Traitor (2008)

I watched this back when it came out on DVD and only vaguely remembered it until watching it again now on Tubi.It reminds me of Sleeper Cell and Homeland which are two awesome shows.It twists and turns and has great acting.Well worth the time.

A long, dense movie about the infiltration of a group of international terrorists, all of whom have interpreted the Qoran in its most terrible aspect, like Christians who have taken literally "an eye for an eye." It's dense in more ways than one because it operates on two levels. One is the action we see on screen; the other is the battle of faiths and allegiances that move the action along. Don Cheadle is the chief infiltrator working under deep cover for an unnamed agency, perhaps the CIA. Nobody but one man, Jeff Daniels, who is accidentally killed, so Cheadle is now a totally unknown agent who belongs to the gang. In a weak performance, Cheadle begins the story as a committed Muslim who sells explosives to terrorists in Yemen. My brain must be atrophied because I missed Cheadle's recruitment by Daniels. As further evidence of atrophy I direct your attention to another aspect of the plot. The terrorists are going to blow up 51 buses simultaneously. So why do the FBI fly to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and begin searching ships leaving port for American cities? Note the bloated character of the central ventricles. That one there looks like Lake Baikal.Let me make it short. The editor must have been stoned because way too much was left out. The same discontinuity applies to the ideologies involved. Cheadle is a devout Muslim. He takes his faith seriously and owe his primary loyalty to God. But he begins life as a character who willingly sells explosives to blow people up. Half-way through he appears to have an epiphany and weeps at the thought of innocent people dying. The loyalty between Cheadle and his terrorist friend, Saïd Taghmaoui, is probably the most touching in the film. When Taghmaoui discovers that Cheadle has foiled the plot, his anguish seems real. Not that any of this applies to the gang. Make no mistake, they're the Nazis of the movie -- they do what villains always do in propaganda movies; they unhesitatingly kill one of their own when he turns out to be a weakling.On the other side is the FBI, doing their best to track down and kill Cheadle, led by Guy Pearce and Neal McDonough, the uber-Aryan. Except for the fact that Pearce's Daddy and Grandad were both Baptist preachers, both men are ciphers, doing what the good guys always do. There is no conflict or comparison made between the values of Islam and those of Christianity.In sum, there is some genuinely promising material here, and not badly handled by the director. But Cheadle, who was exemplary in "Traffic", seems a lightweight here, and it's a pivotal role. The writer and editor should be put on bread and water for two months or until they each lose thirty pounds, whichever comes first.

A "War On Terror" Movie is Never going to be Universally Accepted, at least Until there is No More "War On Terror". Even the Proclamation and the Definition are Ambiguous, Fleeting, with Dissent Everywhere.While the Film tells the Story of an Individual "Bomb Maker" and all around Genius (Guy Cheadle), and Succeeds for the most part to be Up Close and Very Personal concerning the Motivation, Religious Philosophy, Devotion and Dedication to the "Cause" and all of that Feels Real enough, the Enormous Political State of the World Intrudes.It Suffocates the Narrative trying to be an End All. There are Flashes of "Holy Book" Readings and Devotees of All Stripes manipulating Justifications for all kinds of Bad Behavior. Americans are Not Given a Pass and Neither are the Muslim Extremists.It's a Snake Eating its Tail. Circular Logic and the Nullification comes from a Reality that has been with Us since the Beginning. There are No Winners, Only Losers. Noble, but Frustratingly too Real a Contemporary Global Problem, and after it's all over there is a Residue of Doom that Resides in the Viewer.Overall, the Movie is want to Explore these Dilemmas, Paradoxes, and Conundrums in a Two Hour Action Drama. Seems a Futile Experiment in Entertainment and Enlightenment since it has Yet to Be Done in Two Millenniums.

This movie had the most hysterically funny ending I have seen, ever, in a movie. Deadly serious up to the end, what happens is a benchmark for, and a lesson on how to create something that defines the attributes of cleverness. And that cleverness is found within this film by the to-the-guts hysteria delivered in the end. The title, "Traitor," refers to the Don Cheadle character who is an American Muslim. He is also part of a network of Middle Eastern Muslim terrorists.He becomes the key figure in a plot to make simultaneous attacks within U.S. soil, to be carried out by people recruited years earlier. These people are "sleepers," who appear to be average American citizens.Much of the story shown takes place inside jails and detention facilities where we meet people who are terrorists, as we like to think of them. I think there is some even-handedness shown by the directors approach to when we see depictions of groups of Muslim prisoners on the screen. They aren't all terrorists, actually, and it is true that the vast majority of them, both inside and outside the prisons, are not. But like everywhere, bad apples always spoil their bunches, and I believe I gained a perspective I might not have now, had I not seen this movie.