The Devil Came on Blades of Glory

I saw two wildly disparate movies last week: The Devil Came on Horseback and Blades of Glory.

TDCoH: A creepily restrained documentary about the dude who more or less forced the US government to acknowledge the genocide in Darfur. (Please Wiki or Economize "Darfur" if you don't know what I'm taking about). Ex-marine (name of Brian) is handed a camera, gets posted to observe the cease-fire in Sudan, hears about the atrocities in the Darfur region, and goes over and takes endless, graphic, searing photos of what he sees. There are unapologetic shots of dead, burnt, decaying bodies in this film – it's not a popcorn flick. The really amazing thing is how long it took for the governments of the world to even admit what what was happening, let alone how long it took for them to act at all (and still they have not done nearly enough). Brian pretty much had to go to the New York Times, and then on national TV in order to get a hearing with the state department – which is insane, considering he was essentially an official observer. That's like being forced to publish your company's employee complaints in the newspaper before HR will meet with you.

Anyway, the whole thing is quite depressing on several levels. Watching it really brought forth a question that been festering at the back of my mind for a while, which is "How can humans be such dicks?" I'm not being facetious here – honestly, what can compel humans to act so inhumanly (not only the actual janjaweed militias with the guns and the gasoline, but also the Sudanese government that authorized the plan, and the African Union that did nothing about the reports, and the UN that apparently has no power to even say a harsh word (some one-world government they turned out to be))? You can't even say "religion," because the janjaweed killed Muslims, Christians, and animists alike. They killed because the Sudanese gov said "Hey, if you go and kill the peeps over there, you can keep whatever you find." And they said "Hey, yeah, we'll do that, sure, no problem." The janjaweed are beyond cartoonish in their love of violence and disregard for life; they are literally inhuman. Batman villains show greater nuance. These guys bash in the heads of babies – there are photos showing the flattened skulls. What the fuck?

At one point, Brian mentions that if he only had a gun instead of a camera (he's in a helicopter at the time), he could have single-handedly saved a lot of people's lives – at least on that day. He's got a point. But, as a neutral observer, he wasn't allowed to have a gun, so he was only able to take pictures of what was happening below him, basically forced to look on as an entire village is systematically destroyed, looted, and burned. Inhabitants were killed, raped, and the few survivors who ran still had to travel through the desert to refugee camps where conditions are marginal to say the least.

Toward the end of the film, Brian talks about how naïve he was when he arrived. He really, truly thought that as soon as his photos were sent to the African Union, they would be shared and a published and America would send in marines within weeks. Didn't happen, obviously. His reports went nowhere. Once back in the states, he had a personal meeting with Condeleezza Frickin Rice, who looks at the photos (Shown. On. Film.) and then does nothing. Dude was in Darfur in 2005. People are still dying today. What the fuck?

The film focuses very tightly on one particular person's experience, so it necessarily doesn't go into the larger political issues surrounding the genocide, not even really exploring possible reasons for why the governments and international bodies are so unwilling to take direct action. There is some mention of the ICC, and a few names are mentioned as potential "war crimes" indictees, but the film seems to be unable to answer other questions, such as why the US Senate was content to pass a resolution stating that what's going on in Darfur can be defined as genocide according to the Geneva Conventions, and then leave it at that.

I could go on, but it's probably better for you to see the film yourself, if you can stomach it.

And, then after you see TDCoH, you can rent Blades of Glory (just like I did!), a film that rips off The Cutting Edge scene for scene, with the lame twist of the pairs couple being all-male. Ooh, bold. The movie is occasionally funny, often embarrassing, and contains no substance whatsoever. (There's some nice absurdist humor right at the end). Perhaps most importantly, I will bet money that more people saw BoG on opening night than TDCoH will garner for its entire existence, both on screen and as a DVD. It's a bet I'll be happy to lose.

There's a place for reality, and place for escapism. I think probably those places might need to be switched.

Thanks for listening. I'm going to go watch me some Animaniacs now. Where's the popcorn?

I suppose i should point out that i'm not trying to condemn anyone for enjoying BoG or really any movie. My point is only that it's so easy to be distracted, distracted, distracted and really much harder to be engaged, and still harder to act. THat's all. My popcorn's ready now. Bye!