The Road to Guantanamo

It was the Tipton Two in Belfast last night as one missed his flight - imagine that.

I have to admit that I'm not a fan of docu-dramas. I would rather have substance in the background and narration over the top than the film being constantly broken up by those involved retelling what we've just seen or are about to see.

Nevertheless, it was an important story worth telling. The real question is whether it was told properly. The director, Michael Winterbottom, has been criticised for not questioning the accounts of the Tipton Three. James Christopher, in his review in the Sunday Times, stated that Winterbottom had "an insane lack of cool perspective," for not questioning the accounts of the Tipton Three.

"Why, oh why, jump on a minibus to Afghanistan when jets are carpet-bombing the country? If your friends are mortally sick, why catch the next truck to the front line? The sheer stupidity of these Brits mocks the sincerity of the film."

After watching the film I felt that the three men had no real reason to be in Afghanistan at the time. They stated that they had heard mixed reports of the Taliban and wanted to find out if they really were bad people. How flimsy an excuse is that for a group that were on their way to an arranged marriage of one of them in Pakistan? A slightly erroneous detour to take don't you think?

From a cynical perspective you could argue that it looked like they went over to meet the Taliban and possibly see about aiding their cause at the same time the war kicked off and they were in the wrong place at the wrong time about to get involved in a very wrong thing.

So whilst they were innocent of any crimes it is their possible intentions that were guilty and they paid a high price for stupidity.

I would give this film 6.1 middle-east conflicts out of 10.