Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

icarus6 Just finished watching the movie and was blown away ( no pun intended) by the masterful direction, cinematography, acting and the story. An extremely important movie of our times. A decade from now this movie will be looked as a classical piece of cinema which stood above the rest as it makes every scene and every dialogue relevant in answering "what drives a normal educated person to blow himself up?" This movie neither humanizes nor de-humanizes the suicide bomber, it only shows how one is driven to commit such acts, the motives, the anger and the rage. Myself a Pakistani Canadian, unlike some of my countrymen on this forum I don't feel that this movie stereotypes Pakistanis at all. The message of this movie is bigger than stereotyping or humanizing terrorism, it is an in dept study of the struggles that takes inside a living, breathing human being may that be a Pakistani or an American, hence the title "The War Within". Beautiful movie, one of the finest yet one of the saddest I have seen in a while. 5 stars!

harropjen The character development here was awesome - I can see why it was a little controversial, with the protagonist being a suicide bomber... But it did such a good job of eliciting support for him. The dramatic change between his beliefs is explained well, I think. The fact that he goes to live with such a pro-American family is also compelling - his beliefs were changed by racism and torture, and he found solace in religion. That development makes it easier to understand how people become so radically religious. (this from a staunch atheist)Wicked, wicked movie. Loved the music, it really helped me to understand the importance or mood of a scene. Some of the filmography was impressive too - really fast moving scenes where you're sort of confused but it goes to character sympathy - it conveys his confusion really well. All in all, I thought this was really well done. Perhaps a bit before its time in the American market, given that the material is sympathetic to terrorists, but I think it's sympathetic to the individual more so than the act of terrorism.

southerngirl222 I must admit I thought I was going to hate this movie. My ex boyfriend made me go see it. (Note the "Ex"!! :)). He's history but the movie has stayed with me. I don't know any Pakistanis. This movie opened my eyes. It felt real. The people, especially the family. The husband/father was really WONDERFUL. The scene where he watches his son being brainwashed by the terrorist (pretending he's teaching him how to pray but really filling his little head with all kinda hatred), made me want to SCREAM! That kind of subtle and quiet hatred is so frightening. It's like watching Osama. He seems so calm but you know underneath the skin is something that looks more like the creature from Alien. These guys were brave to make this movie. I really didn't understand why the father got taken away at the end, though. I mean he's the one that made the call, right? I think that was a little unrealistic and/or unfair (to the FBI). I do recommend every American go see this. Not so's you feel bad about being American. That's ridiculous. Just so's we get more perspective on what's going on today. And it's a movie that entertains as well as educates.

leilapostgrad I liked it so much because it is complex and doesn't give easy answers. The War Within starts out with an innocent man walking down the streets of Paris and talking on his cell phone. Out of nowhere, a group of men jump out of a black SUV, grab the man on his cell, throw him into the SUV, and ship him to a prison camp in Pakistan where he is then tortured for the next three years. And all this happens even before the opening credits.The man on his cell phone is named Hassan, and the men in the black SUV are American CIA agents who kidnap and torture Hassan because (we later learn) his brother lead a peaceful anti-war protest in Afghanistan. Three years later, after enough torture and abuse to drive any man crazy, Hassan is released from prison and travels to America to get his revenge. So clearly he's a bad guy, right? But then again, he was no threat to anyone before he was kidnapped, beaten, and tortured for three years. So then is America the bad guy? What makes The War Within so intelligent and so superb is that isn't a story about good guys and bad guys. It's a story about the mammoth "War on Terror" and how it affects a single group of Pakistani immigrants in New York. The only bad guys are the acts of violence themselves, and all sides of guilty of that. You absolutely have to see this exquisite character study and you have to tell everyone you know to see it, too.