Traitor Movie
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Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn.
| Patrick Rodney Barnes | Terrorist |
| Tom Barnett | Andrew Kelly |
| Don Cheadle | |
| David Clark | Security Officer |
| Jeff Daniels | |
| Scali Delpeyrat | Inspector Gilles |
| Dani Jazzar | Munir |
| Jeff Kassel | Software Manager |
| Aly Khan | Fareed |
| Neal McDonough | |
| Mike McPhaden | Computer Tech |
| Paulino Nunes | Terry |
| Alaa Oumouzoune | Omar's crew #1 |
| Guy Pearce | |
| Raad Rawi | Nathir |
| Jeffrey Nachmanoff |
7.30 out of 10 (4802 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Tired of fake 007 James Bond? Here is REAL James Bond and no fake actions!
posted on 29 Aug 2009Tired of fake 007 James Bond action where even the pigs fly? Watch this real James Bond where every action is genuine. This film is a long needed replacement for all that boring, tiring and old 007 Bond spy thing. James Bond fans must watch this excellent spy movie packed with REAL action! Today is Election Day and Obama is going to be the president I think. Well, the James Bond is black, too, in this excellent thriller. There are no invisible cars here, no lasers that are capable of burning half of the Earth, no caviar, no cigars. There are no any fictional gizmos or gadgets in this film. The hero uses only very real and very tangible things. Yet, the Good Ole 007 can not even come close to this Modern Bond.
Undistinguished Genre Film
posted on 25 Aug 2009Around this time last year, Hollywood became very interested in terrorism as a movie subject, and it made a whole slew of films about the war on terror, none of them very good but few of them egregiously bad."Traitor" could belong to that same group of films. It's a run-of-the-mill genre picture that uses the war on terror as a backdrop. It imagines a quite possible scenario -- a group of Muslim extremists infiltrate the U.S. and plan to coordinate fifty suicide missions so that fifty buses around the country will explode at the same moment. The man in charge of the mission (Don Cheadle) is actually working for the C.I.A, but the F.B.I. doesn't know that, so they're after him. Meanwhile, he's trying to keep his true identity as an informant from his fellow terrorists while at the same time suffering from increasingly frequent attacks of conscience -- in order to infiltrate the network, he must continue to carry out real attacks that result in the deaths of real people.Don Cheadle is a tremendous actor, and he pulls off this material capably, but it's not worthy of him. The film is full of obvious moral observations, such as the thesis that the United States and the Muslim extremists aren't that different from one another, as both are willing to kill innocent people in their respective efforts to fight one another, and both claim that God is on their side of the battle. These are given lowest common denominator treatment, so that while the film is moderately exciting, it's not very intelligent. It's the kind of movie that fades from memory immediately after viewing.Also starring Guy Pearce, perhaps the most versatile actor in the world, here playing a Southern Baptist F.B.I. agent; and Jeff Daniels, hopelessly underused as Cheadle's C.I.A. contact.Grade: B-
Delivers what it promises
posted on 23 Aug 2009As a suspense-thriller about Islamic terrorism, "Traitor" is tautly-scripted and well acted by Don Cheadle and a cast of mostly unfamiliar names and faces. It takes place in a breath-taking array of locales, shifting countries and continents with nothing more than a skyline and a subtitle to tell the viewer where the characters are now. The beautiful Archie Panjabi shows up all too briefly as the girlfriend of Cheadle's character and is provided with little back story, as is also the case with most of the other players. It is difficult to become fully invested in characters about whom you are told so little -- but the story carries you along and certain of the mysteries are left hanging, even when the film ends. But, although it came and went without much notice, "Traitor" is well worth seeing.
Martin hits a triple, but his home run curves foul!
posted on 19 Aug 2009I enjoyed this movie. It was about a subject I have great interest in, and some knowledge about. So I was pleased to see Steve Martin et al give it a decent shot. He takes the TV show "Sleeper Cell" and adds some intelligence and expands on the education about the difference between Jihadis and good Muslims - a distinction many Americans haven't made yet! Don Cheadle plays an American of Sudanese origin caught up with terrorists in Yemen who get captured, and who turns down a proffered "free get out of jail card" by counter terrorist FBI agents (played with nice tautness by Guy Pearce and Neal McDonough - who finally gets decent air time), opting instead to share a prison in Yemen with a jihadi cell. Can you guess why? Yup, anybody who knows these kinds of movies does, but Martin's story does give a decent attempt to throw us off track, but he can't fool us fans who know these tricks. It ends up being a warmish Le Carre type thriller, but falls short in the believability part at the end. There is the point counter point of "sleeper cell" and it takes more risks than that formulaic show, but in the end it pulls it's punches, and unfortunately puts in some ludicrous plot twisters to wrench it away from the much more likely, and to me much more satisfying, ending.Cheadle is a decent enough actor, brave in going after the movies that have a message, but his range is limited and he never seems comfortable enough when he's serious giving off a flat affect that reduces his aura. Pearce is the most interesting as a decent "religious" FBI agent who acts as counterpart to Cheadle's "religious" double agent. But the guy I like the most is Saïd Taghmaoui, by now a recognized journeyman of these kinds of movies, whose tough guy persona fits well with our stereotype of a jihadi, but who's allowed here to expand the type with some depth.**********************SPOLIERS*************************************1. All 30 suicide bombers on the same bus? C'mon Steve, keep the comedy out of it.2. Samir is "saved" from execution by the bad guys at the last minute because he's wanted by the US govt., making him a legitimate martyr? Wouldn't that be reason no.1 to off him? 3. Cheadle is sitting in a park waiting to make contact with his girlfriend, knowing she is being watched. A): she stops to stretch right where he's sitting. B): He has to know from her overt recognition of him that he's busted, yet he keeps on chatting with her, thereby risking the entire operation.4. Why have 50 bombs go off at the same time? What could be more terrifying than having them go off randomly, everywhere and anywhere, and at any time!
One dimensional terrorists fall short
posted on 13 Aug 2009Two actors who we don't see enough of Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce star in a movie taken from a story by Steve Martin. a story about international terrorism and the battle front in the American Homeland. Are there sleepers living next door to you ? Is the Arab married to your best friend a sleeper terrorist waiting to blow themselves up on a cross country bus ? Outside of an increased sense of paranoia, this move falls flat. Cheadle (Samir) a Sudan born American sees his father blown up as a child, why this motivates him to do what he does in the film is a mystery, maybe thats what the director intended, but it leaves an important dimension out of Samir's character. We learn some about Guy Pearce's character Roy, but outside of a scene or two it has no relevance to the role. Neal McDonough as Roy's FBI partner Max is wonderful as usual and real kudos's to Archie Panjabi as Samir's caught in the middle girlfriend who was very believable. The bus part was not believable however and never explained how Samir got all the terrorists on the same bus.
Plot Holes
posted on 11 Aug 2009Since this was a movie I gave it 8 stars. It was interesting and absorbing with only a few plot goofs to get in the way. To talk about them means to reveal some things about the picture. The first of three glaring errors was when Samir was in the garage waiting to meet his friend when his handler suddenly shows up and, of course, consequently gets shot and killed. This had to happen as at the motel it was brought out clearly that no one else knew about Samir but his handler. Now his handler showed up at the garage when previously it was made clear that Samir would go through great lengths to meet with him. The second goof was the explanation that the control was an "intelligence contractor", what ever that is supposed to be. Let's face it, if the U.S. wanted to get Samir under deep cover it would be handled by the top echelon of the CIA. Finally, how on earth could Samir get all of the 30 bombers on one bus from around the U.S.? It can take three days to get from one side of the county to the other. On a lessor note, I found it amusing that terrorists would even think of bombing cross-country buses. Have you even been on one of those? Hardly the people a nation would morn for more than a couple of hours.
Good Post 9-11 Era Thriller
posted on 01 Aug 2009This film examines Islamo-Terrorism from Al- Qaeda's perspective in a very interesting manner and without moral equivalence between US interests & those of the terrorists. There is some US bashing on the part of the terrorists but it doesn't crowd out or ruin the larger story. There are good guys & bad guys, with shades of gray in between. Yet the story is a compelling one and Don Cheadle gives an Oscar worthy performance in the lead role as a terrorist/traitor. He has a strong supporting cast, including Guy Peirce, as the lead FBI agent tracking him down, Neal McDonough (from HBO's Band of Brothers") assisting Peirce, Jeff Daniels as an intelligence contractor with a shady persona, and many others, all excellent.The plot is complicated and I won't spend a lot of time re-hashing the movie. The movie begins in the 1970's with the Don Cheadle character as a young boy in Sudan, fast forwards to present day Yemen, with Cheadle grown up and making a weapons sale to Al Qaeda (or the terrorist group, the film never explicitly mentions Al Qaeda), and the location switches between Yemen, London, Paris, and Chicago. The main terrorist plot involves mass bombings in the US of passenger buses, all to be detonated at the same time, for maximum impact.This is definitely worth seeing. It's a good action thriller that also provides some realistic international perspective sorely lacking in most of today's spy movies.
Cheadle excels in this knotty global imbroglio
posted on 01 Aug 2009TRAITOR (2008) *** Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Siad Taghmaoui, Neal McDonough, Jeff Daniels, Aly Khan, Archie Panjabi. Cheadle rises above the tricky storyline about a devout Muslim American who is caught between loyalty to his religion and his country when he is accused of terrorism in light of his affiliation as a government agent with some twists and turns of the screw in this potboiler of globe-trotting intrigue. The screenplay by novice director Jeffrey Nachmanoff – suggested by a story by none other than funnyman Steve Martin (!) – is somewhat knotty and a tad too preachy but overall brings some fresh perspective to the current world climate and has a "Bourne" appeal of an everyman in a nightmarish existence.
Simply not good
posted on 28 Jul 2009Don Cheadle is a great actor. He manages to make any movie gold. Unfortunately, he has no control over Traitor, a cheaply made, sometimes thrilling, kind of sort of good thriller about terrorists. Don Cheadle stars as Samir Horn, a man who helps terrorists by selling them bombs. As the title suggests, he soon becomes a traitor, now telling government agents about all his terrorist customer's plans. So now, he is being hunted down by terrorists and government workers alike. The movie, overall provides a couple of cheap thrills, but that doesn't in any way, shape, or form make it work. It is simply not a good movie, it's just not thrilling, smart, or original. It portrays all Muslims as terrorists, something that makes the movie simply not respectable. There is no possible redeeming value in this film. It's a thriller without the smarts or thrills that it needed. I have to admit, as always, Don Cheadle is fantastic, but this may be his only movie in which he does not have control over how good or bad the movie is. It's not terrible, it's just simply not very good, and therefore I cannot see myself ever recommending it.
Thought-provoking and told from an amazingly refreshing perspective
posted on 24 Jul 2009A masterful film. The cinematography is beautiful. What makes "Traitor" shine is the perspective it is told from, and how the audience's mental viewpoint/perception of which side the lead character is on weaves and twists invisibly whilst keeping a good pace and giving the story room to breathe. Telling it almost dispassionately from the bad guy's point of view is a subtle stroke of genius, and at many points in time it is genuinely difficult to tell whether Cheadle's man is a good guy or an evil bombmaker. Luckily all is revealed gradually, at a comfortable rate, so you almost don't notice how far along the storyline you've come. If it's possible to be gentle and violent at the same time, this film does it well. You don't feel fooled, you feel too immersed to have known.The realism and attention to detail was good enough to keep the whole thing from falling into cheesy superhero FBI agent territory and being lost in plot holes (such as the money exchange, explosives and sent-mail trick), and subtle explanations of how things occurred off-screen helps the viewer put the pieces together without overwhelm. The characters are reasonably developed, and although Cheadle's performance is as excellent as ever, much can be said for Pearce's gathered maturity as the way he underplays his role makes it unrecognisable from some of his cheesier and more wooden past. There's little gratuitous wastage of minutes on unnecessary information - all that's there is what's needed to tell the story. Nothing more, nothing less.You know an unseasoned plier of any trade by their urge to capture attention and appear "clever" by filling things to the brim, and the director's discernment of avoiding dramatic and overt turnarounds in character motivation and plot allows for a very seamless but captivating portrayal of the various scenes and changing events. The film flows naturally with a life of its own without all the false starts and sudden moments that most traditional 3-Act pieces tend to rely on.The ending wasn't perfect by any means, but by then the tension and momentum is built up sufficiently to allow it to release as calmly as it is created. If anything, it's clever subtlety and seductive pacing will be what it will receive criticism for as it breaks the crazy-action pattern that's so worn in Hollywood. Overall a highly enjoyable flick with great substance that shows it is very possible to change a movie dramatically just by masterfully shifting the audience viewpoint without them really realising.
Traitor is Good Treason ***1/2
posted on 24 Jul 2009Don Cheadle turns in another great acting performance. As a soldier of fortune in Afghanistan, who allegedly becomes a Moslem fanatic and throws himself in with Moslem terrorists, Cheadle etches a very interesting character.The truth be told, Cheadle is nothing more than a government operative living the life of a double agent. It is such a secret regarding his true beliefs that not even the CIA knows that he is really a good guy.For a change of pace, Jeff Daniels appears in a good film although his part is too brief. He is the agent who consoles Cheadle when a bomb that Cheadle has detonated killing 8 people only to fall victim to a bullet fired by Don to show the terrorists that he is one of them.The picture is fast paced and nicely done. The ending will make you smile.
Successful flirting with a very sensitive topic
posted on 22 Jul 2009OK first things first. This is by far the closest portrayal of a Real Muslim. Samir has moral principals that are based on Islam. And in all the dialogues that he conveys he tries to show what a true Muslim thinks and believes in.The story revolves around Samir an explosives' expert working with a terrorist group that exploits Muslim's Faith for their interests. It flirts with the grey areas of Muslim Beliefs and tries to separate the black from white.An excellent film if Muslim Beliefs are seen through the eye of Samir. It however leaves a distaste regarding the ease with which suicide bombers are recruited from every walk of life, which is a bit difficult to believe. An excellent effort from Jaffery Nachmanoff.
Far-fetched awesome and here's why
posted on 20 Jul 2009I start with the ending, so major spoiler warning- ---------- You have to admit that the idea of 30 sleeper-suicide-bombers duped into boarding the same bus has a funny side to it. But it probably would not occur to you till way after the credits roll. Steve Martin had to contend with all the usual trappings such movies inevitably run up against, and he handles them decently, but in doing so he had to sacrifice some of the reality he attempts to portray. Here's a partial reality-checklist; 1. Sleepers awaiting their suicide-mission is ludicrous. The indoctrination is intense, the brainwashing is constant and up to the last minute, the candidates fit a certain profile and they would not function in normal society for a week, let alone for years on end. Albeit, the 'threat' must be insidious, exceed our expectations in some novel way and as such it's a passable premise.2. The idea of a 'leak' within the agency is preposterous, we're well aware of lie-detectors, background checks, screening, etc. On the other hand, they have no choice but to level the playing field, the suspense/buildup would fizzle out were it to remain in first gear.3. The obvious solution for Samir (Cheadle) would have been to neutralize *all* the bombs, having ample opportunities on his 'infidel-express' delivery route. Sure, that would have been anticipated and as such, anti-climatic, although it could have led to some great aftermath scenes of passengers tackling these individuals down. Likewise, some of the bombs did not go off, otherwise we would need to be told the sleepers were all on the same bus. Again, it could have played almost the same if at the last minute the camera traveled up the aisle, disclosing the plot-twist, yet here again, the bombers would have died in the bliss of their ignorance, much to our dissatisfaction.4. Upon being apprehended Samir had no reason to pursue his 'role', the sham is tempered with a punch to the stomach, a weak one I'd say.5. The computer-generated model of the second mastermind was just laughable, the idea being that some cutting-edge software is piecing together a composite so that once it completes the 3D render, they can close in on him, please... I guess it plays OK as a visual device, till you think about it.Fighting fanaticism with fanaticism is one way to sum up this movie, while the moral may just be that you shouldn't. Either way, the globe-trotting scene-settings and the overall feel and snippets of the dialogue were first-class, I saw someone dub it the intellectual's Bourne, which is funny, considering how Ludlum's Bourne was deemed a cut above the spy novels of its time. We've grown too savvy for our own entertainment needs (sigh)...
a movie with potential that loses its nerve
posted on 16 Jul 2009"Traitor" promises to be one of the first mainstream American movies to actually get into the mind of an Islamic terrorist, but about halfway through, it loses the courage of its convictions and opts for Hollywood artificiality instead.Don Cheadle plays Samir Horn, a devout Muslim who supplies terrorist organizations with the materials they need to carry out suicide bombings. Guy Pearce is Roy Clayton, the FBI agent who is hot on Samir's trail through most of the movie.Although this is fairly engaging as international cat-and-mouse chase stories go (the movie takes us from Yeman to Paris to London to Toronto to Chicago and a number of places in between), a crucial plot twist in the middle (I won't reveal what it is) seriously undercuts the aura of credibility the movie has managed to establish up to that point. The script is further compromised by a series of increasingly improbable plot points that eventually take the movie out of the realm of reality and deposit it right into the heart of movie-land fantasy, with the climax ranking as one of the most purely preposterous and almost laughable resolutions we've come across in quite some time (could this be the influence of Steve Martin, who, along with writer/director Jeffrey Nachmanoff, came up with the idea for the story?).Cheadle and Pearce are both stolid and effective in their roles, while Said Taghmaoui acquits himself well as Samir's suicide bomber friend. The movie works hard at being fair to both sides of the conflict; thus, we're constantly being reminded that there are many more good Muslims in this world than there are bad ones, just as there are more good Christians than bad Christians and good Americans than bad Americans. And the movie does try to explore some of the mental and moral anguish taking place deep in Samir's tortured soul. But that midpoint compromise keeps "Traitor" from becoming anything more than just another Hollywood take on one of the more serious issues of our day.
Despite early promise it is just a genre film but still manages to be a good genre film (MASSIVE SPOILERS)
posted on 10 Jul 2009Born in Sudan but raised as a US citizen, former US military explosives expert Samir Horn followed his Muslim faith by remaining in Afghanistan. Years later and he has become a black-marketer for explosives, without many qualms as to who he sells to. This eventually sees him holed up in a Yemen prison without a future ahead of him. In the prison he is befriended by Omar, who schools him in the realities of the Koran and the Jihad, converting him to the war on the west. When Omar is broken out of the prison, he brings Samir with him to utilise him in the struggle. Meanwhile, the terrorists attacks continue with chatter of a large attack in the US, FBI agent Roy Clayton suspects Samir is the lynchpin but can he overcome inter-agency politics to catch him before it is too late.For a while there I thought that this was going to be a very brave movie that has a straightforward chase to prevent a terrorist attack but does it by spending more time with the terrorists than the federal agents trying to foil them. I thought this because for the first half of the film we follow Samir Horn as he is convinced to join the fight against the west as part of his Islamic faith. That it does it in a sympathetic and non-judgemental fashion will put off many viewers I'm sure but for me it was a brave and interesting move. The film eventually twists this as we learn that Samir is deep, deep, deep undercover and is actually a "good" guy but by this point the film had engaged me and I was only slightly disappointed by this revelation – and not totally surprised if I'm honest. The film doesn't change him from being a Muslim though, which again I think was a good think and a brave move because that some viewers will not come to this on that basis.From here though the film is more of a genre piece than it had been in the first stages but it is still pretty free-flowing and enjoyable. The tension never ratchets up to apply real pressure but it has a consistent steady pace to it and does have some nice clever twists and turns as it goes. Director Nachmanoff does a solid job with it but what he could have done better would have been to deliver more tense set pieces – not create them, they are already in the film, but just deliver them in a more intense and fevered way. He doesn't but the material still carries it as a genre film but nothing as special as aspects of it would have made you hope for.The cast put in work though and help it a lot. Cheadle makes a brave choice to play a Muslim – you may disagree with me but I think if you consider selling this in "red" states then perhaps you would agree. It becomes even braver when you consider that in the marketing the "not really a radical" aspect can't be given away as it would spoil the twist. He plays it really well in both halves of the film and regardless makes for an intense presence on the screen, making his bit work well. Pearce is equally good although very much an afterthought of a character it seems – he is really on the side lines and it is only his presence and charisma that makes him memorable – he does work well with McDonough though. Taghmaoui does very well with a difficult character and again compliments Cheadle's turn by making sure we are not repulsed by the terrorists, even if we don't "support" them.Traitor is not a brilliant film and, even though it suggests otherwise, it is essentially an intelligent but ultimately genre thriller with all the little twists and turns you expect. I wasn't amazed by it but it did hold my attention by having a good pace, moments of intelligence, some clever twists and generally strong performances. A genre film but an enjoyable one.
Thinking Man's Spy Thriller
posted on 06 Jul 2009I usually go to Malco's reviewers and then Rotten Tomatoes, to see what the consensus on a movie is. Well after going to see this movie with some very hardcore friends/critics, we all agree, the professionals are getting paid off! If it wasn't for the good amateur Malco reviewers, I would have missed a very good thought provoking movies. I disagree that this movie stereotypes its characters, they are anything but. The acting is rich, the character's are memorable, very great acting on all levels, especially the main characters, and respect is paid to traditional Islam as opposed to its radical splinter. About Cheadle's character, you may have heard his performance is wooden, that is untrue, he delivers a moving portrait of a tortured soul subjected to a traumatic past and exposed to soul rending choices. If you follow it, Traitor will offer an excellent, thoughtful, journey into the heart of a complex issue.
Bad Muslims need to be eliminated.
posted on 04 Jul 2009Not sure what should happen to bad Americans. Probably given medals and pensions.The superb acting of Australian Guy Pearce and Don Cheadle carry a generally entertaining entry in the endless list of movies relating to terrorism and the Middle East. This one at first seems to be striving for balance with a narrative seen through the eyes of an American Muslim ostensibly profiteering by selling explosives to terrorists in Yemen. But somewhere along the line the values expounded in this film become muddled and self- serving. The writers make pretense of criticizing the evil of both sides but in reality the script underpins the American way and merely masks underlying propaganda. If only all those Muslims could be given a stint in Guantanamo Bay the world would be a better place.
War on Terror made easy
posted on 02 Jul 2009Samir 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 to 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.
same old American story
posted on 30 Jun 2009this is the same old American story, and it's getting boring. This movie doesn't bring anything new, it's the usual terrorist action annihilated by the American FBI. Samir, the highly trained marine specialized in explosives, is a Muslim that is to carry an attack against America but in the last moment he decides that what he did was wrong and betrayed his "brothers". The FBI took over and everyone was happy. It was waste of my time and i don't recommend this to anyone who want to watch a good movie. Don't waste your time, there are a lot of great movies with interesting stories, this one is just not one of them.
Message: Christians are terrorists just like Muslims
posted on 31 Aug 2009If you're a liberal looking for some anti-American propaganda then be sure to rent this movie. All the reviewers who claim it makes you think and has a message are correct but it only makes you think for about two seconds - then you realize the attempts of moral equivalence between us and the terrorists are totally unconvincing. The movie wants you to "think" about all kinds of unlikely scenarios that are more likely to confuse you than give you insight into the world of terrorism. 1. Samir's background is so odd. He's born in Sudan, watches his father murdered in a car bombing, is raised in Chicago by a full-on Muslim mother, then joins the US Army, then leaves the army and joins the Mujahadeen (terrorist group), then is an moderate Muslim working undercover helping the US government fight terrorism? It just makes you scratch your head. 2. One point made in the movie is that Americans were once terrorists to the British - yeah right! What a profound thought. The colonists were so well known for killing civilians deliberately. 3. Did you also know America is a racist country? "America uses bombs on innocent people, too. They just have darker skin." I have no idea what that means. 4. Because America treats Muslims badly is why they get involved in terrorism. We're the cause. Very original. 5. When Samir makes the FBI ten most wanted list (or whatever it is), the terrorists tell him American put a fatwah on him. So again we're just like the terrorists. 6. The Klan burns crosses and calls it Christianity, so you see all religions have their fringe elements. So don't single out Islam. I don't even know how you could accept this argument. Maybe because there isn't one mainstream church that would speak in support of any Klan activity while no Muslim leader that I've heard has condemned Islamic terrorism.I'm usually good at not renting movies I'm unfamiliar with unless I've read some reviews, but I got this one solely based on the cover and got burned big time. It was only a dollar but out of principle I still feel dirty having supported this movie in any way.