After watching this movie, I was left questioning what this movie is actually saying about the ethics involved in suicide bombing. What do you think, was the message of this movie pro-terrorism or anti-terrorism?
With my own system of values and beliefs about suicide bombing already firmly set in place, I found it interesting to view the subject through a different lens and point of view. I have always thought of suicide bombers as being unreasonable and radical; stupid for being so careless with their own lives. I guess I never looked at the bigger picture. My judgement was clouded by the obvious hate suicide bombers have for those they are attacking. My first instinct has always been to side with the victim, without necessarily ever learning the back story. This film rocks my world in a sense.
What is the first thing you think of when you hear "suicide bomber?"
For me, it's September 11th. Obviously, this film has nothing to do with that, and yet it's all about suicide bombing. Duh, obviously I must have known that people and places other than America are affected by suicide bombings.....but I suppose I have been selfish because that is the only perspective I have ever viewed this subject through.
While I believe this film is eye-opening and a good conversation starter, I do not believe that it is indicitive of the complete reality of suicide bombing. Early in the film, Said chooses not to blow up the bus because he sees a child on board. Would this happen in real life? I am sceptical, as obviously not all real life suicide bombers have shown as much interest in the conservation of an innocent child's life as this fictional character does. The film simply needed to show sympathetic characters with conciouses and feelings.
Based solely on this film, I have no cut and dry opinion about what the reality behind suicide bombing is. Like everything else in this world, it is very very complicated.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
To be blunt, an act of war or terrorism is just that regardless of the technique. People die as the result of all types of violence, even incidents that we would not consider "terrorism" per se. The issue here, I might suggest, is religious fundamentalism more than suicide bombing. Did Said and Khaled seem like fundamentalists? Did they seem irrational?
ReplyDeleteThis film definately gave a new and different persective on this topic!
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a very valid question as to whether this movie was pro- or anti- terrorism. They took something so, in lack of a better word, tragic-- suicide bombing, and almost asked the viewer to see the other side of it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I, too, admittedly had not really thought about suicide bombings outside of the U.S. until this class, despite the fact that they so obviously occur elsewhere as well. Funny how so many of us instinctively focus our vision on our own culture.