Monday, August 08, 2005

The Devil's Arithmetic and Local Shows

it is alice and wonderland except wonderland is a nazi operated camp in poland. and alice is played by kirsten dunst. isnt she awesome?

why do we lack patriotism? its one obvious problem that is plaguing our country. we fail to commemorate our own history. the result. we dont have a sense of who we are. it is the combined fault of a commercialized media, its artists, and producers concerned only with fame and profit. and our society bereft of ambition and pride. that, i find, is one of the lessons of this film. from a tragedy. take the holocaust story, repeatedly told, so that younger generations have a mind to appreciate themselves. take pride from where they come from.

why cant we come up with something like this. we also have our own holocaust stories. we had our liberation from the spaniards, americans, and japanese. these are as rich a source of meaningful tragedies (or in business terms - entertainment).

instead we insist on fairy tales (darna, kampanerang kuba - exception i like this one, sugo), even condemning ourselves in the process (sugo portrays the native culture as barbarians while the catholic invaders morally superior). another is we romanticsize the victim, not the martyr. martyrs are those who triumph from their convictions, from their own merits. while victims willingly suffer. subjecting themselves to fate. and they take pride in it. they think being the victim, is virtue. this is the obscenity. when these shows are inadvertently teaching this "virtue" to the kids. what do you think we'll end up with several years from now fom watching all this crap? in this film, we see this contrast of cultures.

one last thing. i dont get why its entitled devil's arithmetic. it sounds smart but it doesnt seem to have anything to do with the story. (or im just ignorant)

Rating 3 of 5 ***
Simple but highly effective message

1 comment:

robdelacruz said...

Now this looks like a good movie! Very unique. I confess, I went to imdb to read some of the ending spoilers.