Take The City And Run

Directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross

Man, that was the worst Bob Hope/Bing Crosby movie I ever saw! Seriously, though, the mix of interviews with the Tipton Three and dramatizations of their accounts is well done and becomes much more relevant as the brutality of their imprisonment is revealed. The major question that comes to mind, though — and I’ve read questions about this elsewhere as well — is exactly why the group thought it might be a good idea to enter into Afghanistan just as it was becoming obvious that US forces would be attacking soon. The only explanation offered in the films is that they “wanted to help,” but this is really never expanded on in any satisfactory way. And there very well could be an explanation — it simply isn’t explored. This is the one possible chink in the armor. But, by the end, the realization is that, no matter what got them into the mess, they were unnecessarily harassed, abused, humiliated, and dehumanized. Perhaps, in this way — in proving that the ends don’t justify the means, no matter the circumstances — it is an even stronger indictment than it would have been otherwise.
[IMDb]