn't have many until a bold film maker took up the hardtask.What is given is something the world needs. An alternative perspectiveto an already overamplified unitary view.Very Good in terms of film making, in terms of life imitating art, interms of what media is when no boundaries and control exist.

mohsindrabu 2012-05-10 19:00:14

Closer to home than you think

The film provides an excellent portrayal of the horrors that the US andthe UK have gone to in the pursuit of the War on Terror, and also adamning indictment of the workings of the minds that are behind this"War". I feel that the film may well deserve the acclaim it gets purelyon the basis of the bravery that it cast and direction have shown inmaking it- their freedoms and possibly their careers may be impingedupon as a result.This fact was well illustrated in the recent incident that I feelbrings the reality of Guantanamo and the War on Terror closer to home.It was documented that the cast, returning to Luton having picked upthe Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, were taken aside andquestioned by police. In a haunting piece of irony, the mini-detentionat Luton airport served as a mirror of Guantanamo. The actors wereracially insulted (a policewoman telling one actor-"I'll get my malecolleague to handle you- you Muslims don't like dealing with women doyou?"); physically provoked (a policeman wrestling one of the actor'sphones out of his hand to inspect his phone book); denied any legalrecourse (they were not allowed to call their lawyers); insulted (oneof the actors was called a "f****r" by a police officer); and generallytreated by the supposed arbiters of justice in such a way befitting ofpeople who know they are above the law and thus permit themselves to dowhat they like. Such occurrences are now commonplace in the life of theTipton Three. Will it be the same for the actors who had the courage toplay them?

rayclister 2012-05-09 19:52:10

David Hicks is still rotting in this hellhole!

As an Australian this docu-drama should bring home to all my fellowAustralians that have the social conscience to see it the graveinjustice that the continued incarceration of an Australian inGuantanamo Bay for about five years without any charge, namely DavidHicks, has been subjected to. Picked up in Afganistan in 2001 andhauled halfway across the world to Cuba this man is still being deniedthe basic human rights that western democracies are supposed to befighting for. His case has recently been taken up by AmnestyInternational with a call to either charge him in a civilian court orbring him home to Australia. Perhaps I am getting away from reviewingthis film but if what was portrayed in this film is anywhere nearaccurate then all of the'silent majority' of Australians standcondemned in my opinion that our government led by John Howardcontinues to insist that Hicks is being treated fairly. WhetherPakistani, Afgani, British or Austraian no-one should be treated insuch an appalling way by governments that like to consider themselvescivilized. This film has made me angrier than ever about thegovernments of the so called coalition of the willing and thesycophantic behaviour of the Australian PM John Howard and his croniesin relation to the Bush regime. Can we hope that the recent mid-termelection result in the U.S. will change this unacceptable behaviour?Thank you to the director and everyone associated with this grippingpiece of cinema and it surely deserves to reach a wide audience

2012-05-09 14:47:42

These guys were just so foolish!

How in the name of any god, and why would you as a Brit going to awedding suddenly: go to a war zone to see if you could help and how bigthe 'naans' are?? That's what I really did not get. Then the story linewas very weak in my point of view, every time you thought OK, not we'resomewhere, the plot or story just stopped and went somewhere else. Forexample: they are once questioned why they were in Afhganistan? ... youexpect them to answer that they were there for a wedding, but boom thecamera turns and takes another view without letting them answer on thatquestion. In the end they answered sometimes; but then it were answerslike: 'Bullshit' (litteraly) on the same sort of questioning. Why didthey not persevere in that they were unguilty? That made me almostangry... it is a bad thing what happens in Guantanamo, but at the sametime it seemed to me as: what happens if you let a American foolinterrogate a British fool? Anwering foolish, then you get foolishtreatment as well I guess!

waad 2012-05-08 22:36:08

A STRONG MOVIE

WE NEED TO ACT ON GITMO!!!! CLOSE IT !!!!great movie realy shows the pain and suffering of people in gitmo every one should watch it and it should be realesed in more theaters

2012-05-05 00:44:24

WHY DID THEY GO?

The Road To GuantanamoThe reasons for these intellectually challenged British Muslims leaving England and going directly to a war zone is left remarkably unclear. They wanted to "Help" or see large a Nan bread? That for me is the most important question. Why did they go? I mean it is not what you would call a normal holiday. That crucial question is left unanswered.Did these boys go to fight and then on seeing the realities of War try and escape?The resulting experiences these boys were made to suffer are inexcusable in a modern world. Torture is simply not legitimate. Just listening to the interviewees should have been enough for the Americans and British to realise these kids posed little threat to anyone except to themselves. How stupid they were not to shout to the rafters that they are British subjects. If they had come clean with British Military Intelligence things could have been very different. I would like to see the evidence of the torture of these kids by the British Military. (Since writing this originally, I have found out the British Military did indeed use torture.)If they had been given the chance, these boys would most certainly have come home to Britain at their first opportunity and probably never left again. This is an example of simple reality completely destroying indoctrinated and imagined beliefs.The re-enactments are pretty poor. The objectivity is also very one-sided. The script is monosyllabic and enjoys the liberal usage of the word F**k.

carybrief 2012-05-04 18:07:01

eye opening excellent film don't miss

The Road To Guantanamo Karma. Karma is the first word that comes tomind when I was sitting watching this film. What kind of Karma isAmerica creating by treating fellow human beings this way? America, whoholds herself on such a high moral hilltop, is really wallowing in theswamp below.I believe a movie like this is meant to invoke emotion, to educate andto force us to look in the mirror. The Road To Guantanamo did all thosethings extremely well, and much, much more. This film put a human faceon the so-called worst of the worst. People we are treating likelivestock. I am not trying to say that the US government does not haveany true terrorists in custody, but from following this issue for yearsnow, enough has come to light to prove that many of the detainees werejust in the wrong place at the wrong time. Treatment like this willsurely make terrorists out of ordinary men.The images shown in this film have made me question many things, so Ithink it has done its job, and done it well. Tastefully shot, thedirector did not gore up or intensify the torture with music. He didnot have to. The actions against these detainees were shameful actsthat needed no embellishments to shock you.There are some questions that are not entirely clear, such as who theboys were going to help when they went to Afghanistan. But it reallydoes not matter in the larger picture. So many senseless deaths, somuch pain inflicted by man to his brother, the question that keptrepeating in my head was "What is wrong with mankind? Have we reallyleft the cave, or did we just trade the skins for suits and the clubfor an m16" Take your family, take your friends, tell your coworkers,even your enemies – it is crucial for our democracy to know what ourgovernment is doing with out tax dollars, in our name. This movie doesa stellar job of just that.

2012-05-01 18:55:52

The Abrogation of Human Rights and Due Process.

"The Road to Guantanamo" tells the story of "The Tipton Three", three young British men who were held in U.S. custody for 2 years, first in Afghanistan and later in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, accused of being supporters of Al Qaeda. Asif Iqbal, Ruhel Ahmed, and Shafiq Rasul had traveled to Pakistan for Asif's wedding. On a lark, the group foolishly took a trip to Afghanistan at the worst possible time: October 2001, when the United States invaded Afghanistan following the attacks of September 11. Caught in the bloody melee of bombings and Taliban resistance, the men ended up among Taliban fighters as they tried to return to Pakistan. The threesome were arrested by the Northern Alliance, which turned them over to the U.S. military. Initially relieved to be in U.S. custody, they soon found that the Americans were determined to find them guilty of being jihadists. And if evidence was lacking, their captors were willing to coerce confessions.The story is told through interviews with Asif, Ruhel, and Shafiq and through re-enactments of their experiences, where the men are played by actors. Michael Winterbottom directed this film, which initially struck me as not being as polished as his fiction films. But, upon reflection, the recreations of the bloodshed in Afghanistan and life for the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are fairly meticulous and expert. Winterbottom undoubtedly did not want to give the impression of polish or contrivance, but of immediacy and realism in depicting the ordeal these three men suffered. The men were imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay from January 2002 to March 2004, first at "Camp X-Ray" and then at "Camp Delta". I'm inclined to believe their accounts of their experiences there, as the descriptions are similar to those related by other former Guantanamo and "black site" detainees.The men were tortured, deprived of sleep, and, for months, not allowed to stand or walk more than 5 minutes per week. This is not news, though this film offers more detail of the treatment of detainees than I've read in print. The strategies and apparent motivations of the American interrogators might be more damning. Military officers charged with finding "bad people" and eliciting information are under a lot of pressure to produce results. So they pass even unlikely culprits up the chain of command, until the prisoners get to Guantanamo Bay, by which time it should be painfully obvious that they don't possess useful information. Asking the same question for 2 years is unlikely to produce a different answer. In a pitiful effort to find "The Tipton Three" guilty of something, the U.S. claimed to have photographs placing them at an Al Qaeda rally in Afghanistan in 2000, a time for which the men had easily verifiable alibis. But that didn't stop their captors from torturing a confession out of them.We can only be grateful that Asif, Ruhel, and Shafiq did not sustain long-term injury from the abominable treatment they endured. Egyptian President Nasser's imprisonment and torture of Muslim Brotherhood partisans in the 1960s, whether or not they had committed any crime, galvanized their contempt of secular government and the West. These Westernized Pakistani Brits from Tipton have become more observant Muslims as a result of their ordeal. I don't suppose that they or the other 750 men who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay are feeling a lot of love for the United States right now. There are no bonus features on the DVD (Sony 2006). Subtitles available in English.

usentinel 2012-04-30 22:58:34

I am outraged!!

I've watched the movie and was amazed how screwed up the AmericanGovernment is. I've seen testimony from many other's who recently havebeen released without charges. IMO they have been illegally held andtreated worse than an animal The dogs in the film had better care thanthe detained.Regardless of what people may think, if even a fraction of this is true(and after Abu Ghraib I find it difficult to believe it's not), theguilty should NOT be allowed to escape without punishment. As it waswith the Nuremberg War Crime Trials, saying they were just doing theirjob is insufficient to vindicate such obscene treatment.As an American you can be sure I will be watching our keepers andteaching my children to do the same. There are still more of us decentpeople than those who are mentally crippled and leading our nation. Aswith other past cultures (Roman, Greek, Egyptian, etc..) the weak heartof this nation cannot sustain itself with such obscenities practicedupon the people of this planet.

UZ 2012-04-30 04:50:02

you have to watch this, what have we become

this is by far the most chilling movie i have seen, not to mention its all real, just put your self in the shoes of these people what they went through its no wonder people want to blow us up everywhere becuase we fuel them and that is the truth. We need to stop this maddness and get our facts straight.we have come to save level as the terrorist ..

Zdislav_Dorklehoven 2012-04-29 13:43:24

We can feel good, because we courageously resisted Guantanamo

We Germans have not-too-distant ancestors who indiscriminately murderedmany millions of Jews, Gypsies, Russians, Serbs, Dutch, English andothers. Virtually the whole nation enthusiastically supported thisworst atrocity in the history of mankind, while supposedly wearinghigh-quality blinders, so that after the war everybody could truthfullyclaim not to remember a thing.We are forever being reproached that no one even protested, let alonebothered to do anything about these horrors. This is not quite true.After our inescapable loss of the war became a virtual certainty, someofficers did try to assassinate Hitler, but they botched the attempt. Afew students also spread some leaflets. This low-budget movie glorifiesthese students in an attempt to reassure us that our nation did behaveheroically. We are treated to lengthy and boring tirades ofhistorically not quite accurate political correctness, while the Naziprosecutor and judge are granted unlimited license to create a newAuschitz named Guantanamo.Upon naively leaving the movie-house, you may proudly and fairlyconclude that we have been given a bum rap by history. Not to worry.You can always join the chorus of our citizens who demand that thequeen of England apologize for her country's "war crime" of bombingDresden, an artistic gem of a city, for no better reason than that webombed an English backwater called London. Even better, you can votefor one of our so-called "neo-Guantanamo" parties now represented insome of our state legislatures and nurturing ambitions for taking overour federal government some day in the future. For some reason, at itsclimax the present film heavily downplays the gruesomeness and squalorof execution by guillotine in Nazi America.

jcajka 2012-04-24 06:47:00

A sad part of our military history

Although some have not heard of the Tipton Three, they are real. Infact, one of them, Shafiq Rasul should be familiar to all who werereally in Guantanamo. He is the one who sued George Bush and won inRasul vs Bush the right of the captives at Guantanamo to challengetheir captivity in US courts.The movie itself has very good production values. At times, thereenactment gives the impression we are seeing a collection of clipsfilmed in real time and on site. Oh and by the way, of the 775 prisoners taken to Gitmo, 420 werereleased without charge.

Chris Knipp 2012-04-23 22:12:25

Gonzo Gitmo tale from Michael Winterbottom

The prison complex at Guantánamo, Cuba has been used to hold mencaptured in Afghanistan or Pakistan post 9/11 and believed to beTaliban or Al Qaeda. Perhaps 750 prisoners have gone through theprison, perhaps 300-odd have been released. "Enemy combatant" was thecategory created to justify rounding up prisoners and holding them foryears without following the Geneva Convention, bringing charges, orproviding legal representation or trials.Prisoner's-eye views of Guantánamo have come to us from detaineesreleased back to England. Several years ago the Tricycle Theater ofLondon produced "Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom," which wasalso produced in New York and Chicago. In this dramatization,transcripts and interviews recounted the "Gitmo" experiences of Jamalal-Harith, Bisher al-Rawi, Moazzam Begg and Ruhel Ahmed and much timewas devoted to their spoken narratives. In the background on stagecould be seen the cages and orange-clad men of the prison, largely astableaux. There was also an emphasis on British capitulation to USpolicies that violated British law. Voices of politicians (Jack Straw,Donald Rumsfeld), lawyers for the prisoners, and the chief legalofficer of England, Lord Justice Styne, in a stunning rebuke, are alsoheard. But mainly, from transcripts of interviews and letters, what youget is a picture of the four prisoners and their families, theabsurdity of the circumstances of their seizure, and their variousindividual responses from irony to despair and near-madness.Now, a couple years later, again from British sources, there is "TheRoad to Guantanamo," a vivid pseudo-documentary based on theexperiences of the "Tipton Three," Ruhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and ShafiqRasul, twenty-year-olds of Pakistani and Bengali background from apredominantly poor area in the West Midlands; they originally werefour, boyhood pals who went to Pakistan together because one of themwas exploring the possibility of an arranged marriage with a girl thereset up by his family. To hear them tell it, the whole trip was a kindof lark, but also an opportunity to explore roots and reconnect withrelatives.They're a bit rough, these boys, though perhaps not atypical for a partof England said to "have no middle class." They'd been in some troublewith the law and this is what ultimately gained them their release,because they had to check in at home for community service during thetime they were supposed to be in Afghanistan with Al Qaeda, and so theyhad proof of their innocence from the Tipton cops. They're all four Muslims and when they arrive in Pakistan they stay ata mosque, because it's cheaper than a hotel. The US is about to startbombing Afghanistan and a firebrand imam inspires the boys to go toAfghanistan to help the Afghans. They don't seem to grasp that they'reheading directly into grave danger.This is the part viewers and reviewers tend to question. Were the boysbeing stupid or is their description disingenuous? We don't know andunlike the Tricycle stage play Honor Bound, the film doesn't cleaveclosely to actual testimony. Where it excels beyond anything you'veever seen is as a Rough Guide to bumbling into a war zone. It'sbelievable that wild boys on an adventure would want to explore thenext country. They think they may be able to deal with the language andthey've heard the naan bread loaves are huge. So they plunge in. And itall goes terribly wrong.Michael Winterbottom and co-director Mat Whitecross have shot thisstory on location with intense vividness. The scenes of Pakistan,Afghanistan, and the ultimate chaos and bombing and the trap the guysfall into, one of their number disappearing and never heard from again,followed by the van ride that was to take them out of the country butjust leads them into the hands of the Northern alliance and a roundupof Taliban, a deadly ride in a metal container, and ultimately shipmentto the barbed wire fences and brutalities of Guantánamo is inter-cutwith head shots of the men narrating and commenting today played bynon-actors chosen to be so close to the originals that you wouldn'tknow the difference.Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 is madness, chaos, and war. Guantánamo isboneheaded stupidity, brutal racism, religious persecution, andpsychological torture. "The Road to Guantanamo" gives us a strong tasteof all those elements. This is in-your-face film-making of a peculiarlyintense kind.Although the play is more thoughtful and provides more perspective,Winterbottom's intense, gutsy agitprop is far more powerful. Its secondhalf really just brings to life and adds detail to what we alreadyknow: the head masks, the chains, the suits, the outdoor cages, and therest; the interrogators who hammer over and over to the boys "You're AlQaeda!" They start at Camp X-Ray, for the worst treatment, and laterare moved to Camp Delta. Finally the Tipton boys are called "The ThreeKings" and given special treatment when, somewhat inexplicably, they'vebeen cleared.At this point much of the world protests this treatment of untried andun-accused prisoners that has now persisted for five years. With hungerstrikes and attempted suicides and in the recent wake of threesuccessful coordinated suicides of prisoners, some of America's closestallies are calling for "Gitmo" to be shut down, and even Bush has saidhe wants to. Winterbottom's pseudo-documentary, skillfully interspersedwith actual documentary footage, is based on information provided bythe three surviving Tipton Three. No one to my knowledge has beenreleased back to the US or if anyone has, he hasn't spoken up.While the Tricycle/Culture Project play appealed to the mind, the moviegoes for the gut, and it does so very effectively. We need both. Theplay seems a little namby-pamby now. The movie seems careless.Together, though, they give you some kind of truth.

john 2012-04-16 23:36:58

Sobering view of our world

I am so glad to have seen this.... I heard of all of this gitmo stuff several years ago and poo pooed it. I am disturbed by the ignorence I saw. Its as though we are acting violantly in total ignorance and the taliban acted violently with a purpose. I mean was the harsh treatment I saw and know happened there government guideline stuff or just from guards that were fearful and cruel. The interviews with these 3 guys sure didnt make it look as though they were bad guys. Maybe stupid to be in the wrong place at the wrong time but not evil...... We really need to have our leaders see stuff like this

kerchnal 2012-04-16 10:20:48

The trials of the tipton three.

I think without a doubt this film is brutally honest. I was fortunateenough to have an intimate Q & A with the actual tipton three, and iwas amazed at how sedate they were. They naivety which resin atesthrough the film is still there, and i think this acts as a evidence tothe uninformed youth of today. The prejudice is disgusting, and theirtreatment whilst being held at Guantanamo Bay is so shocking. I askedwhat it felt like to go back and relive these experiences again andthey were speechless. They also said that the British government wasaware of their imprisonment. What could we turn are backs on thistreatment of HUMAN BEINGS? Now there's speculation that the film willnot be released in America as its anti patriotic! What a load of crap!The America troops and the British government, by their involvement inthe wars in Iraq should be ashamed. They were only teenagers for godssakes! The same age as me, except because of my ethnicity, and religioni will luckily never be targeted with that sort of interrogation anddamnation.

2012-04-14 00:47:40

WHY DID THEY GO?

The Road To GuantanamoThe reasons for these intellectually challenged British Muslims leaving England and going directly to a war zone is left remarkably unclear. They wanted to "Help" or see large a Nan bread? That for me is the most important question. Why did they go? I mean it is not what you would call a normal holiday. That crucial question is left unanswered.Did these boys go to fight and then on seeing the realities of War try and escape?The resulting experiences these boys were made to suffer are inexcusable in a modern world. Just listening to the interviewees should have been enough for the Americans and British to realise these kids posed little threat to anyone except to themselves. How stupid they were not to shout to the rafters that they are British subjects. If they had come clean with British Military Intelligence things could have been very different. I would like to see the evidence of the torture of these kids by the British Military. If they had been given the chance, these boys would most certainly have come home to Britain at their first opportunity and probably never left again. This is an example of simple reality completely destroying indoctrinated and imagined beliefs.The re-enactments are pretty poor. The objectivity is also very one-sided. The script is monosyllabic and enjoys the liberal usage of the word F**k.

HAndsome 2012-04-13 14:38:28

What is happenieng in the world

What a remarkable movie.i commend the wonderful job that the director has done for brinign this heart rentching story of innocent youth being victimized by army at Guantanamo bay.Justice should prevail and punishment should be reserved for guitly only after conviction.For God's sake respect the God's rules,coz He is gonn account on the day of Judgement.MAy we all be guided to the right path and may we love and respect each other.