Paths Of Blood. (18)
Directed by Jonathan Hacker.
Narration by Samuel West. Featuring Tom Hollander. 91 mins.
I can't decide if this selection of home movies covering the campaign against Al Queda cells operating in Saudi Arabia is the jihadist equivalent of Motorway Cops, or You've Been Framed. The film mixes footage made by Saudi security forces with extracts of videos the terror cells shot of themselves before and during their attacks. Littered with corpse and body parts, the film delivers on the blood, but we might haggle over the path through it.
At any time of the day, it seems that at least one channel in the UK is showing a programme consisting almost entirely of policemen being filmed doing their duties, usually on the roads. Such programmes always seem inherently untrustworthy to me, because all the important stuff seems to happen off camera; after an exciting but inconclusive chase sequence, a voiceover will swoop in to announce that the suspect was apprehended later and found to have been in possession of.... well, yes, if you say so.
Hacker's film, constructed from over 50 hours of tape released by Saudi authorities strikes me as having similar issues. It aims to tell the story of the Saudi's successful campaign between 2003 and 2009 to rid themselves of Al Queda cells, but what we are given are unconnected clips. The only thing shaping them into some form of narrative is West's narration. Visually there is no clear thread between them.
The mechanics and manipulation in the process of filmmaking are laid out a little too clearly here. Generally, West's narration appears between the clips which are separated by sections of screen static that are visually unpleasant and emphasize the lack of cohesion in the images we are being shown. The Saudis won apparently, but just like the Motorway Cop shows on British TV, success mostly happens off-screen. The Saudi security forces come across as quite a bungling bunch: there's a lot of them and they always pile in on mass at the first, second or third sign of trouble. It always takes them an eternity to get anywhere and even when they have the place surrounded, the terrorists still manage to get away.
And much as I enjoy the work of Tom Hollander I can't really see how he was thought to be suitable casting as The Voice of Jihad. There is an unreality to him reading out editorials from the Al Queda's in-house publication. His intonation of calls for the blood of the infidel to be shed is like a high court judge reading out criminal argot in court, "So, as I understand it your actions were motivated by a belief that you had been mugged off, and mugged off most grievously."
The footage we are shown though is remarkable and eye-opening. There's the spectacular irony of the state that created and fostered Islamic fundamentalism having to now fight it on its doorstep. Haha. The real revelation is the backstage footage of Jihadis, calmly larking about before their mission. Their mindset is impossible for Western people to understand (because it's absolutely insane) but when you see them it makes a kind of sense. The creed is clever in that it eliminates the fear of failure: you are either victorious or you are martyred. Once you have gotten rid of the fear of death, it isn't so hard to see why they are all so cheerful and relaxed. It helps that a lot of them are quite dim, but every army in history has exploited the thick and the poor. Jihad is like a Goth-tinged stag do for them, a great lads outing where they really do get off their heads. Young people in any culture have always been susceptible to narcissism and romanticising suicide. Like the man said, Geezers need excitement and if their lives don't provide it they stay inside violence – simply common sense.
Directed by Jonathan Hacker.
Narration by Samuel West. Featuring Tom Hollander. 91 mins.
I can't decide if this selection of home movies covering the campaign against Al Queda cells operating in Saudi Arabia is the jihadist equivalent of Motorway Cops, or You've Been Framed. The film mixes footage made by Saudi security forces with extracts of videos the terror cells shot of themselves before and during their attacks. Littered with corpse and body parts, the film delivers on the blood, but we might haggle over the path through it.
At any time of the day, it seems that at least one channel in the UK is showing a programme consisting almost entirely of policemen being filmed doing their duties, usually on the roads. Such programmes always seem inherently untrustworthy to me, because all the important stuff seems to happen off camera; after an exciting but inconclusive chase sequence, a voiceover will swoop in to announce that the suspect was apprehended later and found to have been in possession of.... well, yes, if you say so.
Hacker's film, constructed from over 50 hours of tape released by Saudi authorities strikes me as having similar issues. It aims to tell the story of the Saudi's successful campaign between 2003 and 2009 to rid themselves of Al Queda cells, but what we are given are unconnected clips. The only thing shaping them into some form of narrative is West's narration. Visually there is no clear thread between them.
The mechanics and manipulation in the process of filmmaking are laid out a little too clearly here. Generally, West's narration appears between the clips which are separated by sections of screen static that are visually unpleasant and emphasize the lack of cohesion in the images we are being shown. The Saudis won apparently, but just like the Motorway Cop shows on British TV, success mostly happens off-screen. The Saudi security forces come across as quite a bungling bunch: there's a lot of them and they always pile in on mass at the first, second or third sign of trouble. It always takes them an eternity to get anywhere and even when they have the place surrounded, the terrorists still manage to get away.
And much as I enjoy the work of Tom Hollander I can't really see how he was thought to be suitable casting as The Voice of Jihad. There is an unreality to him reading out editorials from the Al Queda's in-house publication. His intonation of calls for the blood of the infidel to be shed is like a high court judge reading out criminal argot in court, "So, as I understand it your actions were motivated by a belief that you had been mugged off, and mugged off most grievously."
The footage we are shown though is remarkable and eye-opening. There's the spectacular irony of the state that created and fostered Islamic fundamentalism having to now fight it on its doorstep. Haha. The real revelation is the backstage footage of Jihadis, calmly larking about before their mission. Their mindset is impossible for Western people to understand (because it's absolutely insane) but when you see them it makes a kind of sense. The creed is clever in that it eliminates the fear of failure: you are either victorious or you are martyred. Once you have gotten rid of the fear of death, it isn't so hard to see why they are all so cheerful and relaxed. It helps that a lot of them are quite dim, but every army in history has exploited the thick and the poor. Jihad is like a Goth-tinged stag do for them, a great lads outing where they really do get off their heads. Young people in any culture have always been susceptible to narcissism and romanticising suicide. Like the man said, Geezers need excitement and if their lives don't provide it they stay inside violence – simply common sense.
