Harodim

***SPOILER*** After a 10 year search where he faked his death and left his family former Navy Seal Lazarus Fell, Travis Fimmel, has finally got the person who eluded him as well as the free world all these years the #1 terrorist in the world. No it's not Osama Bin-Laden but someone nameless who's at least 20 years younger and speaks perfect English played by actor Michael Desante!

Holding Terrorist #1 hostage in this underground Vienna train station Lazarus gives him the business in how evil he is in being responsible for among other things the attacks on 9/11 that killed over 3,000 American citizens. It's when the totally unafraid of death and torture terrorist counterbalances Lazarus claims about him and his Al-Qeada terrorist organization that he suddenly starts to get second thought! Not just about what happened on 9/11 and who was behind it but everything that he's been thought in school as well as by his late Naval officer dad Solomon Fell, Peter Fonda, as being nothing but outright lies.

Despite being considered fiction the movie brings out a number of very disturbing events that shock those of us watching it. And it's the captured terrorist who brings those events out so clearly and convincingly that he not only changes Lazarus's mind in killing him but in fact ends up strongly agreeing with him instead! The facts that the terrorist brings out in the open are so,or seem to be, factual that even us watching have trouble in disbelieving them.

****SPOILERS**** The real kicker in the movie is Lazarus's dad Solomon Fell who in fact turned out to have survived the 9/11 attacks and pops up almost out of nowhere in the underground train station where his son & #1 Terrorist are staying. It's then that Solomon Fell lets out the truth of what's really going on in the world and why no one in power is willing or able to stop it. A truth so shocking as well as thought provoking that leaves you as well as by now the totally emotionally destroyed Lazarus wishing that you never heard it.

This movie needs to be seen by every human on the planet. Every so often Hollywood gets it canny and right and lets us in on the secret world of manipulation by powerful private factions in global economics and politics. Harodim follows in the footsteps of China Syndrome, Mickey One and Wall Street in showing us how the game is really played.

In spite of the claustrophobic, stage play ambiance, Harodim is as riveting and compelling as any Lars Von Trier stage set piece. Peter Fonda is convincing and the revelatory nature of his role keeps his deadpan world weary character from predictability. Travis Fimmel must have taken time out from his smirking role in Vikings to make this film. His portrayal of slowly dawning enlightenment has its share of clichés, but this is more in the nature of the script than limitations of his craft. Michael Desante portrayal of Osama Bin Laden is authentic and lends the film its motivic rationale without any equivocation.

Conversely if you don't like Oliver Stone movies, you aren't gonna like this either.

It's a good movie and it's good entertainment, keeping you at the edge of your seat most of the time. And as such it does deserve 9 out of 10. The reason it has a much lower rating is because people take it for more than that and disagree with it. Just take it as what it is - a work of fiction. You wouldn't rate down an episode of the X-Files because not everything it portrays is exactly that way in reality, right? So why do it with this movie?

That said, even though it's of course fiction and at best a fictionalized version of real events, it's not even a badly researched movie. They definitely did their research and it encourages you to do your own research. Basically that's the message I got from it. It encourages people not to rely on what this movie portrays or what any movie portrays for that matter, but to look at things for themselves and form their own opinion and to do that with everything, not just with the subject of the movie.

I had a bad feeling about watching this (according to this awful rating) but I also thought this could be one of these few cases of raging viewers down-voting a good movie because of very personal reasons. And this seems to be the case.

To be clear: My voting of 8/10 is based ONLY on the premise of viewing this as a total work of fiction loosely based on some facts. I understand that watching this movie as a person who was directly and personally affected by 9/11 probably makes said person quite angry. This movie could easily been seen as cheap propaganda, but i guess this was not really the intention.

Long story short: This movie is very enjoyable if you like stage-play-like films where dialog is the main ingredient. Basically there is just a handful actors in one cheap location. But who cares if said dialog manages to keep you listening for the whole time? If you're open minded and like thought provoking films (even if they may be just propaganda): Watch it! You won't regret it.

BTW I seldom review movies, only if i feel that a movie deserves it.