U.S. Foreign Policy and the Big Screen

According to About.com's World and Independent Film site, "Brian De Palma's Redacted, the devastating reconstruction of the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by American soldiers, has been one of the most divisive films to be released this year."

The movie hit American theaters last weekend and will no doubt join in the swirl of foreign policy debate about U.S. involvement in Iraq. Read coverage of Redacted from About Guides Jurgen Fauth and Marcy Dermansky.

Fauth and Dermansky also recommend the documentary No End In Sight, now available on DVD. "If you want take the leap from disbelief and confusion to a clearer, empowering understanding of how we arrived at our current predicament, then political scientist Charles Ferguson's documentary No End in Sight is highly recommended," they write.

One other new movie rolling out to more theaters and dealing with U.S. foreign policy is Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains. Here, filmmaker Jonathan Demme follows former President Jimmy Carter on a nationwide book tour for his highly controversial, best-selling book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, with Habitat for Humanity stops along the way. About Guide to Documentaries Jennifer Merins says, "Demme has produced an unusually intimate, insightful and revealing tribute to an exceptional elder statesman who, now in his 80s, continues to work tirelessly for peace."