sad movies and books
Jan. 5th, 2007 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alonewiththemoonThis was sad movie and book week.
Osama is the story of a girl living in Afghanistan while the Taliban were still officially in power. It was widely heralded as the first piece of free cinema to come out of Afghanistan after the Taliban were ousted from the government. The girl--it occurs to me now that I don't think we ever learn her actual name in the film, which I am sure was a conscious choice on the film makers' part, as even in the film credits she is only Osama--disguises herself as a boy so that she can get work to support her mother, a war widow who worked as a nurse until the Taliban made the women stay home, and her aged grandmother. She is not naturally brave, which makes her determination and loyalty to her family all the more touching. For a brief period it looks like her deception might work, aided by a couple of sympathetic male characters who see that she and her family had no other option. Having a "man" in the family also meant that her mother could leave the house once again, escorted by her "son." I don't want to spoil the details of the plot for anyone who hasn't seen it before, but it cannot end well for no-name girl, betrayed by her own body. There are some truly brutal scenes late in the film; I think I have a sense of the awfulness of death by stoning that I did not have before (this does not happen to the girl but to someone else). All the way to the end you hope against hope that things might be ok, but the movie ends on a painfully hopeless note. The country seems paralyzed by a handful of oppressors who see their cruelty as kindness and religious duty. They are implacably holy and have created an environment where to argue with them is to deny Allah.
When the film makers made the film, I am sure they intended this to be the beginning of a cultural discussion of Afghanistan's past, and in that sense the film might not have seemed quite so bleak at the time, because when it was new, the world had just changed and Afghanistan's people were looking forward with hope. But all I could think watching the film was that, at least according to the news media, the Taliban are growing stronger again and it could all come back, probably is back in some parts of the country. That was the saddest part of all.
Artsy blah blah about the beautiful filmwork, severe countryside and wonderful acting of the non-actors. It's an immersive experience.
(on a side note, I often wondered what the Taliban man with the black hair and beard, i.e. the younger Mullah Sahid, was thinking, especially at the end. Was he in some small way sympathetic to the girl? Was he scornful of the elder Mullah's motives? Did he see the impossible situation his country was in? He was enigmatic.)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is not quite as bleak as Osama, but it still left me feeling like the world can be a cruel place to its women and children. Again, I don't want to spoil the film for anyone so I'll avoid a summary. For me, the movie was about the burdens we bear and how we place them upon ourselves. It was also about the perfect timelessness of a floating monastery at the center of a lake at the center of a valley at the center of the mountains, and the difference between looking inward and outward and how to balance the two. From a Buddhist perspective I suppose the film has a happy ending, but there is much bleak emptiness endured to get there.
More artsy blah blah about the beautiful film work--this film really is a jewel though. It also contains the most patient and cooperative cat in the entire world.
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misscalculation gave me Elizabeth Mitchell's "Three Strides to the Wire," an account of Charismatic's 1999 Triple Crown bid. But as with Lauren Hillenbrand's "Seabiscuit," a story about a racehorse is never just about the horse. It is about every human interest along the way, from the breeder's farm to the trainer's stable, from the owner's box to the jockey's clubhouse. Each horse, with its detailed pedigree, is in some sense a microcosm of the entire history of the Thoroughbred and all of the human stories that went into the creation of the sport. Mitchell hadn't been a horse racing fan prior to 1999 until she and the man with whom she was falling in love decided on a whim to go to the Kentucky Derby. The man was undergoing chemo for leukemia so being able to do something spontaneous was more important than doing the thing itself. She dreamed the night before the race about being in an art gallery where the paintings were being judged for their charisma, so of course when she saw a horse named Charismatic in the race, that's where they placed their bets. The story of Charismatic's ultimately failed Triple Crown bid becomes intertwined with the lovers' story of hope against the odds, and the sense of foreshadowing one feels is entirely on the money. The story of jockey Chris Antley, who rode Charismatic to victory in the Derby and Preakness and on his last race in the Belmont, is equally heart-wrenching. Charismatic gets some sense of happily ever after in the end, as he retires to a nice stud career in the rolling hills of Kentucky, but for any of the human beings in the story, their joy is always bittersweet, even the victories tinged with regret at the losses and failures. And the dirty secret of the industry, that the horses are raced too young for the sake of money, is quietly acknowledged by almost every horseman or horsewoman in the book. Yet for love of the race--for Mitchell makes it quite clear horse racing is not a money making business--people continue on, always hoping for the win that will redeem all the losses, the horse that will win the Triple Crown, the lover who will live, the small town boy who makes it in the big cities, the owner who will see his dreams realized. Ultimately, this is a book about love and hope, even as you cry (I did, on the T even) at the story's sorrows.
Next up, Muppets in Space, in which Gonzo sings one of the saddest songs ever, and The Proposition, in which--well, it was written by Nick Cave. I really need to get some silly in my life...
Osama is the story of a girl living in Afghanistan while the Taliban were still officially in power. It was widely heralded as the first piece of free cinema to come out of Afghanistan after the Taliban were ousted from the government. The girl--it occurs to me now that I don't think we ever learn her actual name in the film, which I am sure was a conscious choice on the film makers' part, as even in the film credits she is only Osama--disguises herself as a boy so that she can get work to support her mother, a war widow who worked as a nurse until the Taliban made the women stay home, and her aged grandmother. She is not naturally brave, which makes her determination and loyalty to her family all the more touching. For a brief period it looks like her deception might work, aided by a couple of sympathetic male characters who see that she and her family had no other option. Having a "man" in the family also meant that her mother could leave the house once again, escorted by her "son." I don't want to spoil the details of the plot for anyone who hasn't seen it before, but it cannot end well for no-name girl, betrayed by her own body. There are some truly brutal scenes late in the film; I think I have a sense of the awfulness of death by stoning that I did not have before (this does not happen to the girl but to someone else). All the way to the end you hope against hope that things might be ok, but the movie ends on a painfully hopeless note. The country seems paralyzed by a handful of oppressors who see their cruelty as kindness and religious duty. They are implacably holy and have created an environment where to argue with them is to deny Allah.
When the film makers made the film, I am sure they intended this to be the beginning of a cultural discussion of Afghanistan's past, and in that sense the film might not have seemed quite so bleak at the time, because when it was new, the world had just changed and Afghanistan's people were looking forward with hope. But all I could think watching the film was that, at least according to the news media, the Taliban are growing stronger again and it could all come back, probably is back in some parts of the country. That was the saddest part of all.
Artsy blah blah about the beautiful filmwork, severe countryside and wonderful acting of the non-actors. It's an immersive experience.
(on a side note, I often wondered what the Taliban man with the black hair and beard, i.e. the younger Mullah Sahid, was thinking, especially at the end. Was he in some small way sympathetic to the girl? Was he scornful of the elder Mullah's motives? Did he see the impossible situation his country was in? He was enigmatic.)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is not quite as bleak as Osama, but it still left me feeling like the world can be a cruel place to its women and children. Again, I don't want to spoil the film for anyone so I'll avoid a summary. For me, the movie was about the burdens we bear and how we place them upon ourselves. It was also about the perfect timelessness of a floating monastery at the center of a lake at the center of a valley at the center of the mountains, and the difference between looking inward and outward and how to balance the two. From a Buddhist perspective I suppose the film has a happy ending, but there is much bleak emptiness endured to get there.
More artsy blah blah about the beautiful film work--this film really is a jewel though. It also contains the most patient and cooperative cat in the entire world.
misscalculation gave me Elizabeth Mitchell's "Three Strides to the Wire," an account of Charismatic's 1999 Triple Crown bid. But as with Lauren Hillenbrand's "Seabiscuit," a story about a racehorse is never just about the horse. It is about every human interest along the way, from the breeder's farm to the trainer's stable, from the owner's box to the jockey's clubhouse. Each horse, with its detailed pedigree, is in some sense a microcosm of the entire history of the Thoroughbred and all of the human stories that went into the creation of the sport. Mitchell hadn't been a horse racing fan prior to 1999 until she and the man with whom she was falling in love decided on a whim to go to the Kentucky Derby. The man was undergoing chemo for leukemia so being able to do something spontaneous was more important than doing the thing itself. She dreamed the night before the race about being in an art gallery where the paintings were being judged for their charisma, so of course when she saw a horse named Charismatic in the race, that's where they placed their bets. The story of Charismatic's ultimately failed Triple Crown bid becomes intertwined with the lovers' story of hope against the odds, and the sense of foreshadowing one feels is entirely on the money. The story of jockey Chris Antley, who rode Charismatic to victory in the Derby and Preakness and on his last race in the Belmont, is equally heart-wrenching. Charismatic gets some sense of happily ever after in the end, as he retires to a nice stud career in the rolling hills of Kentucky, but for any of the human beings in the story, their joy is always bittersweet, even the victories tinged with regret at the losses and failures. And the dirty secret of the industry, that the horses are raced too young for the sake of money, is quietly acknowledged by almost every horseman or horsewoman in the book. Yet for love of the race--for Mitchell makes it quite clear horse racing is not a money making business--people continue on, always hoping for the win that will redeem all the losses, the horse that will win the Triple Crown, the lover who will live, the small town boy who makes it in the big cities, the owner who will see his dreams realized. Ultimately, this is a book about love and hope, even as you cry (I did, on the T even) at the story's sorrows.Next up, Muppets in Space, in which Gonzo sings one of the saddest songs ever, and The Proposition, in which--well, it was written by Nick Cave. I really need to get some silly in my life...
