In the beginning of the movie it shows segments of people fleeing to the streets, people being shot as they run, and children crying. It states early in the movie that the conflict arose due to the rebel’s disagreement with the democratic government. There were many ethnic groups in Nigeria, some say around 250 different groups, and the goal of the rebel soldiers was to have an ethnic cleansing. Which basically means the rebels are going to kill every single person that is not a part of their ethnic group. There was no word yet on what the United Nations reaction was and if they were going to take any action, but US forces had already begun evacuating their citizens. The movie begins here with the US navy trying to evacuate a doctor who became a US citizen by marriage. However, their simple task of evacuating the doctor becomes a much more dangerous journey when the doctor demands that they help her people get to the border, where they will be safe.
The movie was extremely violent and gruesome at some parts. However, the most appalling scene of the whole movie was a young woman covered in blood. The guerilla soldiers would cut off the breasts of women who were nursing young children so they could never again feed their own child. If that is not disturbing, and that does affect you then I could easily say that you have no heart. The soldiers acted as if killing these people was a game. They would rape the women, take the children and turn them into soldiers, brutally torture people by covering them in gasoline and lighting them on fire and laugh as they burned, but more importantly they went on with their lives trying to find more people to kill because in reality the ethnic cleansing was nothing but a game for them. It was fun for them, but it cost many people their lives. There were many scenes throughout the movie that showed rebel soldiers torturing people and then laughing till they cried. Many people say that when one life is taken another one is reborn, but that is not true in this movie because they murdered so many people. The rebel soldiers had no hearts; they were ruthless and they slaughtered innocent people who had never harmed them all because they were of a different ethnicity. Another disturbing image was when one of Water’s men shot a soldier in self-defense. He caught the soldier as he fell to the ground, but when he caught him he stood there in awe. The soldier was a child. I don’t think one can fully understand the situation until child, rebel soldiers are shown. Then, I think people finally begin to see the reality of the situation.
In the end, everything happened as it should have because it was a movie. However, saying everything happened as it should doesn’t mean that it is in the rest of the world. This movie is an example of what the US needs to do in many other African countries where rebel soldiers are rising up and taking innocent lives. The rebel soldiers in Nigeria, in this movie, were after people of different ethnicities. But the movie focused more on the rebels search for the president’s son, the heir to the Hebrew nation, because if they did not kill him then he would rule the people and carry on his father dream of a democracy. In the end the rebels failed, because good men like Lt. Waters put down their orders and went and fought for humanity. Once they reached the border the US navy finally was able to get some planes in the air to help. They basically blew up the Nigerian rebel army. Waters and his men fought for the lives of innocent people who were being subjected to ethnic cleansing. The rebels lost, and the good people won. At the end of the movie they placed a quote from Edmund Burke on the screen saying “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” That is the truth, if good men like Lt. Waters and his men had stood by and done nothing, then this movie would have been about a mass genocide that took place in Nigeria. However, this movie is an example of what could be done and needs to be done in other countries. It is an example of how people can save the lives of others at their own risk.
The people of Nigeria were at great risk because the rebels wanted them dead, plain and simple. No one lives when rebel soldiers are out to clean house of all the other ethnic tribes. The rebels were out for blood; there is no other description that can be given except that. They wanted everyone different from them dead; they wanted to be the dominant group that prevailed throughout Nigeria. Many say that when rebels rose up in Rwanda that it was the same as in Nigeria and it was, except in this case good people, American people, stood up and fought for the lives of others, and that’s what needs to happen around the world, especially in Darfur. The movie was amazing; it was the seventh time that I have watched it. I love movies like this because I know the directors of these movies have good intentions. These are the types of movies that make people think and take action and that is great because there are too many people in the world who watch a movie like this for the gore and violence. Movies like these are made for a cause. We need to rise up as a nation together and take action.
Labels: GLR #5
posted by Kelly Wiley @ 2:18 PM
1 Comments:
GLR #5 = 20/20
Post a Comment
<< Home