Blu-Ray movie review of Traitor
December 28, 2008
I don't think Don Cheadle has made a bad movie. There were mediocre movies with Don Cheadle in it but never through the fault of Don Cheadle. Don Cheadle has established himself as one of the finest actors in Hollywood. With movies like Hotel Rwanda, Crash and Traffic to his credit, he is always a threat for best actor award for Oscar. Even a secondary role in Ocean's series has provided us with great acting.
He delivers another solid effort in Traitor, an action thriller movie.
Don Cheadle plays Samir Horn, a terrorist or counter intelligence operative. I think it's safe to say that we can correctly guess at which one Cheadle turns out to be. At the start of the movie, Samir is arrested while trying to sell Semtex explosive to a group of terrorist. He eventually wins over the one of the terrorist and works his way into the inner circle of the terrorist. There, he works as bomb expert devising suicide bombs. Eventually, he blows up an American Embassy in Nice. Up to this point, the viewers are left to guess at the true identity ofSamir Horn. Is he with the terrorist or with the United States. Most intelligent and unintelligent viewers would have come to conclusion early in the movie. The movie unfold from there in cat and mouse fashion with FBI trying to track downSamir Horn.
Acting throughout the movie is simply superb. Don Cheadle delivers a very convincing role as the supposed traitor. Guy Pearce and Neal McDonough are convincing FBI agents trying to catch Samir. And, Jeff Daniels as the Samir's handler delivers another strong performance. Jeff Daniels is one of the most under appreciated actors in Hollywood in my opinion. He can easily make you believe in any role he chooses to play.
The movie does deliver solid entertainment. One complain I have is that this movie tries to be everything at once just like The Kingdom by Peter Berg, which was fairly good movie on its own. Is it a moral drama or straight up thriller? I give credit to the movie makers for trying to tackle the complex Middle East issues in their movies. However, it's never black and white and the movie does what it can with the tough subject. As a thriller, the movie is very enjoyable. They could have taken the setting and shifted it to the mafia setting and it would have worked as well. Ultimately, it's very enjoyable film because of the great actors.
What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.
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Ambiguous. How far can one go?
Taken as a thriller about terror and the intelligence work that fights it, I would not have hesitated to give the film 5 stars. It works very well within its own definitions. Cheadle is his usual brillant self as a Sudanese American Muslim army sergeant recruited by the CIA to go for a terror network leader by way of finding his way into the organization. He does it well and gets near the target, when he becomes a target himself for the FBI who have identified him as a top terrorist.
Cheadle’s Shamir is a serious man. He is a devout Muslim. Working for the US against other Muslims is hard for him. Carrying out the terror network’s assignments in order to rise in the ranks is also hard for him. He has doubts about right and wrong. In the end he confirms his taking the side where he started his adventure and becomes a ‘hero’, which leaves him with a bitter taste.
I find the movie far superior to the recent ‘Body of Lies’ (Crowe and Di Caprio) about a similar subject, because it is far more authentic and consistent. It is a good thriller, but in the end one can not forget that there are questions of credibility here that are not explicitly discussed by the film. How does the hero start his career in the US forces against his religious friends? With all his thoughtfulness about right and wrong one would have liked to understand what makes him tick. He is constantly quoting the Koran, and one wonders how he justifies his position. He never says, at least not convincingly. The Koran says that killing innocents is wrong? Maybe somewhere in an isolated spot, but more convincingly it supports the terror leader’s position. Statistically the outrages far outnumber the nice places.
Taken as a whole, the movie advocates a soft approach to the conflict of scripture interpretation. That is maybe reasonable, but not intellectually pleasing.
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Entertaining, but too flawed to really be effective
Part spy thriller and part serious look at the roots of terrorism, Traitor is a compelling, if flawed movie. It’s a complex tale starring Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) as Samir Horn, a former US Special Forces operative turned (maybe) jihadi. Guy Pearce (LA Confidential) plays the FBI agent trying to track down Horn and head off a major terrorist attack planned by the group Horn is now a part of. It’s a fairly typical, post-9/11, post-Bourne Identity, globetrotting spy movie with all of the plot twists, double agents, and suspense you’d expect from the genre. It’s also a bit heavy-handed in terms of political correctness, going out of the way to remind us that despite the actions of nearly every single Muslim character in the film, real Muslims are not terrorists, etc.
Don Cheadle, one of the most underrated leading men in Hollywood, gives another first rate performance as Traitor’s troubled protagonist. It’s a credit to his acting skills that he makes even a terrorist (or is he?) arouse a degree of sympathy. He seems genuinely guilt-ridden, frustrated, and in over his head. My only complaint is that he seems too American at times, as if the hustling thief from Out of Sight is just under the surface. Pearce, who gave such a memorable performance in LA Confidential, is less impressive, which is due either to the lousy script he was given or the lousy Southern accent he affected for the role.
Despite Cheadle’s performance, Traitor never quite makes the jump from “rent it” status to truly memorable movie. Compared to the Bourne movies – an unavoidable comparison – Traitor falls well short of the mark. I appreciate what they were trying to do, but the movie was either too slow or way too fast, and even the ending, which seemed extremely clever at first, is pretty absurd once you have time to really think about it. Traitor is a solid C+ movie that will entertain you for a couple of hours, but doesn’t have much to offer beyond that.
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Struggling With The Gray Areas
Don Cheadle stars as former U.S. Special Ops Officer Samir Horn and Guy Pearce plays the FBI agent hot on his trail in “Traitor.” The film opens with Horn as a child in Sudan learning his Muslim faith from his father. Then we see Horn witness his father’s death via a car bomb.
Hurtle forward into modern times and we find Samir trying to cut a deal with Muslim terrorists. He is captured in a raid in Yemen and soon finds himself offered assistance by the FBI in return for crucial information on terrorist cells all over the world. When he refuses to help, he is left to rot in a Yemeni prison where he forms a close bond with a fellow Muslim named Omar (Said Taghmaoui).
The pair, along with a number of Omar’s cohorts, escape the prison and meet up with the Islamic Brotherhood. From there, the film goes across the globe, allowing the viewer to witness a number of terrorists acts that are headed up by Samir’s knowledge of weapons and of the Qu’ran.
Meanwhile, FBI Agent Clayton (Pearce) and his team are trying to find out who is pulling off all of the terrorists bombings. Soon enough Clayton pegs Samir as a prime suspect and the chase is one.
The viewer is forced to question the motives of Samir from the very beginning. Is he truly a terrorist? Perhaps he is just a loyal fanatical Muslim who believes that glory awaits those who strike down the infidel? Maybe he’s doing this all to bring down the real bad guys? You’ll have to watch the film to find out, since saying too much more will spoil the film.
Cheadle does an excellent job as the mysterious Samir Horn. Guy Pearce is wonderful as the minister’s son-turned-lawman, Clayton. Said Taghmaoui is brilliant as the highly intelligent and near-fanatical Muslim believer, Omar. The supporting cast, which features Jeff Daniels, the always reliable and completely underrated Neal McDonough, Alyy Khan, Archie Panjabi and Hassam Ghancy, give solid performances as well.
What I personally found enjoyable about this film is that Islam is dicussed by fanatics, loyalists and outsiders who both fear and respect the faith. Samir’s interactions with Omar and Clayton on Islam are brilliant, and show the viewer that there’s a whole lot more to Islam than blowing up the infidel and declaring Jihad on everyone.
While the film does run a bit slow at times it is, overall, a tight suspense drama with just enough action to keep it interesting. It is an intelligent film and I highly recommend it to people interested in the subjects of espionage, terrorism and religion. Highly recommended.
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War on terror made easy
Samir Horn (Don Cheadle) is an African-American Muslim who was born in
Sudan and witnessed the death of his father in a car bombing when he was
nine. He’s raised by his mother in Chicago and spends some time in the
Army in Special Ops. Eventually he sees action in both Afghanistan
(with the Mujahideen) and fellow Muslims in Bosnia. Samir shows up in
Yemen posing as an arms dealer and trying to infiltrate a terrorist
network for a rogue CIA operative. Through the recommendation of a
mutual acquaintance, Samir hooks up with a terrorist named Omar but
before you know it they both wind up in prison after being captured by
Yemeni government soldiers working in conjunction with the FBI.
After Samir and Omar escape from the prison aided by terrorist
sympathizers, they escape to France where Omar introduces Samir to
Fareed Mansour, Omar’s boss in the terrorist network. Fareed is no
Mohammed Atta (fanatic ringleader of the 9/11 terrorists) but rather an
urbane yuppie-type who thinks nothing of drinking alcohol in front of
Omar and Samir (supposed devout Muslims). Fareed justifies drinking of
alcohol (a sin in the Muslim religion) by stating that it’s necessary
to blend in to achieve victory as the ends always justify the means.
Somehow Aly Khan, an actor of Indian Muslim ancestry, seemed more like
a stock Hollywood villain than a representation of an actual terrorist.
Even less convincing is Samir’s ideological disagreement with Fareed
while they’re having dinner at an outdoor café. Samir makes it quite
clear that he feels that Fareed has misinterpreted the Koran to justify
violence. It’s obvious that the film’s screenwriters are trying to make
the point that Samir represents the MAJORITY of Muslims–that is, they
are peaceful people who reject the methods of terrorists. Nonetheless,
would Samir have risked blowing his cover by getting into an argument
with the very man who he must prove his allegiance to? Omar ends up
making excuses for Samir so he gets by–but the screenwriters cannot
help but continually remind us (in the character of Samir) that the
majority of Muslims reject violence (whether you agree or not with that
idea, it just feels the point is made ad infinitum throughout the film
perhaps in order to ‘soften the blow’ or ‘balance things out’ since the
films’ antagonists are indeed Islamic terrorists!).
Samir is depicted as a man who totally abhors the killing of innocents.
However (and here is the big problem with the movie), he is willing to
hook up with a lone rogue CIA operative (an intelligence contractor as
he is referred to in the movie), a person who he knows virtually
nothing about, and plants a bomb in the US consulate in Nice at the
behest of this shadowy figure, which accidentally kills eight innocent
people. It just seems that there are too many action-thrillers today
that trot out the tired storyline of inter-agency government
squabbling, especially between the FBI and the CIA.
How does this CIA guy pull off the bombing of the US consulate in
France no less? To my recollection, most US embassies and consulates
are pretty well-guarded. And why Samir would even take a chance in
conducting an operation such as this when he knows that something could
go wrong is beyond me.
While the rogue CIA operative must end up getting bumped off precisely
because he is amoral and unprincipled, the FBI fares better here. The
two agents, Clayton and Archer, are your typical good cop-bad cop
characters. Archer is the bad cop and punches Samir a few times in an
early interrogation scene in Yemen. But Clayton (Guy Pearce) is the
‘sensitive’ good cop–he majored in Arabic studies as an undergraduate
and ends up receiving important information from Samir via email at a
critical point in the film’s story.
I’m not sure exactly how Samir pulls it off–and this is probably a
first in the history in the fight against terrorism–he manages to
arrange for 50 would-be suicide bombers to be on the same bus and they
all blow themselves up at the same time. Then he also manages to shoot
the two terrorist masterminds without any bodyguards being present
(Note that the main boss, Nathir, again is no scary Mohammed
Atta-type–but rather an ordinary businessman).
Traitor does a disservice in the fight against international terrorism.
It makes it look all too easy with the good guys easily outwitting the
bad guys. But in reality, terrorists such as the 9/11 conspirators were
no pushovers; to remind everybody: they beat us–we didn’t beat them!
Some say that Cheadle’s performance here was excellent. I would have to
disagree. He comes off as too middle-class, too intellectual to be a
former Special Ops guy who is able infiltrate a gang of terrorists. All
the preaching throughout the movie reminds me more of a college
professor trying to convince a bunch of undergraduates that his cause
is just.
In the end, ‘Traitor’ tries hard to be as politically correct as
possible, arguing that the war against terror is not antithetical to
the teachings of the Muslim religion. But it makes its argument in such
a heavy-handed and obvious manner that the film becomes overly
didactic. Coupled with a wholly implausible plot, ‘Traitor’ fails to
convince us that we’re watching a story that mirrors something that
could have come close to happening in reality.
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Traitor – a passionate Don Cheadle movie that should have gotten more attention
You have to wonder if Cheadle is making more and more movies that he has a passion for the message? Thinking Hotel Rwanda and Traitor.
In this movie, you are left to question where he is coming from. To whom is he a traitor to? Is he a traitor at all?
What you get is a sense of the good side of Islam. Cheadle quotes the Quran through the movie, even quoting the opposite views that extremists quote. My favorite: “Mohammed said, ‘if you kill one man, you kill all of humanity.”" Wow, how powerful.
What I like about this movie juxtaposed against movies like ‘Body of Lies’ or ‘Syriana’ is that you see Cheadle and the men who are trying to catch him. Not a lot of back and forth and three story threads at one time. This movie is one straighforward, intense story.
Cheadle is one great actor, he is believable. You like him, even when he is playing the ‘enemy.’ It is a movie that reflects courage and in this confusing world we live in, gives us a sense of balance that must be sought out as we relate to our fellow man.
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Blows the Bourne films out of the water
Traitor: well – the Bourne series – for one – has nothing on this film. This film has so many twists and turns – a seemingly conventional beginning with a shocking end. This film action packed – but stands above its counterparts in film through it’s inclusion of rich and dynamic relationships and characters; and – by the film’s end – you’re left really thinking on what the main character was all about. This is a classic thriller – completely underrated. I highly recommend it.
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Traitor
I think the seller was prompt with the delivery of the movie and very much a considerable repeat purchase could happen in the future.
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Good movie
It was a movie that I wouldn’t be ashamed to watch in front of my family. It has some language but not very much. I don’t recall hearing any F-words or seeing excessive violence. There were also no sex scenes at all. That really surprised me in a good sort of way.
The story was kind of predictable but still good.
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Typical action flick
This is a typical American action flick in the sense that it features a really smart and tough hero character, in this case Don Cheadle, who is able to outsmart and outfight just about anybody, good guys and bad guys alike. Maybe one reason this film didn’t do so well at the box office is because it doesn’t have quite as much action as most action movies, for which I give it credit. Also unlike most action movies it doesn’t have any super evil villains. There are terrorists, of course, but you see them as people and not just as cardboard bad guys. Then again, a movie portraying Muslims only as evil terrorists and Americans only as good guys would stir things up, wouldn’t it?
At the end of the movie there is some preachiness about Muslims being used, misguided, and misled, and there is no serious effort to explore the roots of terrorism. One could just as well examine the motivations of homegrown terrorists like Timothy McVeigh. The end of the movie also sets up the obvious sequel, but perhaps there will be no sequel after all.
Even with its redeeming qualities, Traitor suffers the same flaw as other action films: implausibility. But that doesn’t bother fans of action films. The only reason it bothers me is because I’m not a fan of action films. True action fans may want more action and special effects than this film dishes out.
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The truth is complicated
Samir Horn: The truth is complicated
This movie is the brainchild of Steve Martin, who switches comedy for more serious fare as executive producer of this gripping spy thriller that goes behind the scenes of a terrorist organization known as the Islamic Brotherhood.
As intense as he was in Hotel Rwanda, Don Cheadle gives a first-rate performance as Samir Horn, an explosives expert trained by the US Army Special Forces, who becomes deeply involved with the group. Cheadle plays a devout Muslim and his character battles personal conflicts and principles all the way through the movie.
Short Attention Span Summary (SASS)
1. It all begins with a car bomb
2. Flash forward to an arms deal gone wrong and a one-way ticket to a prison in Yemen.
3. Horn falls in with the people who know how to get out of jail free
4. His new friends are trying to get the monopoly on terror
5. He joins them and starts having a blast, but with serious misgivings, and for good reason.
6. Guy Pearce plays the FBI Special Agent who gets wind of Horn’s activities
7. Explosive ending
Samir Horn: You know that the Qu’ran says that if you kill an innocent person it’s as if you’ve killed all mankind?
Amanda Richards, March 3, 2009
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Thought provoking and most definitely flawed
“Traitor” is one of the many movies about the “war on terrorism” that completely tanked at the box office. People just didn’t want to watch movies about Iraq, Afghanistan, terrorism, rendition, torture – any of it. Some of those movies were actually pretty good, some were acceptable/OK, and some were just bad movies. “Traitor” is in the middle. Not a great flick, but definitely worth at least a rental.
The director had to thread the eye of the needle with a story like this. How to depict Muslims and Arabs in all their humanity, from good to bad? This was a tight rope act and it appears, at least to this reviewer, that the director succeeded even if the final product wasn’t a stupendous movie. It shows that some people are bad and some are good and they exist on all sides.
Don Cheadle does a superb job as the guy torn apart in the middle, the witness to atrocities and hypocritical extreme ideology on both sides. There is tension throughout the film as viewers have to guess which way he’s going to ultimately go and if the side he decides to join will accept him or kill him.
Still, the film falls flat in part to its lack of budget. The final explosion is perhaps the biggest example. Not that big explosions make a great movie! Far from it. It’s just that the specifics of the story indicated that this explosion would consist of multiple sources (possible spoiler – I’m trying to be vague) and the one they show is just too tiny for that. That kind of approach is seen in much smaller touches throughout the film. You can tell that they’ve passed off certain streets as foreign locales when it was probably just Vancouver, Canada. That a big chunk of the film ends up in Nova Scotia (about as non-descript as you can get) says something.
Still, it’s worth a rental and could possibly lead to some interesting conversations afterwards. It’s definitely food for thought even if it’s not a classic.
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EXCELLENTF
good momentum throughout this film. kept you hooked on the story. didn’t know what was actually going on till the end.
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Beware Video on Demand for this Movie
I am rating the quality of the Video on Demand version of the movie, not the movie itself.
I downloaded this movie and played it on my 42″ wide screen TV. The picture only occupied about half my screen. I tried increasing to full screen, but the images were excessively pixilated. I’ve rented other movies from VOD that were okay, but this one was terrible. I’m amazed that VOD would post such a poor quality version of this excellent movie.
If this rating is removed by the VOD folks, I will post it elsewhere on Amazon.
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Entertainment and suspense around a serious topic
I enjoyed the film, Traitor, as a suspenseful drama written around a serious and challenging topic. The film is held together by a great performance by Don Cheadle as Samir Horn, a Sudanese born Islamic American citizen. Guy Pierce gives a great performance as an FBI agent on the trail of Horn. The film also uses the story of Samir Horn as a character study of a complex individual. The FBI agent played by Guy Pierce serves as a proxy for the viewer for as Pierce fits the pieces of the puzzle together, so also does the viewer. Pierce is the proxy for the viewer unraveling the actions, loyalties, and deeper motivations of a complex man who may or may not be suffering from conflicting values and cultural systems.
Much of the action revolves around the cat and mouse dynamics of terrorism and counter-terrorism. However, it is the character study that balances the action that makes this film get 4 stars. The film presents us with the ambiguity as to whether Samir is a rogue secret agent who has become a terrorist or whether Samir is a double agent who is out on a thin limb as he infiltrates an organization of terrorists with little if any back-up. Thus the concept of ‘traitor’ is part of the dynamics for we are not certain as to whether he is a traitor to the US or whether he is a traitor to Islam. The resolution of the conflict could be viewed as contrived Hollywood wrap-up, but give the film a break for even though it tries to explore complex issues working inside the mind of a complex mind, the film must also deliver entertainment with no strings left hanging. On this account it certainly delivers.
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I have tried two copies of the Blu-ray disk of Traitor in my Sony Blu-ray player and neither have successfully loaded beyond the previews. There must be a production quality problem. Other disks work fine.
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