Strip Search follows several parallel stories examining personal freedoms vs. national security in the aftermath of 9/11; two main subplots involve an American woman detained in China and an Arab man detained in New York City.
Acting
Gyllenhaal's trembling defiance vs. Glenn Close's ice-cold bureaucrat.
Direction
Lumet at 80, still staging claustrophobic power like nobody else.
Director
Sidney Lumet
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Linda Sykes
Glenn Close
Karen Moore
Dean Winters
Ned McGrath
Ken Leung
Liu Tsung-Yuan
Bruno Lastra
Sharif Bin Said
Shing Ka
Chinese Police
Austin Pendleton
James Perley
Tom Guiry
Gerry Sykes
Jim Gaffigan
Reverend Craig Peterson
Peter Jacobson
John Scanlon
Justin Bartha
George H. W. Bush
self (archive footage)
George W. Bush
self (archive footage)
Bill Clinton
self (archive footage)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
HBO shelved this in 2004 after Abu Ghraib photos emerged, fearing it looked like exploitation—it didn't air until 2005 in a buried timeslot.
Lumet called this his 'small angry movie,' shot in 14 days for almost nothing—his final statement on institutional rot before Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
US
