Iraq war atrocity film Redacted bombs in US

Brian De Palma's Redacted, a film based on the real life rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by US soldiers, has become the latest war and terror themed Hollywood release to fail at the box office.

The drama from the director of Carrie, Scarface and Casualties of War took just over $25,000 during its US opening weekend when it was shown at only 15 cinemas nationwide.

By contrast, Disney's fairy tale romantic comedy Enchanted took more than $50 million during its opening five-days, which ended on Sunday.

The film, for which De Palma won the Silver Lion best director award at this year's Venice Film Festival, was inspired by online reports about a US Army squad raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl before shooting her in the face, torching her body and killing her entire family.

"Everything you see in the movie is something I got off the internet, including the masked character who confesses to some atrocity and wants everyone to know about it," De Palma told the San Francisco Chronicle.

"I changed the names. I fictionalised things. But it's all based on real stuff that I saw."

The film, which was shot documentary-style on digital video in just 18 days, revisits the themes of Casualties of War, about the rape of a Vietnamese farm girl by US troops.

But Redacted has met mixed reviews and triggered outrage among some conservatives with calls for a boycott (a website, www.boycottredacted.com, was set up) and talk show host and critic Michael Medved claiming it "could be the worst movie I've ever seen."

"It appears that De Palma is just the latest moviemaker eager to foist a heavy-handed anti-war picture on the public, and frankly some of these shrill screeds are starting to look silly," wrote reviewer Kam Williams.

The film's dire performance follows the public's similarly lacklustre response to other recent releases themed around the Iraq war and post-September 11 policy. In the Valley of Elah, from Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis and based on true events linked to the Iraq war, has made less than $7 million since its September release despite a cast including Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon.

The Robert Redford-directed political drama Lions for Lambs, with Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep, also sank with minimal trace, taking less than $14 million in three weeks - less than half its production cost.

Even The Kingdom, starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, about an FBI squad targeting Saudi terrorists, made only $47 million, a low figure for a widely-released action movie with high-profile stars.

Earlier this year, A Mighty Heart, about the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, made just over $9 million after eight weeks.

Commentators say the films' subject matter is proving too close to home for many cinema-goers, who seek escapism. In some cases, the releases have just not been good enough.

"These movies have to be entertaining," Lew Harris, editor of Movies.com, said. "You can't just take a movie and make it anti-war or anti-torture and expect to draw people in. That's what happened with Rendition and it has been a disaster."