Shocking! Every American needs to see this movie. A previous comment titled "Duh", at first glance, makes us all seem as though we are somehow keenly aware that civil rights are being denied...in America. But until I saw this movie, I couldn't parallel being arrested, tortured, and denied access to any outside help in China, to the same thing happening here. Somehow, the idea of these things taking place here didn't seem so terribly awful, and fearful, until I put myself in both of the actors roles as victim.

Strip Search is one of the best, thought provoking movies I have ever seen. The acting was absolutely superb; making it easy to be drawn into every scene, and Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance was no less than stellar to that end. For short, I was IMPRESSED!

In the aftermath of the September, 11th, in China, the American student Linda Sykes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is interrogated by the military Liu Tsung- Yuan (Ken Leung). In New York, the Arab student Sharif Bin Said (Bruno Lastra) is interrogated by the FBI agent Karen Moore (Glenn Close). The psychological methods of interrogation are the same, amicable in the beginning and brutal in the end; but there is no evidence that the students are terrorists. Must security and safety of the State come at the price of freedom?

"Strip Search" is a film directed by Sidney Lumet with the same dialogs and situations in two totally different countries, with two students that might be connected to terrorist networks being interrogated at the same time. The movie shows that torture does not depend of the country and the importance of civil liberties to the individuals. I lived a great part of my life in a dictatorship and I know the importance of freedom and democracy. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Inspeção Geral" ("General Inspection")

This movie was quite a profound piece of work. It involved a very unique process of film making in which the same screenplay was used to tell two different stories. This process is supposed to invoke in the viewer that the viewer shows sympathy for one character but not for another. When I watched it I consciously knew that it was the same words being spoken but then yet I did not understand why I felt sympathy for one character but not for the other speaking the same words. This is a very good movie to watch in the post 9/11 world in which the way America treats the rest of the world. Quite frankly I believe Americans(I being one of them) do not treat the rest of the world with enough respect and we disregard any of their thoughts. This movie shows the American viewer how a foreigner might see America. This movie totally blew me away. It is dumbfounding.