Chapter sixty: Rendition

Hi all! I hope everyone has been staying warm amidst this weather we're having. As I look at my messy bed from when I woke up an hour earlier, I think about what could possibly be interesting to start off this entry? I've been home all week, going to school virtually, so I haven't done much. But next week, Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors are supposed to be going back all together four days a week until spring break, and then after spring break, we go back to the regular five days a week in-person. I think that is a fairly dumb idea that won't last, and not just because it means I can't "use my resources" on tests. However, I'm looking forward to seeing my friends more often and consistently.

Saturday, I went to my last pep band game for the year. I played snare for the whole game, which was exciting, but do you ever notice how as my mom puts it, "the last quarter of any sport seems to last an hour." It's true. I checked my phone when there were seven minutes left in the last quarter at 9:06 pm last night, and I didn't go home until 9:49. The music keeps me entertained, even if I don't entirely know what's going on.

Quickly, I might add that this past Friday, the 19th, marks two remaining months of this blog! I intend to take no longer than one year, which means I should be done and complete by April 19th. Anyway, this week's movie is called Rendition. I looked up the word "rendition" today, trying to figure out how the title meshed with the plot of the film since I thought "rendition" meant something similar to " film adaptation." Turns out, "rendition" has two meanings, the second being "the practice of sending a foreign criminal or terrorist suspect covertly to be interrogated in a country with less rigorous regulations for the humane treatment of prisoners," which fits right into the plot of this movie. (Does the word "rendition" make sense anymore since I've used it five times in this paragraph?)

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From 2007, the movie is about Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally.) He's an Egyptian-born American chemical engineer who, upon returning from a business conference in Cape Town back to his family, is taken into airport custody after his Washington flight. His phone has tracked calls between him and a suspected terrorist in North Africa whose suicide bombing has left a CIA agent amongst those dead. Anwar's ambush is set into motion by Meryl's character, Corrine Whitman, the night before, who's the Director of the CIA. Anwar is now separated from his expectant wife, Isabela (Reese Witherspoon,) and their young son. When he does not return home later that night, Isabela begins to worry with no feasible sign of where Anwar is.

That's because he's placed a plane to Morocco, a country that tortures for information. America doesn't torture, but when pressed by Isabela's lawyer about Anwar's condition, Corrine maintains that he isn't innocent, and what they are doing is saving thousands of lives from terrorism. (Keep in mind, this movie was filmed six years after 911, and I've read that this method of interrogation was used by the Bush Admin. after the fact.) So, I'm sure you can put the pieces together as to what this movie is about from there. It's scarily well done.

Anwar is released when a new American investigator undergoing his first assignment (Jake Gyllenhaal) realizes they aren't getting anywhere. As research shows, when you torture someone long enough, they'll tell you what you want to hear, even if it isn't true. So, after establishing a good relationship with the prime minister, the investigator sneaks Anwar out of his isolated den and sets him free to return to his now family of four.

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Personally, as a teenager who watched this movie at midnight just for Meryl's character, I should've rewatched Mamma Mia! or The Devil Wears Prada because I'm figuring out that when it comes to these gritty political matters, I don't necessarily understand it. But that's not to say that it isn't a good movie because the torturing point certainly gets across. Writing about it forces me to understand it more anyway.

As always, thank you for the entertainment, Meryl.