A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Riveting movie presenting the story of a man becoming an Islamist terrorist after being falsely charged and tortured. But I don't understand the title. I didn't really see the man struggle inside. On the contrary, he seemed to be very determined right from the start and did not seem to have serious doubts at any point. Where's the "war within"? Also, the movie doesn't help a lot to make the viewer understand his motives. Every time he is asked to present his views about the conflict between the Muslim world and the West, he just says "Let's not talk about that", and walks away. And although he writes a letter to his friends explaining his motives, it's still too sketchy and insufficient. Basically he says his Muslim brothers are suffering all over the world, and that's about it. So, although the movie is enjoyable, it remains superficial and lacking.

This movie was scary and amazing. It made me realize that we are all immigrants in this beautiful country. And it made me proud to be an American. The Pakistani-American family in this movie are so beautiful. They looked beautiful and they made me feel like they could have been my own family. It made me wonder about my own friends. I can't comment on the politics. Some days I feel like I know exactly what my president is saying and I believe him. Some days I feel like I want to kick him. But whatever the truth is, as far as the politics goes, the bottom line is this movie showed the destruction of a beautiful family for no fault of theirs. And that was so compelling to watch. I highly recommend this movie for all Americans. It will make you remember that ALL our parents came over here to find something better for them and theirs.

If, like me, you've been waiting for the first serious narrative film portrayal of contemporary Islamic terrorism, here it is. I had searched in vain for such a feature shortly before release of "War Within." The closest thing I found was "The Terrorist," a well crafted 1999 film set in Sri Lanka, about a young Tamil woman who is trained to become a suicide bomber.But the insurrection of the Tamil rebels against the government has always been about political control, not conflicting world views or religion as such. The terrorist is not motivated by the promise of reward in the afterlife for her deed, but by the vision of a better sociopolitical future for her people. There's nothing in that movie that bears on extremist Muslim jihad.Now we've got such a film, and it's pretty good. Co-written by three buddies, alums of the Columbia University Graduate Film Program, it is directed by one of them (Joseph Castelo) and stars another (Ayad Akhtar, born and raised in Milwaukee) as Hassan, a peaceable Pakistani engineer turned suicide bomber.The screenplay is vague on contextual details. Hassan has been living and studying in Paris for some time. As the film opens he's out strolling, gabbing on his cell phone about what film he wants to see that evening, when he is forcibly seized, thrust into a car and injected in the neck with a drug, an explosive sequence that definitely hooks you.Remanded to a prison in Pakistan, he is held there for more than two years and regularly tortured by authorities that assume he is mixed up with a domestic terrorist organization, a group Hassan's brother had apparently been affiliated with, a brother who, unbeknownst to Hassan, had been killed earlier because of this presumed connection. From here on the plot unfolds more clearly.Hassan, previously apolitical, is radicalized by this experience and, upon release from prison, he affiliates with an extremist group that eventually smuggles him into New York City, where he joins others who will use his engineering skills to make bombs for imminently planned suicide missions at major public sites like Grand Central Station.When the FBI busts up the cell, Hassan must find cover and moves into the home of an old school chum, Sayeed (Firdous Bamji), a physician who has immigrated with his family to New Jersey. Sayeed is comfortably settled, a middle-of-the-road Muslim, definitely pro-American. Hassan does not discuss his imprisonment or his mission with Sayeed, though wide differences in the two men's religio-political views gradually become clear.Hassan, his resolve fueled by horrid nocturnal flashbacks from his captivity, now secretly assembles bomb packs in Sayeed's basement for himself and another cell member who has stayed at large. Finally discovered, he bolts, bombs and all, heading for Grand Central Station. Sayeed calls the police, who of course take Sayeed himself into custody. Duri, Sayeed's sister, who has a major crush on Hassan, also tries to stop him, but to no avail. The fact that Hassan successfully detonates his payload in the middle of Manhattan is chilling, to say the least.The main characters (Hassan and Sayeed) are written thoughtfully and are well acted: they aren't just devices to expound differing perspectives. Hassan is reserved, self contained, understandably guarded. He is tender toward Sayeed's young son, Ali, but does not spare him lessons about the threats to Muslims throughout the world that Hassan perceives, lessons imparted in whispers at night in the bedroom they share. At times we see anger and tension burning in Hassan's eyes, but more often he appears to be serenely sure of himself, and this too is chilling.Sayeed, in contrast, has been thoroughly Westernized. He's warm, gregarious, trusting. And when, near the end, he picks up the phone to dial the police, to report Hassan's terrorist intentions, secure in the belief that here in the U.S. his trust will be requited, you want to shout out to him, No! Don't do it! They will take you! See you as complicit in the bombing plot! You and your family may be ruined! It is a deeply ironic moment, presented, as is everything in the film, without pompous sermonizing.This movie demonizes the Pakistanis who kidnap and torture Hassan. Perhaps this is justified, but it is regrettable that the film stoops to the same tactic of anonymous stereotyping that has characterized portrayals of terrorists themselves in nearly all the unsatisfactory Hollywood movies on this theme (mostly third rate action flicks in which a Bruce Willis, Sly Stallone or Ahnold the Governator kills off the faceless terrorist horde).The story in "War Within" hangs together plausibly until near the end, when events become kaleidoscopically frantic, too much so to be entirely believable. The other significant flaw in this film is that, apart from its two central characters, the other roles are merely one dimensional props.A major strength of "War Within" is its intelligently entwined story of conflict on three levels, sounded in the triple entendre of its title. Surely there is a war afoot within the world, between the jihadists and others, especially the U.S., Western Europe and Australia. And there is a struggle within the Islamist world itself, between religious moderates and militant fundamentalists, personified here by Sayeed and Hassan.There are also hints of a struggle going on within Hassan himself, a pull between his former comfortable, peaceful way of life, a life Sayeed and Duri would be only too glad to help him restart in America, and the terrorist cause to which he has more recently dedicated himself.This film no doubt foreshadows others on terrorism yet to come that may be better, but "War Within" is a noteworthy beginning. (In Urdu & English) My rating: 7.5/10 (low B+). (Seen on 10/23/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.

Despite copious data that would indicate otherwise, suicide terrorism and fundamentalist Islam are inextricably linked in the public mind. It's more comfortable to imagine villains to be driven to such an act by an extremist ideology, perhaps compounded by personal or psychological problems, than to imagine them as having tangible goals one could possibly relate to. If suicide terrorists are not religious extremists then one would have to start looking for what else could prompt such behavior. In states that are victims of suicide terrorism, the answers to those questions are quite often troubling as it is normally the case that it was some act, or acts, perpetrated by the victim state that triggered the bombing or bombings (Explanation being different from justification, etc.). In Joseph Castelo's new The War Within, the would-be bomber is a combination of the two narratives.A recipe of equal parts fundamentalist indoctrination and victimization by American foreign policy have created Hassan (an excellent Ayad Akhtar, who shares screenplay credits as well). The film opens with Hassan in Paris' Latin Quarter. He's abducted by American agents and taken to Pakistan for "questioning". There he's subjected to continuing sessions of torture that break the man he was before. His sole source of strength in prison is the support and care of fellow prisoner Khalid (Charles Daniel Sandoval), a member of "The Brotherhood", a group Hassan initially rejected. The story of Hassan's conversion from a secular, drinking, smoking, dancing mechanical engineer to a fanatically devout militant bombmaker is not fleshed out. It is more or less abandoned for the sake of catching up with Hassan a few years later though sufficient key details are parceled out in the occasional flashback.Three years later a free Hassan is smuggled into the United States where he unites with a clandestine terrorist cell headed by Khalid. Assuring Khalid that there is no likelihood of his being detected, Hassan goes to stay with Sayeed (Firdous Bamji), a friend from his youth. Sayeed, Farida (Sarita Choudhury) their son Ali (Varun Sriram) are well adjusted to American life. They're are a liberal, and largely secular bunch that do well to combine Pakistani and Muslim traditions with American pastimes as when having an Eid barbecue. Being lifelong friends Sayeed welcomes Hassan, who tells him that he's interviewing for jobs, back into his life.After initial plans for multiple, simultaneous bombings are thwarted by the FBI, Khalid and Hassan try to salvage something from their original plans. Adjusting their objectives means for a longer stay than Hassan originally intended. He returns to Sayeed and with his help finds a job as a taxi driver while waiting for an opportunity to carry out his mission. Hassan has some difficulty with Sayeed's lifestyle but his personal struggle grows with his reintroduction to Sayeed's sister Duri (Nandana Sen). Though finding some Western tendencies of hers to be dissuading, Hassan and Duri start to rekindle a mutual attraction that is hinted as having existed in their shared past in Pakistan. This new twist in his life, along with his lifetime friendship with Sayeed make Hassan begin to struggle with his mission. Hassan sees different aspects of American life that give him pause and challenge his beliefs, and his willingness to carry out what he sees as his duty.In what is probably intended to be a portrayal of a different side of Islam, Sayeed and Hassan are witness to a sermon at a mosque by an Imam who talks about jihad as "the struggle of everyday life." This is one of the few but important missteps the film takes. Though likely well-intentioned, portraying the real conflict between moderate and fundamentalist Islam sheds no light on one of the films primary subjects, terrorism. "What I do, I do for Allah," Hassan states, in one of many lines that obfuscate the causes of terrorism. Terrorism is a political tool, not a religious one. No matter how horrific, illegal and unjustifiable, each campaign of suicide terrorism has an explicit and stated political goal that needs to be addressed in one way or another. Castelo does a good job in showing that actions of the intended victim state were a causative factor but a great deal more time is spent on Hassan's religious conversion.When Sayeed, Hassan and a group of Sayeed's friends are discussing the United States their conversation reveals the disconnect often present in the parlay over American policy. Sayeed's thinks America is a pretty decent place though "things are not perfect here." This is not at all related to a friend's claim that, "This country is a greedy tyrant." They seem to be disagreeing but it's easy for them to both be correct because they are not talking about the same thing. Sayeed, in a somewhat contradictory position for his character, represents the self-centered point of view shared by many Americans. This is contrasted nicely with the strong condemnation the films gives of the policy of extraordinary rendition, where suspects are taken to third-party nations for interrogation by means not allowable under American law.Through sure handed-direction, solid pacing and a slew of solid performances, The War Within is a conspicuously imperfect, but still quite good film. Hopefully some of the ideas the film has might creep in to the public mind such as the message on a billboard in the background of a scene in Times Square, "Democracy is best taught by example, not by war."