Traitor (film)

Traitor

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Produced by Don Cheadle
David Hoberman
Todd Lieberman
Jeff Silver
Ashok Amritraj
Arlene Gibbs
Kay Lieberman
Steve Martin
Richard Schlesinger
Screenplay by Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Story by Steve Martin
Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Starring Don Cheadle
Guy Pearce
Music by Mark Kilian
Cinematography J. Michael Muro
Edited by Billy Fox
Production
company
Overture Films
Mandeville Films
Hyde Park Entertainment
Crescendo Productions
Distributed by Overture Films (US)
Paramount Pictures (Australia/Netherlands/France)
Release date
 August 27, 2008
Running time
 114 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Arabic
Budget $22 million
Box office $27,640,957[1]

Traitor is a 2008 American spy thriller film, based on an idea by Steve Martin who is also an executive producer. It is written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff and stars Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce in the lead roles.

Plot

Samir Horn (Don Cheadle) is an Arabic-speaking Sudanese-American and devout Muslim. His Sudanese father was killed by a car bomb when he was a child. As an adult, Samir is first seen operating as an arms dealer. While negotiating a deal with Omar (Saïd Taghmaoui) in Yemen he is arrested and thrown into a Yemeni jail. Later, Samir and Omar become friends and when Omar's people arrange an escape, he takes Samir with them. They meet Fareed (Alyy Khan), a lieutenant in the al-Nathir terrorist organization. FBI Special Agent Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) suspects Samir has been radicalized and begins tracking him.

Joining al-Nathir, Samir uses the skills he learned as a Special Forces Engineer Sergeant with the U.S. Army Special Forces to bomb the U.S. consulate in Nice, France. It is revealed that Samir is working under deep cover for a US intelligence contractor, Carter (Jeff Daniels); Samir is devastated when he learns that despite Carter's covert efforts, innocent people perished in the consulate bombing. Impressed with Samir, Fareed introduces him to leader Nathir, who discloses a plot to place suicide bombers on 50 buses in the U.S. during Thanksgiving, and instructs Samir to act as liaison to each of the al-Nathir sleeper bombers. Later, Carter unwittingly interrupts a meeting between Samir and Omar, and is killed by Omar.

Samir reveals his deep cover to Agent Clayton, who tracks him to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. While on board a cargo ship to Marseille, France, Samir kills Nathir and Fareed, and tells an enraged Omar that by targeting innocents they betrayed Islam. Samir then tells Omar that he switched the bombers' emails and he placed them all on the same bus so all of them died without victims (except for the driver of the one bus). The Canadian police and the FBI break in, killing Omar and injuring Samir.

Later, underneath the 'L' in Chicago, Samir tells Agent Clayton he feels guilty for killing innocent people, and that the Qur'an says that to kill an innocent person is to kill all mankind. Clayton responds by noting that the Qur'an also says that by saving an innocent person, he has saved all mankind, and tells Samir he is a hero.

Cast

Production

The project had been in development since 2002, and was originally set to be produced by Walt Disney Pictures (through Touchstone Pictures), but was dropped owing to management change. It was picked up by Overture Films. Principal photography started in early September, 2007, in Toronto, Marseille and Marrakesh.[2]

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes reported that 63% of critics gave positive reviews based on 166 reviews,[3] with the summary, "Despite another reliable performance from Don Cheadle, Traitor suffers from too many cliches and an unfocused narrative." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, gave the film a 60/100 approval rating based on 29 reviews.[4]

Cheadle's performance was praised. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four and wrote in his review, "The movie proceeds quickly, seems to know its subject matter, is fascinating in its portrait of the inner politics and structure of the terrorist group, and comes uncomfortably close to reality. But what holds it together is the Cheadle character."[5]

Box office

The film opened #5 with $7 million on its opening weekend.[6] As of November 23, the film has grossed $23.5 million in Canada and the United States and $2.2 million in other markets, including $800,000 in Australia, for a total $27.6 million worldwide.[1]

Anwar, a 2010 Malayalam Indian film was an uncredited remake of Traitor.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 "Traitor (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
  2. ↑ Kit, Boris (2007-07-11). "Cheadle, Pearce go undercover". The Hollywood Reporter: 1, 18. ISSN 0018-3660. Archived from the original on 2007-07-13. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  3. ↑ "Traitor Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 2014-01-20. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  4. ↑ "Traitor (2008):Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  5. ↑ "Roger Ebert Review". The Chicago Sun-Times. 2008-09-14. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  6. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results from 8/29 to 8/31". Box Office Mojo. 2008-08-31. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  7. ↑ "Anwar". CineBuzz. Archived from the original on 28 October 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
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