These are
dark days for
We live in a time where “habeas corpus” has been thrown aside, and the
government can now detain anyone,
citizen or non-citizen, for any reason – or none at all – and that person can
be held and interrogated with “enhanced techniques” indefinitely without any
access to counsel or due process. Worse yet, the general populace seem woefully
unaware and/or indifferent that without habeas corpus as the one unbreakable
tenet our society, none of our other rights – right to bear arms, free speech,
privacy – mean anything. After all, if they can be taken away and you have no
recourse to dispute it, they’re not worth much. As long as we’re given vague
promises that these are “enemy combatants”, we’re good. After all, if there
were a cadre of ticking time bombs threatening us domestically, we’d need to do
whatever was necessary to protect the homeland, no? Do you not watch 24?
Yeah, it’s
that bad. But don’t despair. The same town that provides that silliness is
responsible for Rendition, the political torture drama featuring Reese
Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Peter Sarsgaard (Microsoft Word…I’m sorry. I’m
truly sorry). The trailer’s finally here, and it’s much as you’d expect. Given
the star power involved, the politics are simplified in favor of focusing on
the story of “one woman’s struggle” (Witherspoon) to find her Arabic husband
who was snatched at the airport and detained for “suspicious activities.”
Meanwhile, Meryl Streep looms in the background as a cold, hawkish government
official of some type that looks basically like a female version of Tom Cruise’s
character in Lions for Lambs. If there were more random sermonizing here,
you probably wouldn’t be able to tell the two trailers apart. It’ll certainly
be an interesting fall with this, The Kingdom, and Lions
for Lambs all landing within weeks of each other.
Rendition hits theaters October 12. You can
check out the trailer – which, unfortunately, is in the asstastic AOL format –
by clicking here.