I love my movies the way I love my books. I like to ruminate on messages in the books I like, the life of the characters, and the same behaviour transfers to movies.
Savior is one of my favourite movies. My understanding of the world's dynamics is pretty dodgy, so I cannot say or vouch for the veracity for the way the conflict was presented in that movie.
And in the movie, there is a scene where in Quaid smothers* the infant because he is trying to not make a noise and get caught by terrorists who are slaughtering a group of civilians including the infant's mother.
I saw that flick before I had children. And my heart raced the first time I saw that scene, and it goes wonky every time I have seen it, even though I know the outcome, and it is just a movie.
I can't get Aylan out of my mind. I have been reading and reading and reading about that boy. Right before the last time they got on the boat, he took a nap on the beach. I cannot get his face out of my mind. The naughty glint in his eyes is unmistakable.
How poignant then, to be found the way he was washed ashore? How poignant to finally get buried in the same city from where they had first started to flee? To get back without any fear, for nothing worse (than this) could now happen. What will his father do?
When I tried to talk about him in some of my circles of communication, I was mostly hushed. I was told that since our side of the world was not running out of misery either, why should we bring in further melancholy?
How can we ignore?
*The infant survives, though.
I have this scene from a book, a group of Jews in a train, fleeing from a nazi Germany, and a mother trying to hush her infant, so that they would not be discovered. And in the morning they find that the mother threw herself off the train, because she had smothered her baby. I choke back tears every time I think of that, I was so often unable to console my children and stop them crying when they were infants. What must she have gone through?!
ReplyDeleteThere is always something worse, or tragic. But that picture will haunt the world for a very long time. I've too got a three and a five year old, and it is impossible not to make the mental switch: what if it had been me and my children?
The only answer I can find to this awful question is to go and look for something positive. It will not right the wrong, but it can bring a breath of fresh air.
Some days, the tragedies that happen to children are so overwhelming. Other days, I can't help but think that, aside from insects and bacteria, human beings are the biggest pestilence to ever hit this planet, so why do we care when a few drop off? It's not like we worry about the insects, and everyone is trying to stamp out the bacteria. We're unlikely to face extinction. I think I may be in a bad mood.
ReplyDeleteI haven't see Savior, but I do think I read the book Mina is talking about. Or it's a pretty common theme - I most specifically remember it from an episode of the TV show M*A*S*H.