This film was terrible and terrific. Terrible in the way that it got into my head and wont let me forget it. Terrible in the way that it haunts my thoughts, digs up my past and forces me to think about things that I would rather leave buried.
Terrific and terrible. Id highly recommend you watch it, but for your own comfort I would have to recommend that you avoid it.
Where is escapist entertainment when you need it?
So how did this film become so terrible and terrific?
The first is the haunting and tragic love story that blossoms in the course of the film. It isnt a Romeo & Juliet romance where we believe they love because they look like theyre in love. It isnt the sappy sentimental type either where the film makers try to force us to care. It is one of the most unusual love stories in that there seems to be no love at all, and through a series of recollections Justin realizes just how much love there was.
On this “Lost Love” topic I wont say any more here because Ive already written of it in my previous article. Click Here: Losing Love.
While this aspect of the film is what has its claws in me, there is so many more facets to it.
Tessa at one point pleads with Justin to stop and help a young African boy and his orphaned sister. “We cant save all of them Tessa” Justin reasons.
“This one we can save.”
Later in the movie Justin uses the same line before the UN plane kicks off a Sudanese refugee to her certain demise.
As an educator I can look at the numbers and become overwhelmed. According to nationwide statistics 1/3 of my students wont finish high school. Many of my students will experience abuse, divorce, neglect and pain that I will not be able to prevent.
BUT I can help them now. I can inspire, educate and challenge them to be better people. Maybe I can even affect them like my teachers affected me. Maybe in 20 years they can still recall a moment in my class or talk with me that changed their life. Maybe my guidance will help them to avoid some of the crap that life is flinging about.
I cant save everyone but every year I have 150 under my tutelage that I can save … or do my darndest trying.
Another aspect of the film is the role that drug companies take in developing and testing new medicines on African patients and the shady dealings that follow. I know too much about this subject (my father is a doctor and I worked with him for years) to buy the argument completely. I know too much about pharmaceutical technology to be too naive. Nevertheless the film does make even the staunchest Medical Rep take a very hard look at the possibility that drug companies cover up deaths caused by their medical testing. A scary possibility that hopefully will get peoples attention and terminate any such program before it could begin (or stop it if is already going).
I wont get into a defense of pharmaceutical companies here but the fact that the film makes you think about the morality and numbers of this life & death science is a good thing. Everything should be examined in the light of day every once in awhile or it becomes moldy and decadent. But one thing should be considered before we hang drug companies in effigy: where would we be without the pharmaceutical advances that drug companies have engineered in the past century? They may employ some evil means, but their purpose is well intentioned.
The film made me reevaluate my political ideology. The film was touted as a liberal political activist thriller. I think that maybe Im losing touch with my entrenched conservative beliefs. While Im still a strong social conservative, I am beginning to question the Evangelical alliance with big business. The Bible does have a little too much to say about greed, money, power and the like. Should Christians sell out their belief in social justice and equality in order to bring about reforms in other areas? It sounds very Machiavellian to me. The ends do not justify the means. This I believe very strongly; it is the means that will bring about the end. Wrong means will backfire.
Dont sign me up for the next Democratic primary just yet though. Envy and covetousness are still sins and I shant condone a resurrection of Marxist ideology. That film should not be remade or have a sequel (too many copycats that bombed… literally).
Another aspect of The Constant Gardener that stuck out to me was that of gears in a machine. No one is responsible for Tessas death and yet everyone has a hand in it. The illiterate nomads who do the deed for liquor, the ex-military contractors who take the call and send the boozed up nomads on their way, the general contractor who takes the call from corporate security and calls the contractors, the corporate security officer who tackles the problem that the board wants removed, the board who is more interested in profits then producing the best product, the politician who leaks the report to the board, the diplomat who informs on Tessas whereabouts and the shady doctor who gives additional times and places. And Im probably missing a few cogs. They all had a hand in the death and yet they all hold onto their plausible deniability.
I think the guards at Nazi death camps already used the line “we were only following orders” and no one bought it then. Unfortunately, it seems America has been very busy wrecking other countries in order to fuel its own greed. Our line when we stand account will be “we were only following the bottom line.” Market forecast: that is one export no one will buy.
The scariest thing about this film is that I dont think its too far off what happens every day. I hope Im wrong, but human nature doesnt surprise me and the more I know about business dealings between the 1st world and the 3rd world, the less I want to know. Like the toddler who closes his eyes in order to hide; to him it appears to work, but no one else is fooled.
It almost makes me want to be a CEO so I can stand up on Wall Street and tell them that it isnt all about the bottom line. While this fixation with the dollar has stabilized our economy, morally it has bankrupted us. As far as trading goes, I dont think it was a good deal.
The final comment is the soundtrack. Most soundtracks sound like a previous soundtrack remixed. Not this one. Its mixture of classical elements with intense African instrumentation and vocals multiplies the effect of the haunting visuals.
So to review the review. Watch this film if you want to get a glimpse of a slice of Africa. Want to be challenged in your own relationships. Want to test your political loyalties.
Dont see this film if youre planning on using the line “we were only following…”
Warning: The Film is R for nudity and violence. Neither are gratuitous but they are both present.
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