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Director Brian De Palma Digs Into 'Redacted' Story

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Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
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Brian De Palma's films include the horror classic Carrie, the crime epics Scarface and The Untouchables, and the first Mission: Impossible film.

His latest release, Redacted, is a fictional take on a real incident — in which U.S. soldiers who raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl in Iraq. It has strong echoes of his Vietnam War drama Casualties of War.

Inspired, in part, by reports he saw on the Internet about the 2006 incident, De Palma takes a raw, cinema-verite approach what's essentially a faux documentary, telling the story with the aid of soldiers' blogs, video diaries and online testimonials — all invented for the film, but based on materials De Palma found online.

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