I just finished watching Paradise Now for the second time. This time was with my Dad, who described it as "a good film" after the credits starting showing. It's classified as an M18 show under the Singaporean Board of Censors because of the sensitive theme it holds in our society.
Basically, the film illustrates the last 48 hours of two Palestinian men who live in the West Bank. They are set on an operation to detonate a bomb in Tel Aviv, sacrificing their lives a result.
Many times in society we are prompted to deem these people as cold, unfeeling, inhuman individuals who don't actually have hearts, and are just tools of destruction. Politicians look at things in black and white. They see that everyone is phased under two umbrellas- "right" and "wrong". There is no in-between.
But what is black and white anyway? Black is but a mixture of every other color there is. And white is the absence of any of those color.
Nobody is white. Nobody is perfect. But nobody is black either. The truth is, everybody is in-between. There are so many colors, how can everybody only be two? A week after the terrorist attacks against London, Madrid, and so many other places in the world comes a huge story on these people. We look at them and dismiss them: they are not worth the attention. But does anybody consider the fact that NOBODY makes a decision to kill a bunch of people in just a snap? There is always a road.
Why did these two young man choose to give up their whole lives for a mere operation? You'd be shallow to just brush it off; think they're naive. How on earth will you expect people to react when you torment, tyrannize, intimidate them? They are human too, and vengeance breeds in the flesh of every human.
After watched the film for the first time, I remember thinking. This is odd, Said was the one who backed out first. Khaled was the adamant one. But in the end, it was Said who detonated the bomb. The second time, I probed myself with that question. Then I realized: religion, philosophy and external thinking are not the only contributing factors to a person making such a decision.
Some of us have inner demons, and maybe because there was this avenue to manifest his demon that way, Said took the plunge.
Basically, the film illustrates the last 48 hours of two Palestinian men who live in the West Bank. They are set on an operation to detonate a bomb in Tel Aviv, sacrificing their lives a result.
Many times in society we are prompted to deem these people as cold, unfeeling, inhuman individuals who don't actually have hearts, and are just tools of destruction. Politicians look at things in black and white. They see that everyone is phased under two umbrellas- "right" and "wrong". There is no in-between.
But what is black and white anyway? Black is but a mixture of every other color there is. And white is the absence of any of those color.
Nobody is white. Nobody is perfect. But nobody is black either. The truth is, everybody is in-between. There are so many colors, how can everybody only be two? A week after the terrorist attacks against London, Madrid, and so many other places in the world comes a huge story on these people. We look at them and dismiss them: they are not worth the attention. But does anybody consider the fact that NOBODY makes a decision to kill a bunch of people in just a snap? There is always a road.
Why did these two young man choose to give up their whole lives for a mere operation? You'd be shallow to just brush it off; think they're naive. How on earth will you expect people to react when you torment, tyrannize, intimidate them? They are human too, and vengeance breeds in the flesh of every human.
After watched the film for the first time, I remember thinking. This is odd, Said was the one who backed out first. Khaled was the adamant one. But in the end, it was Said who detonated the bomb. The second time, I probed myself with that question. Then I realized: religion, philosophy and external thinking are not the only contributing factors to a person making such a decision.
Some of us have inner demons, and maybe because there was this avenue to manifest his demon that way, Said took the plunge.
"The politicians want to see it as black and white, good and evil, and art wants to see it as a human thing."
-Hany Abu-Assad
Director Paradise Now
Moo! Donald Leo let our history class watch Paradise Now too. Thought-provoking.
Watched it. And the white and black definitions are switched aren't they?