72
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Boston GlobeTy BurrBoston GlobeTy BurrThe hidden message of The Oath is so inescapable as to be Shakespearean: Character will out.
- 83Portland OregonianMarc MohanPortland OregonianMarc MohanHer film is just as effective as a portrait of two unknowable, individual souls caught up in events of global scale.
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceEarly in Laura Poitras's outstanding documentary The Oath, we learn that one of its subjects, Abu Jandal, a cabdriver living in Yemen, was Osama bin Laden's bodyguard in Afghanistan.
- 80Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichWhat emerges is an illuminating, though terribly dismaying, portrait of the War on Terror’s lasting effects. Whether one retreats or steps out defiantly, there is no sanctuary.
- 80Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyLos Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJandal emerges as someone who was truly in Bin Laden's inner circle, Hamdan seems the menial driver he claimed to be. What remains unanswered is where their allegiances now lie. Frightening or not, terrorists or not, both seem human, which at the end of the day is what Poitras set out to do.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterFascinating, however uneasy, viewing.
- 70NPRMark JenkinsNPRMark JenkinsQuietly, the film makes the case that "enhanced interrogation techniques" were no enhancement. Interviewing jihadis "by the book," one interrogator testifies, yielded better information than violence and deprivation.
- It has staying power. In place of large revelations, you’ll find yourself remembering scenes like the one in which Abu Jandal sits absorbed by a news report of a bombing in Kabul, until his son requests a change of channel. It’s time for “Tom and Jerry.”
- 70The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyWho are these men, so eager for asceticism, violence, and martyrdom? At first, we think that’s what we’ll learn from The Oath, a fascinating documentary directed, produced, and shot by Laura Poitras. We don’t really, but what we do find out is of equal interest, and oddly reassuring.