Camp X-Ray

Kristen Stewart's career fascinates me. She was plucked from obscurity and became world famous when she was tapped to play Bella in the Twilight films, and since then she seems to have waffled between indie films and blockbusters. Her recent appearance in the bomb reboot of Charlie's Angels shows that she probably should stick with indies, and she's done some excellent work there.

An example of that is 2014's Camp X-Ray, in which she plays a young soldier assigned to guard duty at Guantanamo Bay. True, she does the shtick that we associate with Stewart--the lower-lip biting, the hesitation, the quiet uncertainty. If I were to advise her, I'd suggest she do a comedy, maybe some Jane Austen. But she is good at this sort of thing.

Guantanamo Bay, or Gitmo, or Camp X-Ray, is where "detainees" are held (not prisoners--they have rights, where detainees don't). They are held for as long as the government wants without a trial. Surely some of these guys are bad actors, but some may just be innocent. One of them is Peyman Moaadi, and over the course of the film he and Stewart will come to a mutual respect, even a friendship, flying in the face of a culture that demands that these people consider themselves at war.

Stewart starts to feel bad for Moaadi, certainly not a good way to be a guard. Even after he throws shit on her uniform, he engages her in conversation (he is one of the few detainees that can speak English). When Stewart spurns the sexual advances of a corporal, he defies protocol by having her watching Moaadi shower. She reports him, but this is buried under paperwork. The sexual assault problems in the military are thus touched upon, as well.

Camp X-Ray is no recruiting film. The work is depicted as tedious and dehumanizing. I'm no fan of terrorists, but keeping people locked up without due process, even if they are foreign nationals, is no way for a democracy to act. While the film is a bit slow-moving, it builds nicely and leaves a lasting impact.