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The Road to Guantanamo |  | Directors: Mat Whitecross, Michael Winterbottom
Actors: Riz Ahmed, Farhad Harun, Shahid Iqbal, Waqar Siddiqui, Afran Usman
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.94
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Rating:  32 reviews
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), Urdu (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D16365D
UPC: 043396163652
EAN: 0043396163652
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: October 24, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The Road to Guantanamo is a terrifying first-hand account of three young men British nationals of Muslim faith who were held for two years without charges in the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Known as the 'Tipton Three' in reference to their home town in Britain the three were eventually returned to Britain and released still having had no formal charges ever made against them at any time during their ordeal.Part documentary part dramatization the film chronicles the sequence of events that led the trio from Tipton in the British Midlands to a wedding in Pakistan to their crossing the Afghanistan border just as the U.S. began its bombing campaign to eventual capture by the Northern Alliance to imprisonment at Camp X-Ray and later at Camp Delta in Guantanamo.System Requirements:Running Time: 95 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396163652 Manufacturer No: 16365
Amazon.com
After Welcome to Sarajevo and In This World, The Road to Guantánamo is Michael Winterbottom's most important film. Along with United 93, it's one of the most important films released by anyone in 2006. In the docudrama, which was produced for British television, Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross recount the travails of the Tipton Three, a trio of Britons detained for two years at Guantánamo Bay. How did these apolitical Muslims end up as suspected terrorists? The directors attempt to answer that question by inter-cutting interviews and news footage with recreations of their Kafka-esque journey. It starts with a trip to Pakistan for the wedding of Asif (Afran Usman). In short order, he's joined by Ruhel (Farhad Harun), Shafiq (Riz Ahmed), and Monir (Waqar Siddiqui). On a whim, they decide to visit Afghanistan: "One, for experience, and two, to help." It proves to be their undoing. First, they're caught in a bombing raid; then the Northern Alliance rounds them up as members of al-Qaeda. In the mêlée, Monir goes missing. The remaining three are shipped to Cuba, where US officials stop at nothing to coerce confessions. There's a hard-won happy ending, but it isn't easy to watch--Alan Parker's Ollie Stone-penned Midnight Express seems downright lyrical in comparison. Further, the acting is inconsistent and the character development is sketchy. Those flaws aside, The Road to Guantánamo is powerful and provocative stuff. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
Pretty decent March 29, 2009
J. Dykstra (Roswell, NM)
This is a pretty good depiction of what might have happened to a number of people in the Afghanistan action. It's obviously a fairly one-sided portrayal of events, especially once the detention parts start, and it's doubtful that everything happened exactly as portrayed, but in a general sense, I think the movie got things right. While the movie certainly suggests torture and mistreatment, I think the thing to take aways from it is how a situation that is normally seen by both sides to be rather black and white, in fact has a lot of gray areas. You almost have to watch the movie a couple times to be sure of what's what. The characters aren't developed very well, and that along with action that develops quickly and chaotically can sometimes create a bit of confusion as to what's happening to whom.
No Piety for the Abused February 16, 2009
Michael Kerjman (The Earth)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is a story of explicit abuse of British Pushtu's human rights in which being abused attracted not much piety at all because energy sustaining terror and breading the martyrs worldwide from their nations' cradles, is surely even much less deployed and usable to peaceful means in the UK traditionally (for instance, Kidulthood).
Depicting of a natural Afghan landscape is perfect. Very educative on these merits.
 WHY DID THEY GO? November 1, 2007
The Road To Guantanamo
The reasons for these intellectually challenged British Muslims leaving England and going directly to a war zone is left remarkably unclear. They wanted to "Help" or see large a Nan bread? That for me is the most important question. Why did they go? I mean it is not what you would call a normal holiday. That crucial question is left unanswered.
Did these boys go to fight and then on seeing the realities of War try and escape?
The resulting experiences these boys were made to suffer are inexcusable in a modern world. Just listening to the interviewees should have been enough for the Americans and British to realise these kids posed little threat to anyone except to themselves.
How stupid they were not to shout to the rafters that they are British subjects. If they had come clean with British Military Intelligence things could have been very different.
I would like to see the evidence of the torture of these kids by the British Military.
If they had been given the chance, these boys would most certainly have come home to Britain at their first opportunity and probably never left again. This is an example of simple reality completely destroying indoctrinated and imagined beliefs.
The re-enactments are pretty poor. The objectivity is also very one-sided. The script is monosyllabic and enjoys the liberal usage of the word F**k.
WHY DID THEY GO? November 1, 2007
nmollo (London)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Road To Guantanamo
The reasons for these intellectually challenged British Muslims leaving England and going directly to a war zone is left remarkably unclear. They wanted to "Help" or see large a Nan bread? That for me is the most important question. Why did they go? I mean it is not what you would call a normal holiday. That crucial question is left unanswered.
Did these boys go to fight and then on seeing the realities of War try and escape?
The resulting experiences these boys were made to suffer are inexcusable in a modern world. Torture is simply not legitimate. Just listening to the interviewees should have been enough for the Americans and British to realise these kids posed little threat to anyone except to themselves.
How stupid they were not to shout to the rafters that they are British subjects. If they had come clean with British Military Intelligence things could have been very different.
I would like to see the evidence of the torture of these kids by the British Military. (Since writing this originally, I have found out the British Military did indeed use torture.)
If they had been given the chance, these boys would most certainly have come home to Britain at their first opportunity and probably never left again. This is an example of simple reality completely destroying indoctrinated and imagined beliefs.
The re-enactments are pretty poor. The objectivity is also very one-sided. The script is monosyllabic and enjoys the liberal usage of the word F**k.
Moderately successful critique of Guantanamo October 26, 2007
Peter Hoogenboom (New Zealand)
"Road to Guantanamo" is Michael Winterbottom's attempt to criticise American methods of treating terror suspects and their detention at Guantanamo Bay. Winterbottom follows the story of three apparently innocent English Muslims who, through a number of twists and turns, ended up in Guantanamo.
It's a little hard to understand the naivety of the boys who journey to Afghanistan and end up with the Taleban just as the Americans are about to attack - post the 9/11 atrocities. Heck it looks pretty suspicious and it is no wonder the Americans were dubious about their innocence. The boys are knocked about a bit but hey the Americans were angry post 9/11 and not exactly polite to suspected terrorists.
The story really picks up when the boys are moved to Guantanamo. The treatment of the prisoners is not pretty although nowhere near the horrific cruelty that went on at, for instance, Abu Ghraib during Saddam Hussein's reign.
The emotional impact of the film is lessened somewhat by the aloofness of the four boys but the filmmakers are to be commended for making a film of this scale on such a low budget.
In the end Winterbottom is preaching to the converted here - I'm not so sure it will change people's attitudes either way.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
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