Agreed Austin. I should start off my saying that the best films on any controversial topic should avoid being preachy, manipulative or worse yet, promulgate propaganda. Instead, it should present both sides of an issue and let the viewers decided. After all, there are always two sides to any story and for a film's storyline to have a ring of truth even if it's based on a fictional work, it mustn't be biased either way. And Camp X-Ray did just that. In fact, Peter Sattler, who wrote the screenplay and directed this film, stressed the importance of not taking sides.
The most political role Kristen has had to date was as Kathryn Lynn in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. But even this film wasn't predominantly political either as the main premise for this film was Billy's being torn between serving his country to the best of his ability as a decorated Army specialist while simultaneously trying to please his sister Kathryn who opposed the war. Even though Kathryn did oppose the war in Iraq, she did not engage in any protests, least to say, not the kind of violent protests as was seen by Dakota Fanning's character Meredith who portrayed a violent antiwar activist who planted bombs and killed innocent civilians in "American Pastoral". And besides, the vast majority of all contemporary war dramas about modern day warfare have an underlying antiwar theme. Case in point: I can't think of a single war drama made in the last decade about a war that occurred during the past 10 years which glorified such wars.
That being said, perhaps it should also be stated that Camp X-Ray did have geopolitical undertones in the sense that this film's premise hinted that detainees at Guantanamo Bay were being detained without due process, or more aptly, without abiding by habeas corpus along with implying that some of the detainees were being tortured since they are not afforded protection from such abuses under the Geneva conventions as prisoners are, a point which Cole made very clear--geopolitical in the sense that Gitmo's very existence has and continues to spark international outrage.
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