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05/12/07
The Prisoner Or: How I Planned To Kill Tony Blair (2007)
86
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Reviews Counted:28
Fresh:24
Rotten:4
Average Rating:6.9/10
Runtime: 72 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Petra Epperlain and Michael Tucker's documentary uses humor to explore the heartbreaking story of an innocent man's imprisonment. Yunis is an Iraqi journalist living happily with his family in... [More]
Director: Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker
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Reviews for The Prisoner Or: How I Planned To Kill Tony Blair
The film makes clear its point about the profound failures of justice caused by aggressive attempts at arrests and detention.
03/30/07
Consider it the single gloomiest cocktail-party story of all time.
03/24/07
It's an angry story, but also a strangely hopeful one, in the sense of new life sprouting through a battlefield. Above all, it's personal and specific, and that is news we can use.
03/30/07
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04/23/09
The filmmaker’s methodology backfires by undercutting the credibility of the testimony presented and overshadowing any actual miscarriage of justice.
03/31/07
[Abbas'] story demands to be heard, though Tucker and Epperlein lack the material for a full feature and pad this out to 73 minutes with some incongruously playful elements.
03/30/07
Abbas could tell his interrogators nothing they wanted to know, but everything we needed to know about their tactics.
03/30/07
The Prisoner is a triumph of specificity. It is one man's story, told in scrupulous and vivid detail.
03/29/07
Top CriticI would have preferred a clearer narrative that was easier to understand, without all the comic-book gimmicks. Despite those faults, the documentary is worth seeing.
04/04/07
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04/09/07
The American military comes across as bungling and ineffective as protectors. If people thought we didn't know what we were doing in Iraq before, this is yet more evidence of our incompetence.
04/23/07
A follow-up to the acclaimed Gunner Place, this docu, about one innocent Iraqui's detention and then shipment to Abu Ghraib, exhibits a restrained approach that allows its righteous indignation to grow slowly without resorting to manipulative tactics.
03/22/07
None of The Prisoner's showy flourishes -- animation, sound effects, fancy editing -- can match the power of Abbas' stillness as he describes one man's agony in one huge hell.
03/28/07
Top CriticTurns out that every country, every civilization, has its good eggs as well as its bad ones. What The Prisoner clearly shows us is that this Administration has no interest in learning the difference between the two.
03/27/07
The prisoner's journalistic tendencies served him well in jail: He chronicled details of his captivity, including names and serial numbers of fellow prisoners, in places guards wouldn't notice (like the inside of his boxer shorts).
03/21/07
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04/07/07
... a chillingly pitch-black comedy of errors ...
04/09/07
A depressing story, certainly, as well as moving, confusing and, at a fast 72 minutes, at once undercooked and overpadded.
03/23/07
What really gives you hope for humanity in general is that Abbas came out of his demeaning and heart-rending experience with his dignity and, maybe, some of his sense of humor intact.
03/22/07
Top CriticLatest News for The Prisoner Or: How I Planned To...
April 28, 2007:
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