Paradise Now
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Movie Reviews of Paradise Now
Movie Review: Don't let the polemicists fool you
Summary: 5 Stars
Paradise Now is not a film about politics. Director Hany Abu-Assad creates suspense enough to make you feel like you're watching a thriller, but at its heart this is a stirring document of the lives of two young men of occupied Palestine.
Filmed on location in Nablus, the story opens with Khaled and Said being notified that their suicide mission is to take place within the next 24 hours. As the clock winds down, we watch their handlers lead them through their last rites, first in a series of religious ceremonies meant to sooth their consciences, and later in a last filmed statement to fan their simmering hate.
At first it feels like you're being set up for a James Bond type movie - all flash and sizzle with no substance. But when the mission goes awry and the bombers get split up, their fear, their doubt, their shame - the things that make them human - begin to seep out around the edges of their hate and resignation and at last you begin to see what it is that motivates Khaled and Said, young men who would otherwise be chasing girls and racing cars, to strap on a girdle of explosives. Credit goes as much to the actors as to the director/writer for allowing these characters to shine and to step out of the shadow of stereotype.
The film does not glorify or excuse the bombers. In fact, the point of view character, the Western educated Suha, condemns them while pleading for a new course, a new way of thinking and resisting that does not require random violence. If the film makes any point at all, its that the eye-for-an-eye tactics of the Intifada and the Israeli government cannot lead to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
And that is most certainly not a political message.
Movie Review: Eternal Quagmire with a Fuse this Time
Summary: 5 Stars
A riveting look at the central conflict of our moment. All Americans should see this film, not merely the informed. Simply looking at the stark contrast between the landscape of infrastructure in Israel and the West Bank is educational as to what is really going on here. Israel receives more foreign aid from the U.S. than all other foreign aid recipients combined! Can these people not find a way to live together? Is it not our responsibility to help? The burden here is not all on Israel. However, as the film makes clear: the random bombings are felt to be justified by the continued violence which is perpetrated and perpetuated by the occupation.
But the question runs deeper that the war between Israel and Palestine. Regardless of who is found to be at fault by whom, 'haves' must find a way to accommodate their brother and sister 'have-nots' in this world, which now is delimited by a nuclear option.
This challenge is raised here. The suicide bomber is humanized. The film performs the admirable service of showing us that we are all human, Semitic, Caucasian - whoever. And we are searching for our humanity. If we do not find it now, in this generation, all, very likely, is lost. The desperation of that search is mirrored in the desperation of the suicide bomber.
The film puts a human face on radical Islam and gives the reasons why it does. The human face of the perpetration of violence must be seen. Rage emerges from the witness of injustice. We must confront that rage and put and end to the violence, which is its inevitable expression when there appears to be no other salvation.
The tension in the film reaches a classic grandeur. The one "must see" film of 2005.
Movie Review: Chilling
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie deserved the praise it has gotten and especially the Golden Globe for best foreign language film. I have rarely sat through a movie that sent so many conflicting emotions through me. You feel angry, sad, curious and even hopeful all throughout. Few films I've seen have been able to elicit all of these emotions in me. The issue is did the director truly capture genuine feelings of those who have undertaken this "path to martyrdom?" Does Abu-Assad even make the main characters too complex? Well maybe suicide bombers are not that multifaceted; I agree that they probably don't care if they hurt a soldier or a child. But he seems to have taken the different feelings of many Palestinians in regard to resistance and embodied them in each of the main three characters: Said, Khaled and Suha.
Abu-Assad leaves the viewer to question enough: What is justified resistance? Is armed resistance better than nonviolence?
Does it glorify suicide bombing? Hardly. It allows you to follow the characters to their preposed fate, though those roads change and you are left mourning the loss of life on all sides.
In the end the movie makes you want to scream for an end to the violence in the Holy Land. Hany Abu-Assad and the crew should be especially commended for the risk taking that went into making this film. It is one that leaves you with more questions than answers, but all in all it is a passionate plea for dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians and for all of us to stop the madness that is more of a battle within ourselves than with the other.
Movie Review: Happily Surprised to find this film to be EXCELLENT!
Summary: 5 Stars
I rented this film and Spielberg's MUNICH at the same time. I was surprisingly disappointed by MUNICH and surprisingly impressed by PARADISE NOW. I thought this film would be a piece of obvious propaganda but it definitely wasn't. It was evident that this film tried to be truthful and also recognized the madness inherent in suicide-bombing. Contrary to PARADISE NOW, I found Spielberg's film to be a piece of pro-Palestinian terrorist propaganda. Go figure; I didn't see that one coming. I found this film riveting. The characters were fascinating and got more so as the story progressed. The script was excellent and the acting exceptional. It showed slices of Palestinian life and thinking. It was sympathetic to the Palestinian "cause" but that was seemingly incidental. I felt this film was about people trapped in a bad situation economically, spiritually, and morally. About people usually denied the opportunity to make choices but when they had to make them, the options were few and often very extreme with extreme consequences. And those consequences were not just to themselves. I learned a lot through this film. Those little background facts that help you better understand why a people politically act the way they do. How do some people become suicide bombers, why and what are the rules. It was fascinating. I would even recommend it for older children who see the ugly news everyday from various Middle Eastern countries but don't understand anything about any of the various situations nor can they understand there are real people involved. You don't see blood and gore in this film.Movie Review: Succeeding Where Spielberg's "Munich" failed
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I can't embrace some of the conclusions to which this film hopes to lead its audience, "Paradise Now" succeeds as a film because it is a well-crafted story.
While Spielberg's "Munich" deals with similar territory - the futility of violence to quell the tide of violence - this film does not stumble on its way to resolution. Where Spielberg tried to foist the idea of moral equivalncy on both sides of the conflict, "Paradise Now" is content to tell a story -and tell ti well - with its own unique voice.
Granted, it offers a variation of ideas - and once or twice slips into political rhetoric - but it does not patronize the viewers by pretending to present the Israeli viewpoint. Nor does it coddle the viewer with a false "all-things-being-equal" morality. It is exactly what it presents itself as being: the story of two men tapped to be suicide bombers. It is content in that. An opposing viewpoint need not be self-censored. If you want "balance," go look elsewhere.
The triumph of the film is measured in the way it involves its audience in the drama. Even though I abhored some of their beliefs, I still cared about these characters. I worried for their safety; I mourned for their families; I questioned the sanity of one who chooses hopelessness over the possibility of love with a most beautiful woman; I resented the "handlers" who send these two young men to be pawns in a schene over which they have no control.
This is a gripping movie which deserves to be considered for the merits of its storytelling - not condemned for its politics.