The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
Truly Indie | Release Date: March 23, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The style is brash, and it works. Tucker and Epperlein illustrate Yunis' account of his eight-month imprisonment, much of that time spent at the notorious Abu Ghraib compound, with literal illustrations--pages seemingly torn out of a Frank Miller graphic novel. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Eight months of interrogation and torture in fetid Abu Ghraib followed before he was released, innocent. None of The Prisoner's showy flourishes -- animation, sound effects, fancy editing -- can match the power of Abbas' stillness as he describes one man's agony in one huge hell. Read full review
80
Film ThreatMerle Bertrand
War is chaos and confusion even under the best of circumstances, of which this current fiasco clearly ain’t. The Prisoner… underscores this fact, as well as muddying up the waters on such commonly accepted platitudes as "Support the Troops." Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
A modestly mounted, but curiously poignant little documentary... which somehow -- quietly, devastatingly -- shows and tells you more than you may perhaps want to know about the dehumanization implicit in the mighty, blighted Iraqi adventure. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
The film leaves us wondering about all the war stories we haven't heard. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
While the documentary isn't as compelling as its source material, Abbas tells an interesting story about his incarceration. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It's an angry story, but also a strangely hopeful one, in the sense of new life sprouting through a battlefield. Above all, it's personal and specific, and that IS news we can use. Read full review
70
VarietyJoe Leydon
The Prisoner is in many ways a justifiably angry film, simmering with moral outrage. But it is also -- surprisingly, maybe even amazingly -- hopeful. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichelle Orange
Yunis, as he imploringly reminds us, is the Iraqi people, but he is also steeped in Hollywood references, pulling analogies for the U.S. occupation from "Rambo" and "Dirty Harry." Read full review
70
Washington PostPhilip Kennicott
It is a film rich in detail, the kind that simply never emerges in the nightly news accounts of the war. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
What's troubling about the film's technique is its lack of context; we must take Yuris, who speaks serviceable English, pretty much at his word. What's troubling about his story is its ring of truth.
67
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
The very concept of such an assassination isn't so absurd as to be wacky – at least not since somebody fired a rocket at UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last Thursday. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
By recounting Abbas' ordeal as an endless inarticulate monologue, The Prisoner reduces it to a dull anecdote--timely and relevant, perhaps, but an anecdote all the same. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
It is a depressing story, certainly, as well as moving, confusing and, at a fast 72 minutes, at once undercooked and overpadded. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
His story demands to be heard, though Tucker and Epperlein lack the material for a full feature and pad this out to 73 minutes with some incongruously playful elements (spy music, comic-book illustrations, scenes of Abbas frolicking at a beach). Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMark Olsen
The film becomes a dizzying descent into a world of contradictions, military illogic and ineffectual bureaucracy. Read full review
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