The War Within (2005)

Pretty Good

Instant Favorite.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This story -- about a man radicalized into joining something like a cross between Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, committing to carrying out a suicide bombing, and living with a peaceful, modern Muslim family as he prepares to carry out the deed -- would have been tempting to play as a story of redemption (in fact other film treating similar subject matter, like "The Terrorist" have gone that route).I like that it doesn't take the easy way out. There's quite a lot to like about this film just generally, as a matter of fact. In the midst of the fog of facile nonsense that surrounds the War on Terror, it's a rare film that actually has the courage to treat the motivations for terrorism seriously alongside both its manifest evils, and the evils of those whose misdeeds radicalize the terrorists in the first place. Hassan, once an affable modern Muslim youth like his friends, comes back as a shadow (or an image in negative) of his former self after being kidnapped in France and sent off to a "black facility" to be tortured. The torture is shown sparingly, but vividly, never letting us forget what brought this man to this point.Yet it doesn't let terrorism off the hook either. It's telling that Hassan and his Brotherhood contacts have no really coherent strategic idea of what their planned attack is supposed to accomplish. For Hassan it's religious duty and martyrdom, a personal act of revenge and catharsis -- but he never seems to confront the disconnect between his act and any actual solution to the injustices he rages about. For him and his comrades the redemption of the act seems to be in its scale and bravura; confronted with the prospect of having to merely "blow themselves up on a bus like Palestinians," a scenario no less meaningless and self-defeating than their own plan but more obviously pathetic, they begin to come to pieces.Hassan is also distinctly and convincingly uncomfortable when faced with the modern, tolerant Islam of his friend Sayeed and his family, as if he fears being sapped of his purpose. But again the film avoids easy answers: Sayeed for his part senses something dark going on beneath his friend's newfound piety, but when he finally confirms his suspicions and calls the police, he -- realistically -- isn't rewarded by an encounter with storybook good guys. Instead he vanishes into the same black bag system that took Hassan, the cycle beginning all over again.Overall, a must-see film for anyone who wants to understand the nature of the "War on Terror."

After seeing "Paradise Now", I was interested to see another depiction of the life and motivation of a suicide bomber. "The War Within" was certainly a great dramatization of such a person. Hassan is "renditioned" and tortured, providing him with a target for his hate. He is fueled by religious fanaticism that surprises his friends and fellow Muslims. Firdous Bamji plays, in my opinion, the best role in the film, that of Sayeed. He is surprised at how his best friend could become such a "pious" and fanatic character, and tries and fails to convince Hassan that America has done some good for him and that he has integrated well into the West.The love story could have been expanded, but only for the purpose of showing how Hassan has repressed every emotion except hate. I also thought Sayeed's fate did not ring true, as it seems to me the screenwriters decided to have what happens to him happen only to further their point that the cycle of detention and terror will continue. I do not believe that, in reality, what happened to Sayeed would happen.Overall, an interesting dramatization of what motivates a suicide bomber, and also of Muslim-American life.

I hope many Americans will see this movie and understand at least a part of the reasons why others in the world hate them. They don't hate an individual Ameriacan going about his/her business in lets say, Kokomo, Indiana because they are American, or because of their way of life.They do it because these decent citizens "let" their government destroy private lives of many families around the world in the name of Kokomans and the other 300 million Americans.So, dear friends, be above these suicide bombers and don't take it personally, but let your local elected representative know that you give a damn.

If, like me, you've been waiting for the first serious narrative film portrayal of contemporary Islamic terrorism, here it is. I had searched in vain for such a feature shortly before release of "War Within." The closest thing I found was "The Terrorist," a well crafted 1999 film set in Sri Lanka, about a young Tamil woman who is trained to become a suicide bomber.But the insurrection of the Tamil rebels against the government has always been about political control, not conflicting world views or religion as such. The terrorist is not motivated by the promise of reward in the afterlife for her deed, but by the vision of a better sociopolitical future for her people. There's nothing in that movie that bears on extremist Muslim jihad.Now we've got such a film, and it's pretty good. Co-written by three buddies, alums of the Columbia University Graduate Film Program, it is directed by one of them (Joseph Castelo) and stars another (Ayad Akhtar, born and raised in Milwaukee) as Hassan, a peaceable Pakistani engineer turned suicide bomber.The screenplay is vague on contextual details. Hassan has been living and studying in Paris for some time. As the film opens he's out strolling, gabbing on his cell phone about what film he wants to see that evening, when he is forcibly seized, thrust into a car and injected in the neck with a drug, an explosive sequence that definitely hooks you.Remanded to a prison in Pakistan, he is held there for more than two years and regularly tortured by authorities that assume he is mixed up with a domestic terrorist organization, a group Hassan's brother had apparently been affiliated with, a brother who, unbeknownst to Hassan, had been killed earlier because of this presumed connection. From here on the plot unfolds more clearly.Hassan, previously apolitical, is radicalized by this experience and, upon release from prison, he affiliates with an extremist group that eventually smuggles him into New York City, where he joins others who will use his engineering skills to make bombs for imminently planned suicide missions at major public sites like Grand Central Station.When the FBI busts up the cell, Hassan must find cover and moves into the home of an old school chum, Sayeed (Firdous Bamji), a physician who has immigrated with his family to New Jersey. Sayeed is comfortably settled, a middle-of-the-road Muslim, definitely pro-American. Hassan does not discuss his imprisonment or his mission with Sayeed, though wide differences in the two men's religio-political views gradually become clear.Hassan, his resolve fueled by horrid nocturnal flashbacks from his captivity, now secretly assembles bomb packs in Sayeed's basement for himself and another cell member who has stayed at large. Finally discovered, he bolts, bombs and all, heading for Grand Central Station. Sayeed calls the police, who of course take Sayeed himself into custody. Duri, Sayeed's sister, who has a major crush on Hassan, also tries to stop him, but to no avail. The fact that Hassan successfully detonates his payload in the middle of Manhattan is chilling, to say the least.The main characters (Hassan and Sayeed) are written thoughtfully and are well acted: they aren't just devices to expound differing perspectives. Hassan is reserved, self contained, understandably guarded. He is tender toward Sayeed's young son, Ali, but does not spare him lessons about the threats to Muslims throughout the world that Hassan perceives, lessons imparted in whispers at night in the bedroom they share. At times we see anger and tension burning in Hassan's eyes, but more often he appears to be serenely sure of himself, and this too is chilling.Sayeed, in contrast, has been thoroughly Westernized. He's warm, gregarious, trusting. And when, near the end, he picks up the phone to dial the police, to report Hassan's terrorist intentions, secure in the belief that here in the U.S. his trust will be requited, you want to shout out to him, No! Don't do it! They will take you! See you as complicit in the bombing plot! You and your family may be ruined! It is a deeply ironic moment, presented, as is everything in the film, without pompous sermonizing.This movie demonizes the Pakistanis who kidnap and torture Hassan. Perhaps this is justified, but it is regrettable that the film stoops to the same tactic of anonymous stereotyping that has characterized portrayals of terrorists themselves in nearly all the unsatisfactory Hollywood movies on this theme (mostly third rate action flicks in which a Bruce Willis, Sly Stallone or Ahnold the Governator kills off the faceless terrorist horde).The story in "War Within" hangs together plausibly until near the end, when events become kaleidoscopically frantic, too much so to be entirely believable. The other significant flaw in this film is that, apart from its two central characters, the other roles are merely one dimensional props.A major strength of "War Within" is its intelligently entwined story of conflict on three levels, sounded in the triple entendre of its title. Surely there is a war afoot within the world, between the jihadists and others, especially the U.S., Western Europe and Australia. And there is a struggle within the Islamist world itself, between religious moderates and militant fundamentalists, personified here by Sayeed and Hassan.There are also hints of a struggle going on within Hassan himself, a pull between his former comfortable, peaceful way of life, a life Sayeed and Duri would be only too glad to help him restart in America, and the terrorist cause to which he has more recently dedicated himself.This film no doubt foreshadows others on terrorism yet to come that may be better, but "War Within" is a noteworthy beginning. (In Urdu & English) My rating: 7.5/10 (low B+). (Seen on 10/23/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.