September Tapes is a brilliant little piece of manipulation that profoundly blurs the line between reality and fantasy. The technique used here, passing something off as "documentary footage" when it really isn't, is definitely not something new but it is tremendously effective in its purpose. If you've ever seen films like 84 Charlie MoPic - a cameraman follows around a platoon in Vietnam - or Man Bites Dog - a French film about a camera crew who follows around a serial killer - or The Blair Witch Project - do I really need to explain what it's about? - or Gang Tapes - a stolen camera documents gang warfare in the inner city. All these films along with September Tapes utilize our voyeuristic side in that we know it's not real but we watch it like it's a car wreck on the side of the road.
September Tapes takes something that was in all of us Americans right after 9/11, the desire to find Bin Laden and kill him, and thrusts it into the screen. There were times in the film when I honestly couldn't decide whether it was exploitative or not. The film carries out much like that of Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now with Bin Laden of course being Kurtz. The only difference being that here, Marlow never finds Kurtz.
All in all I must say they did a great job of establishing the false sense of reality through terrific performances and almost too real locations and events. There is considerable violence, although nothing too graphic. It's not a great film by any means, but it's one intense experience thats easily ten times scarier than Blair Witch.
September Tapes takes something that was in all of us Americans right after 9/11, the desire to find Bin Laden and kill him, and thrusts it into the screen. There were times in the film when I honestly couldn't decide whether it was exploitative or not. The film carries out much like that of Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now with Bin Laden of course being Kurtz. The only difference being that here, Marlow never finds Kurtz.
All in all I must say they did a great job of establishing the false sense of reality through terrific performances and almost too real locations and events. There is considerable violence, although nothing too graphic. It's not a great film by any means, but it's one intense experience thats easily ten times scarier than Blair Witch.