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      The Oath

      2010 1 hr. 30 min. Documentary List
      88% 24 Reviews Tomatometer 79% 250+ Ratings Audience Score Two men's encounter in 1996 leads them to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, and the Supreme Court. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (30) audience reviews
      Audience Member 9/3/15 Sundance Doc Club A very interesting look into the other side in our war on terror. The film makers were able to give the viewer a detailed look at the lives and thought processes of Arab jihadist. Informative and thought provoking. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Fascinating and remarkable look at the lives of two jihadis. Memorable. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member slow, but very intriguing. a very interesting perspective from "inside" al Qaeda. check it out from your library. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Offers a tragic POV from "the other side." Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review jesse o While definitely a very good and thought provoking documentary, I don't think it's ever great. It definitely does a great job at making Abu Jandal, bodyguard of Bin Laden, into a complex individual with complex emotions. I don't want to say they humanize him or make you empathize with his past, but the movie doesn't make him into a villain either. They present his story without taking sides or being preachy. I think the real meat of the story comes with Salim's trial and how he's in the situation that he is in (with the trial, despite having won a historic trial against the Supreme Court and Congress creating a new law after this case to SPECIFICALLY create new fresh charges against him). That's definitely the most striking thing about the movie, the U.S Congress passing a new law that would make sure this guy has a trial, however fair (or constitutional) or not. It's even more striking that this law was passed for someone who was just Bin Laden's driver (and not involved in any terrorist activities, allegedly) when there are much bigger fish to fry including Abu Jandal. Again it's really a very good documentary film, but I don't know what it was missing that only made this a really good, and not a great, movie. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Mike M Poitras translates the jihadist urge in terms Western audiences might just understand - that it can be a means through which to seek the acceptance of your elders. Pulling back, she paints a picture of individuals trapped within byzantine ideological structures - as, indeed, we may all be these days... Jandal sounds committed to the wholesale rejection of mainstream politics, but he worries about the new generation of Al-Qaeda recruits who just want to blow s**t up, and he has the self-awareness (and instincts for self-preservation) to answer "no" when asked whether he'd sign up for any further 9/11-style terrorist activity. Unable to fully embrace either the American or the jihadist worldview, he drives around and around in his cab, as much a prisoner as Hamdin, who himself is at the mercy of debatably constitutional rules and rulings. The implications of "The Oath" are wide-ranging, and its 90 minutes risk over-reaching; had Jandal not achieved the high profile he has across the US media (which has shown more interest in him than the authorities), the filmmaker's access to him might have been even more astonishing than it is. Poitras's film nevertheless remains an acute item of between-the-lines journalism, humanising the figures it isolates from an ongoing conflict without ever sacrificing their complexity. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/26/11 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (24) Critics Reviews
      Rene Rodriguez Miami Herald Rated: 3/4 Jan 31, 2011 Full Review Jonathan F. Richards Film.com Poitras has opened up a fascinating window into the minds of the people who hate us, apparently not so much for our freedom as for our arrogance, our belief that we are the center of the universe. Sep 21, 2010 Full Review Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle The essential information in The Oath could have been boiled down to 30 minutes, but the good parts are indeed good. Rated: 2/4 Jun 18, 2010 Full Review Joanne Laurier World Socialist Web Site The Oath is markedly devoid of any historical context. Nov 21, 2020 Full Review Brian D. Johnson Maclean's Magazine The Oath is a revealing and oddly tender portrait of Abu Jandal... Aug 26, 2019 Full Review Mattie Lucas From the Front Row Poitras has crafted an extremely savvy and compelling documentary, an essential piece of the increasingly intricate puzzle that is the war on terror. Rated: 3.5/4 Aug 5, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Two men's encounter in 1996 leads them to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, and the Supreme Court.
      Director
      Laura Poitras
      Genre
      Documentary
      Original Language
      Arabic
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Oct 18, 2016
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $42.1K