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TagsBY MIRIAM RINN
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
MOVIE REVIEW
Filmed at Guantanamo Bay and in Yemen, the documentary "The Oath" attempts to tell the intersecting story of two men, Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, his driver. At the film‘s start, Jandal – talkative, charismatic, and lucky – is driving a taxi in Sana'a, Yemen's capital, and talking about his jihadi exploits to anyone who will listen.
Much less fortunate, Hamdan is sitting in a cell in the American military prison, writing occasional letters to his wife. We never see Hamdan, of course, but we hear an actor read his letters, and we see a lot of his military defense team as he prepares to face a military tribunal.
He is the Hamdan of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the landmark Supreme Court case that eventually found in his favor, declaring that the Bush administration's military tribunals violated the Geneva Conventions and international law.
This is the second film in director Laura Poitras's trilogy about America after 9/11. The first was "My Country, My Country," a documentary about the U.S. occupation of Iraq told from an Iraqi doctor's perspective. Her stated intention is to examine how the catastrophe of 9/11 led to another catastrophe – the trashing of American values and the rule of law, which resulted in torture, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo.Interestingly, "The Oath," which refers to the pledge that men make when they join Al Qaeda, may undermine that very point. Jandal, who Poitras films almost obsessively, often in close-up, seems to be little more than a manipulative sociopath, while Hamdan's military legal team appear heroic in their determination to free a man they are convinced has been unjustly imprisoned. That certainly doesn't excuse the government‘s actions, but this isn't the simple-minded U.S. bashing you might expect.
Jandal first went to war against the West in Bosnia, and he later recruited Hamdan outside a mosque in Yemen. Although he's clearly religious, Jandal comes across as an adventure seeker – a guy who was looking for something exciting and fun to do, something that would make for a really good story later.
The two men went off to Afghanistan, where they met bin Laden. According to Jandal, while he became a very important member of Al Qaeda, met lots of important terrorists, and consulted on a variety of matters, Hamdan got a job as a driver. After 9/11, Jandal sensed that trouble was coming and got himself and his family into Pakistan. Somehow he forgot about his brother-in-law (the two men married sisters on bin Laden‘s advice), and Hamdan was arrested in Kandahar when the Americans invaded. Taken to Guantanamo, Hamdan was accused of conspiracy "to commit offenses triable by military commission."
The film cuts between the two stories – Jandal's and Hamdan's – without a narrator, depending on the voices of those involved. Jandal can't shut up, speaking volubly about his work with Al Qaeda, shmoozing potential recruits, rousing his sleepy son for morning prayers, going on talk shows, and always playing for the camera.
Although he becomes tiresome after a while, Poitras's camera seems to love him. She has constructed the documentary so that pertinent information is withheld until the end, trying for a surprise ending perhaps, but this just seems contrived. Meanwhile, at Guantanamo, Hamdan's military and civilian lawyers are doing everything they can to get him freed, and end up being the heroes of the film.
The American system of government is far from perfect, but as others have said, it still looks pretty good compared to others.
