The Oath
Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: May 7, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Arizona RepublicKerry Lengel
This is a challenging, brilliantly constructed film that, despite its patience and quiet tone, is engrossing from its first moments, especially an opening scene that encapsulates Jandal's poignant contradictions. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The hidden message of The Oath is so inescapable as to be Shakespearean: Character will out. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Her film is just as effective as a portrait of two unknowable, individual souls caught up in events of global scale. Read full review
80
Village VoiceElla Taylor
Early in Laura Poitras's outstanding documentary The Oath, we learn that one of its subjects, Abu Jandal, a cabdriver living in Yemen, was Osama bin Laden's bodyguard in Afghanistan. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith Uhlich
What emerges is an illuminating, though terribly dismaying, portrait of the War on Terror’s lasting effects. Whether one retreats or steps out defiantly, there is no sanctuary. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
Jandal emerges as someone who was truly in Bin Laden's inner circle, Hamdan seems the menial driver he claimed to be. What remains unanswered is where their allegiances now lie. Frightening or not, terrorists or not, both seem human, which at the end of the day is what Poitras set out to do. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn Defore
Fascinating, however uneasy, viewing. Read full review
70
NPRMark Jenkins
Quietly, the film makes the case that "enhanced interrogation techniques" were no enhancement. Interviewing jihadis "by the book," one interrogator testifies, yielded better information than violence and deprivation. Read full review
70
The New York TimesMike Hale
It has staying power. In place of large revelations, you’ll find yourself remembering scenes like the one in which Abu Jandal sits absorbed by a news report of a bombing in Kabul, until his son requests a change of channel. It’s time for “Tom and Jerry.” Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Who are these men, so eager for asceticism, violence, and martyrdom? At first, we think that’s what we’ll learn from The Oath, a fascinating documentary directed, produced, and shot by Laura Poitras. We don’t really, but what we do find out is of equal interest, and oddly reassuring. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazinePam Grady
By focusing on the human aspect of Al-Qaeda, The Oath does give the viewer something to think about, but the film is unsatisfying, raising questions and providing too few answers. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
At first, The Oath looks as though it will be a study of the soul-corroding effects of twisted ideology, but it emerges as the reverse. Read full review
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