Top Priority: The Terror Within (2012) User Reviews (8)

Top Priority is a blitzkrieg of truth and vindication that continuously pummels and humiliates the DHS for 95 minutes.

[clandestinecomic · 9/10 · 21 May 2012]

BY: Alan Premel, the Clandestine Comic I had the pleasure to review the documentary 'Top Priority, the Terror Within' last Wednesday at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, home of the Academy Awards (Oscars). The retaliatory undertones ring loud and clear in Top Priority - Silence, Discredit and Destroy. After watching this well written and equally well directed docu-drama you will agree that no one understands the misfortune of being silenced, discredited and destroyed as well as Julia Davis.

Directed by rising star Asif Akbar, Top Priority reserves no punches as it bravely tells the unbelievable real-life story of National Security Whistleblower Julia Davis who once served our country as a Customs and Border Patrol agent under the guise of the Department of Homeland Security. Davis' reward for drawing attention and shedding light on a real-life breach of national security was to be arrested, discredited and branded a domestic terrorist by DHS.

They say real life is stranger than fiction and if that mantra holds true than you will be left saying "You cannot make this stuff up", as what seems so wildly unbelievable, far-fetched and exaggerated is shown and proved to be a reality. The amount of government wrongdoing, oppression and discrediting will leave you shocked and dismayed. Such brutal law enforcement tactics and retaliation would have been expected from a 1930's pre-FBI and Prohibition era law enforcement and not the system of checks and balances and oversight we have 2012. There is no shortage of intrigue in Top Priority, when the plot thickens a young Hollywood star is dead, Julia Davis is the target of 56 unlawful investigations and there are more suspicious and untimely deaths. By the time you would imagine the story is ending the mafia gets involved and the story, again, bravely charges on. At every twist and turn during the feature you will find yourself shaking your head in dismay at the overwhelming evidence presented by first hand audio and video interviews.

The highlight comes when government officials lie on tape about actions, orders and their knowledge of wrongdoing presented and exposed. At this turning point, the audience, now in Julia Davis' corner all collectively jeered and laughed as official government documents are shown side by side blatantly showing false testimony. It's shock and awe at its best and it gives an outsider a glimpse into how lethal the case was. Director Asif Akbar and legendary Hollywood stuntman BJ Davis, husband of Julia Davis, were both masterful in the presentation and execution of this highly controversial case. Top Priority is a blitzkrieg of truth and vindication that continuously pummels and humiliates the DHS for 95 minutes.

As the screen fades to black, the pants of DHS are squarely around their ankles. The Davis' leaving them in a compromising position with zero wiggle room to defend themselves. Just as the ending credits start to roll my friend on my left says "Oh my God!" and my cousin on my right exclaims, "Wow!" This was followed by an eruption of thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Top Priority accomplishes what every movie strives to do by stirring the emotions of each viewer. You leave Top Priority with an overwhelming and profound sense of emotion that is hard to explain. On one side of the token you feel the fear of the actions which were inflicted on someone in real life. While on the other side, you have a deep sense of sadness for those who died suddenly and unexpectedly from the governments mishandling of the case.

In the end, you are presented with the saddest fact of all. Throughout everything Julia was subjected to, an arrest warrant was never issued for Julia. The laundry list of crimes and violations presented were not done by a whistleblower but were done at the hands of a government agency whose sole purpose is to protect each and every one of us.

Top Priority was the first documentary ever allowed to premiere at the academy for its opening debut and it is fitting because if the ballots went out today, Top Priority would be bringing home an Oscar for Best Documentary. My only real advice for watching 'Top Priority, the Terror Within' is to bring a pillow because your back will hurt from sitting at the edge of your seat! I give 'Top Priority, the Terror Within' 9.5 out of 10 popcorns.

"Three Days of the Condor" Is Only Steps Away From Being Real...

[TSPOOOKY · 9/10 · 24 May 2012]

I had the honor of attending the premiere of Top Priority - the story of Julia Davis and her husband BJ Davis endure the full wrath of the federal government - simply because Julia did her job. Most folks who have not been a whistleblower or had to deal with government wrongdoing have a hard time accepting the concept of U.S. government wrongdoing against its own citizens - but it happened here in a severe case. Julia was targeted by the senior leadership of Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) simply for following official procedures given her by her leadership and notifying the DC Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) of a breach of security at our southwest border...for this act she was persecuted - she and her husband BJ charged with false felony charges - endured a raid on their residence which resulted in the death of Julia's father - and because of the government's desperation, federal officers likely had a role in the death of BJ and Julia's friend - Brittney Murphy...

Until it happens to you (and I'm speaking from experience here - I've been thru the grinder of the Federal Government machine) it is hard to believe officers who take the Oath of Office can behave in illegal and unconstitutional ways - but they do - and this documentary exposes their illegal acts - often in their own words...I honestly wonder how they sleep at night...

I HIGHLY recommend you see Top Priority when it hit general or limited release - it is not only shocking due to the facts, it is a well made movie that grabs the viewer (and - no - I am NOT just saying this because BJ and Julia are friends) - this is an outstanding movie - one that exceeds every other modern documentary I've seen...and indicates that we are only steps away from "Three Days of the Condor" - if they can do this to the Davis' there is nothing holding back these government officials, with the new federal authorities, to engage in the next step of such wrongdoing: targeting for death of citizens they deem 'dangerous'.

One last note - we should all be grateful for Julia and BJ - for having had the courage to endure the painful turn of events where the government of our nation not only turned its back on them - it did everything it could to destroy them - and still, they have been able to tell their story - to expose the wrongdoing of the federal bureaucratic for what it is...they are true patriots, and I am proud to call them friends.

A valued member of the Department of Homeland Security is targeted by her bosses when she discovers an egregious security breach.

[MediaMikes · 10/10 · 9 June 2012]

TOP PRIORITY: THE TERROR WITHIN

Reviewed by Michael Smith

Documentary Directed by: Asif Akbar Not Rated Running time: 1 hour 35 mins Fleur De Lis Film Studios

Wow!

Knowing I had just seen his new documentary, "Top Priority: The Terror Within," producer BJ Davis asked me what I had thought of the film. I summed my review up in one word.

Much has been made of the state of the world since the horror of September 11, 2001. As citizens we've been told to keep our eyes open…to report anything we may think is suspicious. But what if you worked for the U.S. Government's Department of Homeland Security and you discovered that no less than 23 "Special Interest Aliens" (read: persons from such countries as Iraq, Libya, Indonesia and others) just walked across the Mexican border into the United States. You'd notify your superiors, right? Apparently not if you want to keep your job.

The central figure in this film is Julia Davis. Born in Kiev, Russia she met and fell in love with American filmmaker BJ Davis while he was making a movie in her country. Emigrating to the USA and armed with Masters Degrees in Aviation and Spacecraft Engineering, she soon found herself working for the Department of Homeland Security as a Customs and Border Patrol Officer. So strong was her knowledge of, and commitment to, the job that she would often appear on national news programs as an anti-terrorist expert to field questions. In an average month, approximately 10-15 "Special Interest Aliens" would be given authorization to enter the USA, usually after a lengthy question and answer session with a DHS agent. While checking her daily work Davis discovered that, in a 10 hour period on July 4, 2004, 23 "Special Interested Aliens" entered the US without so much as one question by anyone in authority. When Davis reported this horrific breach of security all hell broke loose. On her.

It's often hard to judge a politically themed documentary. Sometimes, as in the case of some of Michael Moore's work, the information given is slanted. I'm not saying it's wrong…I'm just saying that sometimes you don't see all that is to be seen. That is not the case here. Pressing on with her complaint, Davis soon finds herself the target of harassment at work as well as having to deal with fifty-four fraudulent charges leveled at her. Each one of these charges is proved false thanks to an unprecedented glimpse at government video depositions as well as video surveillance tapes. In one instance, Ms. Davis reports that her superior, Linda Boutwell (who Ms. Davis' attorney humorously refers to as "Miss BUTT-well" when he discusses her) picked up her personal backpack and threw it to the floor so forcefully that the cell phone inside was broken. Boutwell submits a sworn statement claiming to have never touched Ms. Davis' backpack. When government investigators are confronted by video surveillance tape that shows Boutwell doing exactly what she is charged with, they inexplicably side with her. The case gets even more involving when Boutwell tells her superiors that Davis, while at work for the Department of Homeland Security, is secretly helping her husband and his crew make a local film. According to Boutwell she is told this information by actress Brittany Murphy. When the Davis' inquire as to why these charges were made, Murphy informs them that, though she is friends with Boutwell's daughter, she never made those statements. What follows for the next 18 months is an all out assault on the very freedoms Ms. Davis swore to protect. She is followed by helicopters…her house is illegally searched…the government tries to have her deported, calling her marriage to BJ a sham. They even arrange to have local police pull the Davis' over at pre-scheduled times to prevent them from arriving at court hearings and depositions on time.

Surprising to hear? It was to me. But every accusation is backed up with proof! There is no gray area here. It's all there in the black and white video footage as well as the notes and documents the Davis' were able to track down. And they weren't the only people under surveillance. In an interview shortly before she died at the age of 30, Brittany Murphy told the writer she knew she being watched. In fact, it was much worse. Murphy endured helicopter surveillance, wiretaps, an arrest in the middle of the night and an unsuccessful attempt to deport her fiancée Simon Monjack, whom she later married. That shortly after her statement both Murphy and Monjack suddenly died only makes the case more bizarre!

There are more twists and turns to this film then all of the rides at Disneyland. "Top Priority: The Terror Within" is a film that will make you think and, hopefully, say "Wow!"

On a scale of zero to five I give "Top Priority: The Terror Within" *****

Layers of Mass Corruption

[kathy-55-433972 · 10/10 · 6 August 2013]

From the time the film started, the lies and layers of complicity unfolded. It broke my heart to watch a very personal account of grave injustice. Not only has there been incessant harassment, the sheer overkill and resources used to incriminate Julia Davis were grossly inappropriate. The government will stoop to the lowest depths of depravity in an effort to hide their lies. Lies that are painfully obvious, yet apparently what they were trying to hide came with a steep price. Unnecessary deaths, tragic brutality - for no just cause. I have been deeply moved by this film. It would be my hope that Americans will see the exact nature of what is going on in the states at the hand of their government, and prepare accordingly.

Michael Smith nailed it

[gsellars-1 · 10/10 · 29 March 2014]

I can't improve upon Michael Smith's review except to say that if you'll check the ratings of this absolutely finest example of documentary work I've ever seen in my life, you'll see that the murderers and perpetrators of this travesty, who work for the Department of Homeland Security (aka Department of Perversion of Justice), show their unrelenting criminality by requesting their close associates (their felonious partners in crime), reach out to extend their dishonesty and corruption just a little bit further, by asking them to come here and unanimously vote this absolutely superb documentary a "1".

Out of 104 IMDb User ratings, 79 gave it a "10", 8 gave it an "9", ONE gave it a "4", and 16 (evidently criminal employees and/or friends of the criminal DHS agents who tried to destroy Julia) gave it a "1" because they couldn't give it anything less!

IMDb might investigate and dismiss these BOGUS ratings.

Take note: there are no votes of 8,7,6,5,3 or 2.

These scoundrels participated in the murders of four innocent people and still refuse to give up their vicious and evil persecution of Julia and BJ Davis with yet another attempt to undermine and deny the truth.

All this was done to preserve the arrogant pride of Director Robert Bonner, who didn't want the nation to see the failure of the DHS to fail to process 23 men on July 4, 2004 (a day *marked* by Intelligence sources to be alert to an attempt to enter the U.S. from terrorist nations, obviously because he was concerned that it would be seen as his failure and he didn't want this scandal used as an opportunity to remind the nation of the Shuttle disaster and his name become a mocking song.

So, destroy Julia Davis to hide the DHS failure to be the watchdogs they're supposed to be.

Of course you understand, my remarks come from the the perspective that Director Bonner didn't really want the men in the country in the first place. If they were deliberately let in and deliberately not processed (because Mrs. Davis noted that the 23 should have already been processed when she showed up to work, though she never addressed this as an issue), then it's understandable why Robert Bonner wanted Julia Davis' credibility and reputation destroyed! She was a rogue agent actually trying to protect the nation!

This woman was persecuted with 54(!) BOGUS INVESTIGATIONS! Administrative Judge Daniel Leach was the first judge to find the agency's culpability "of an egregious sort" and Judge Stephen Larson said he was "amazed at what the government is not denying in the Davis case," while Judge Virginia Phillips said, "the Court holds that a reasonable fact finder could find the extreme nature of the search and raid of the Davises' Yucca Valley home was 'not proper in the regular conduct of the proceedings'..."

"...The sum total of these facts is sufficient to allow a fact finder to infer a retaliatory or malicious motive in the execution of the search..."

"...Plaintiffs have therefore produced sufficient evidence to allow a reasonable fact finder to conclude the August 2005 search was an abuse of process." The Court dismissed all charges against the Davises and ordered the government to return all evidence from two warrantless searches of Julia Davis' residence and BJ Davis' office.

Watch this video! You will be appalled, yet overjoyed to find that there were, out of dozens of EVIL government employees, a few and especially ONE honorable female judge who would not allow the criminals who worked for Robert Bonner to have their way.

Had George Bush been an honorable man, he would have FIRED those criminals (starting with Robert Bonner) in a heartbeat and told the Justice Department to prefer charges against them all!

The combined charges of all their many crimes would have left them to die in prison, if their sentences hadn't received an order for execution, which would have been just for the four people they murdered.

The continued criminality of the DHS is more than evident by the promotions of Kaufer and Deal, men whose CONFESSED AND Proved CRIMES (in a court of Law) SHOULD HAVE PUT THEM IN PRISON FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES!

It's shocking and so greatly disappointing that our government is so evil but this husband and wife team will be your heroes (if you've got a heart and any kind of scruples at all!)

You'll find this documentary to be one of your greatest video exhilarations! It's hard to call it a "feel good movie" because of the constant, grievous crimes of the many government representatives but when right wins out in the end, even after four completely unjustifiable murders by evil men in government, it is so exciting to see the one who did right get vindicated in the end!

Without question, 10 out of 10! Absolutely excellent, compelling and convincing. The details of the many crimes of Kaufer and Deal are lucid and simple in each documented and detailed explanation. There is no question why these criminal government employees did not appeal Roslyn Silver's rulings.

These guys are so guilty they should have been fired before the case was settled and U.S. Marshals should have been waiting to put them in jail the moment the case was over.

Sensational documentary about the most extreme case of whistleblower retaliation

[PhoebeGallagher1984 · 10/10 · 16 June 2012]

One generally tags a documentary as just that, a documentary, but the chills swimming upstream my spine argue that some factual films deserve a second tag. In the case of "Top Priority : The Terror Within", there's no more fitting a second category than horror, being that this, the chilling chronicle of a young innocent woman discovering the dark and, well, unpublicised side of the US government, might just be the scariest bit of celluloid you'll watch all year.

Like Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911″, director Asif Akbar's "Top Priority" exposes the big pussy wart concealed by the government – in particular, the government that history's most controversial president George W. Bush governed.

We're constantly reminded that the terrorists or the bad guys, if you will, are based in countries like Iraq or Afghanistan. With their films, Moore and now Akbar say otherwise. Both "911″ and "Priority" shock us into a false sense of security, letting us know that the so-called terrorists and bad guys actually lease zip codes. According to the filmmakers, our biggest threat are locally-based and likely the ones we've been fooled into trusting the most.

Unlike Moore's film, "Top Priority" doesn't so much rely on snazzy visuals, a cheeky host and a lot of guess work to compel the viewer. Nope, this one's got a case of the Joe Friday's – in that it's 'just the facts'. And the facts, as you'll discover, are just as attention-grabbing and arguably more disturbing than an animated conspiracy theory.

The facts are : Julia Davis, while serving as a Customs and Border Protection Officer, did her job and reported a potentially threatening hiccup to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Joint Terrorism Task Force involving a mass of illegal aliens gaining entrance into the United States. Furthermore, it was on the date of July 4th 2004, a date that intelligence chiefs believed a terrorist attack may be hatched by Al-Qaeda , that Davis recognized the potential breach. The film chronicles how the Department of Homeland Security, seemingly egg-faced and embarrassed, retaliated against Davis for exposing their weak system. With their endless supply of resources, the government used every scare tactic and smear tactic in the book to get their revenge against Davis – and anyone connected to her. Blackhawk Helicopters were dispatched to her property, armed DHS Agents and a US Marshal conducted warrantless searches of the Davis's property, and those linked to Davis – including her parents and husband, veteran Hollywood stuntman B.J Davis – were treated in an equally frightening, ill fashion.

There's a second, very Hollywood headline grabbing story captured within the distressing film too- and that's one of the mysterious death of Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy.

Most of us were led to believe by the authorities, and in turn the glossies, that Murphy was an out-of-control wild child of Hollywood whose addiction to illusive drugs and mental issues led to her downfall. The filmmakers say that's far from the truth – not only did Murphy not have a drug problem, nor was she as "insane" as she was made out to be, but she too was a victim of a government smear campaign. One that may have ultimately led to her death.

According to the film, the government would hurt "Clueless" star Murphy's name and career, put men in black on her tail at very corner (of every film set) and cleverly cover up any involvement or link they had to the woman's death. The film, accompanied by the words of the actresses father Angelo Bertolotti, clears Murphy's name ten-fold aiding the viewer to not only develop a new appreciation for an actress that was sickeningly thrown into the 'Looney' corner and labelled a drug addict, when she seemingly wasn't, but hope for some kind of upper vengeance. It's very disturbing. You'll ache and rumble with the filmmaker's descriptions as to what was purportedly done to the talented Hollywood star (and husband Simon Monjack, who also passed away under suspicious circumstance) and yearn for more answers. Nothing is certain, nor is there a definitive cause of death here, but one thing is for sure – any man or woman that stood by Julia Davis would pay the price either physically or emotionally; Murphy was no exception. It's tragic to say the least.

Beyond the splashy opening credits (a little much at times, with the lengthy Stephen J.Cannell-esque opening credits and lightning bolts, I will admit – if only because it's a film that's story, not bells and whistles, will hook the viewer) there's a startlingly frightening, touching and well structured story here. You'll cringe as you hear of the Davis's treatment by the Government, cry as the shady politicos play a part in the death of four innocent people (and also, rather horribly and shamefully, an innocent family pet), appal at the amount of tax payer money, lies and bastard behaviour that went into merely covering a leader's ass, and most notably, walk away terrified that this could happen to you. This girl, for one, couldn't sleep after watching the film (which premiered last week at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood).

"Top Priority" is a remarkable film that'll make you question your leaders, and those whose jobs it is to supposedly protect us, but mostly, it'll make you fist thump and push a windswept hug in the direction of the brave and long-suffering Julia Davis and her significant others.

Eye Opening!

[shewee-05140 · 10/10 · 25 November 2020]

Great first hand account of government overreach and overstepping. DHS and other dept's stalk a former employee even raiding her home with a black hawk helicopter.

Joshua tree California

[dancevisor · 19 May 2021]

Going to add to this review but I live basically in Joshua Tree I remember when her home was raided. Black ops helicopters and other dhs members Was quite the ordeal.