The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair

This documentary tells the story of Yunis Khatayer Abbas, a journalist, after he was captured by the United States military for falsely being accused of planning a terrorist plot to assassinate Tony Blair, and how his mindset on liberation changed during his time in prison. The trailer begins with him speaking about his family, and then his initial thoughts on Bush’s invasion into Iraq, and how he thinks it might be good for the people, because they might be freed. However, then it cuts to the video of his arrest, and how he looks baffled, confused, but also like he can get out of it pretty easily because he looks somewhat calm. After all, he did not do what they were accusing him of doing. Then there are interviews with US soldiers about getting information from him, and quick clips with abrupt cuts of Yunis talking about how confused and frustrated he was when he was in prison. There are little clip art frames of what he describes, such as a soldier slamming his hand down on the table when he calls Yunis a liar, and of electric cables, which he says he got zapped with when they thought he was lying. The director of the film uses video of the good things the US military was doing, but it’s to show the contrast on how horribly they treated Yunis when he was arrested. They also used title film slides to show the differences between the times, such as one saying “THE NEXT YOU HAVE WAR.”

One moment that I see as important is when Yunis is describing what he saw the US soldiers as. For example, he says he saw them as Rambo-like figureheads. This shows his change in opinion from that time, because he us using past tense, and we can tell that clearly his opinion has changed. Another moment I see as important is when the US soldier says that generally the Iraqi people are helpful, implying that Yunis was not and still believes he is guilty, or that they got some misinformation and was blaming Yunis’ arrest on the Iraqi people, because they gave the military incorrect information. Finally, when the soldier interviews was asked what he was doing before he came a soldier, and he replies with “real estate” is also very important. It shows that these people who arrested him were not trained in special ops, or even trying to get information out of people. They were just boots on the ground (not to make their service seem like a big deal- it is. thank you for your service), but these were people who didn’t know exactly what they were doing, and trusted the word of the people.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR

This documentary is about a man who has lost his memory from the war, and wants to try to remember his time in the military, as he feels like he doesn’t know or remember how he got to be the person he was today, and wants to know how he was connected to the military.

When he is trying to remember his past, the music is orchestral and sounds determined, as he is on a path to try to regain his memories. There are clips of him deciding whether or not to pursue trying to remember, such as someone asking him if he remembers Lebanon, and him even asking people if they knew or had seen the person in a picture he has with him. There are scenes of him in flashback sequences, of him joining the military, and what he did in it, and his friends. But then he remembers the bad times he had, and the music changes to chaotic, anxiety-inducing orchestral music that implies that something horrible happened when he was there, and there is a reason he forgot his past. You see clips of somebody with a RPG aiming at what is assumed to be his unit, and it blowing up. It shows that there was clearly a traumatizing event that happened to him.

One moment that I see as important would be the “But the past won’t forget us” title scene, with the camera zooming in on his face. The look of shock and devastation on his face shows that something horrible happened, and that he will remember what he did/what happened. Another important moment for me is when he is walking by the arcade and sees the kid playing some battleship game, and it then cuts to him watching a ship blow up in real life. It shows that he possibly thought that going to war would be fun, like a video game, but would quickly realize the gravity of the situation and how it’s not a video game, it’s real life. If he dies, he dies. He’s killing other people. The final most important thing to me was when he finally remembers his memories from the war. Because he was probably learning about his friends in his unit, remembering the fun times they had, treating it like a video game. As if everything was fine, and nothing bad happened. However, then he gets the rush of memories, and his friend gets shot in the neck right next to him; so close to him that he gets the blood spatter on himself. He remembers the horrible things he’s done and that happened to him, and possibly the event that led to his memory loss. It’s the moment that he’s been searching for, that set him on his journey to find out what happened, that caused him to lose his memory.

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