Paradise Now

The movie paradise now, is about two Arabic brothers who were asked by community leaders to stage a suicide bombing which will result in the killing of Israeli citizens. The movie takes watchers through the minds of the bomber as each person is dealing with their impending action. The movie showed us the indoctrination of a suicide bomber. The two brother are persuaded into agreeing with the plan by promises from their leaders. Such promises like, you were chosen for this, this is god will and two angles will pick you up upon your death and carry you to heaven, were enough to put the two brother on the path to their their goal. When the day of the mission came, their plans were foiled when they were spotted by a patrol car. While running to evade capture, the two brothers were spilt up. Khaled (the older brother) was taking back to the hiding spot while Said (the younger brother) had to find his way back. After spending the whole day, with a bomb strapped to his chest, Said was tracked down by his brother and returned to Jamel (the leader of their group).

After a brief debriefing, Jamel decided they should try their plan again, if the boys were willing. Khaled, who had previously being excited to carry out the plans, now became hesitant, while Said who had being doubting the plan along became even more sure that suicide bombing is the only way yo get their message across. When they day of their plan came, Khaled decided this was not he right thing to do and backed out of the plan. Said decided he was going to go ahead with the plan and locked his brother in the car that came to pick them up and watched the car drive away. The final scene in the movie is Said sitting in a bus with several Israeli soldiers and civilians. The camera closes on his face and the whole screen went white (meaning he had pulled the trigger) followed by a dark screen.

I hate (with deep animosity) idiotic indoctrinations which attempts to convince people that it is good to kill other people for a selfish cause. Wether it Hitler and the Nazi or people like Jamel who prey on the weak to carry out their devious plans. I always have the thought (as I did with this movie) on my mind of "Why, is you believe in this idea so much, can't you do it yourself." I believe it takes a coward of a person to recruit people to do their dirty work while they stand in the shadows and give reason to justify their evil. Jamel tell the two brothers of the pending glory of taking their own live to further his cause. But, there is no glory in such thing, just murderers and the murdered. The justification of trying to solve a problem with violence will only lead to more violence.

In the end I thought the movie was a good way to show what goes on in a world I know nothing about. It did a great job of showing me the psychology of people like Jamal. It also showed me the hardship of living in a world in which you feel oppressed with no sense of a way out. Such was the case with Said, I just believe he tried to fix the problem the wrong way. In the case of Khaled, he was shown, by a friend, that taking someone else's life due to anger is not a just cause but revenge.