Infidel

The fact this is a film with an agenda ... doesn't make what it has to say untrue.

If you go to Cairo as a high-profile Christian blogger ... and effectively "preach Christianity" to a massive TV audience of diehard Muslims ... don't be surprised when your life suddenly takes a rapid turn for the worse. LOL.

Having said that, this is a film worth watching, not so much for the mains (turning in occasionally hammy or contrived performances), but for the concept overall, and particularly the performances of supporting characters such as "Ramzi."

The harshness and lawlessness of the Middle-East felt real (if a little cliched in places) ... but you are left in no doubt as to the eternal divides which exist between the (primarily) Judeo-Christian culture of the West ... and its counterparts of radical Islam elsewhere.

In short, if these themes interest you ... the film is worth checking out.

The haters will tell you that Infidel is a poorly made, heavy handed Christian movie. It's not. It's an international action thriller movie. American man travels to foreign country and is abducted and tortured for his beliefs. His wife works for the State Department and her bosses decline to help. She steps up and tries to rescue her husband.

Infidel contains the action and suspense fans of the genre want.

Yes, Doug, the main character, is a Christian, and he is abducted and tortured by Iranians. Yes, that does happen in real life. In fact persecution of Christians goes on everyday in Muslim countries. The haters are getting their shorts in a wad, not over real life human suffering, but over the depiction of that suffering on screen.

There is no heavy handed Christian proselytizing in this movie. It's not a Bond film, but it's satisfying as a representative of the genre.

Jim Caviezel is, as ever handsome and charismatic. Claudia Karvan, as his wife is charming and lovable, as she should be. Hal Ozsan is very good as the torturer.

Having lived in the Middle East, I was thoroughly impressed by Infidel. There were far more well portrayed and peaceful Muslim characters in this film than there were evil. That's how it is in the Middle East. Most all citizens are sick of being repressed by their governments and their kings, princes and clerics. That was well reflected here and the characters felt like real people. I credit the writer/director, all of the very talented actors and the cinematographer. This is easily one of the more realistic Middle Eastern thrillers I've seen and my family and I were very impressed by it.

The Reason for the Skewed IMDB Rating: First, the rating is skewed because it was produced by Dinesh D'Souza, enemy of the State and those the State has under their spell.

The Christianity Part: I use to be a militant atheist, and would have given this 1 star in the old days just because the protagonist is Christian. Now, I'm a thousand times more accepting, and appreciate the many things we agree on. But it really doesn't matter so much here because there's very little religion anyway.

(You DO NOT have to be Christian to appreciate this film)

My Favorite Thing: The bad guy!!!! He's so freaking good. He's right up there with my favorite bad guys of all time (Die Hard, No Country for Old Men, Drive).

Budget and Acting: I am always concerned about these two things with non-Holywood films, but the production value and acting are excellent. The lead, James Caviezel, is consistently good in everything I've seen him in, and everyone else holds their own. No one took me out of it for a second. Again, the bad guy though.

Only Small Issue: There were a couple minor shortcomings in the action, but like I said, minor. You may not even notice them. I've seen so much action that I've become very difficult to please in that area, and this was still more than good enough.

Overall: Not many movies can keep my attention anymore, and with one exception of checking my phone, I was rapt the entire time (that says a lot).

Very glad I came across this film. Off to find out what else the bad guy is in.

P. S. Even though it says 2019, I'm pretty sure this came out September, 2020.

Jim Caviezel is in the lead role as the outspoken American Christian journalist that is invited to Iran for an exchange of ideas. When he speaks his mind this upsets the authorities and he is captured, tortured, and imprisoned. They try to force him to denounce his views to save his life but he refuses, holding fast to his beliefs.

The beginning says "inspired by true events" but the closing has the usual disclaimer "fictitious and any resemblance to real people is unintentional and coincidental." So I have no idea how realistic it was.

It is a good movie to point up some of the difficulties traveling to and interacting with some Middle Eastern countries, but it is not one I would want to view again.

My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.