Friday, February 8, 2008

"This is my first torture"


I havent' been blogging for a longtime and I blame it on the fact that I was too lazy too put my thoughts here. Hey, with the election season's here, adik shalinie still yet to be found, 2 papers in one week and my lately-so-constant-craving-for-food-and-switchfoot. So, I'm just going to blog on the freshest thing on my mind right now and that is a movie I watched last night - RENDITION.

Most of you would have heard what's the movie about. If you don't then it's basically a story about an Egyptian-American who have been 'taken' away from DC airport for 'CIA-style interrogation 'and the events leading to it and of course, how the wife tried so hard to find out what happened to him and how the new kid in the block finds out that not everything is perfect and black and white in the real world.

I think everyone did a good job in this movie especially Meryl Streep. Bravo for her coldness. The scariest thing about Streep's character is her conviction she knows what she is doing is right. She never doubts it. For a minute. So when she is confronted by the man's wife, Isabella (Witherspoon), she calmly and coolly tells the young mother that she is sorry for the woman's trouble, but she knows nothing. She manages to almost convince us and we know differently. At one point I feel like slapping her whenever she uses the 'national security' excuse.

Here's the part where I don't like about the movie - How they potray Islam and the biasness they have towards that potrayal. Unlike Peter Berg's The Kingdom which I really enjoyed and appreciate because the fact that he tried to show that there's more than just one side of the story. There's more to Islam than blowing off people(which I must say is never part of the religion and I would never tolerate people using religion as an excuse for that), it's also about submission-which Rendition shows it in the part that submission refers to wiping off the 'apostates and infidels'.

Here's what I like the movie : that the US is a hypocritical government and one that condones torture(hey,it's ok if we do it elsewhere, just not here). It's painful to see how a strong man can break down after a series of torture. How 'they' don't want the correct information but only 'information', as long as they get to blame it on someone.

Here are some of the interesting quotes :

"Honey, this is nasty business. There are upwards of 7,000 people in central London alive tonight, because of information that we elicited just this way. So maybe you can put your head on your pillow and feel proud for saving one man while 7,000 perish, but I got grandkids in London, so I'm glad I'm doing this job... and you're not.

And what if Anwar El-Ibrahami is your grandkid?"


"Why don't you ask your boss how badly he really does want to stick his neck out for a terrorist.

Well, he might for due process. Maybe I should have a copy of the Constitution sent to your office.


"In all the years you've been doing this, how often can you say that we've produced truly legitimate intelligence? Once? Twice? Ten times? Give me a statistic; give me a number. Give me a pie chart, I love pie charts. Anything, anything that outweighs the fact that if you torture one person you create ten, a hundred, a thousand new enemies."



For your information, the name of the Egyptian-American is Anwar El-Ibrahimi. This I just have to mention. It's up to you to create the links.

6 comments:

Nabster said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nabster said...

A current post,at last! :)

By the way,I'm sorry I haven't been keeping in touch with you for these past few weeks,been pretty occupied with some things, and some people.Lol.

Which is why we should update our lives in this purposeful blog of ours.I'm glad you enjoyed the switchfoot concert and just so you know, explosions in the sky is coming to KL so you might wanna check them out.

I heard someone might be coming to Gold Coast? *jumping in joy* You know my friend,Safiyya kan? The one you met at my house before I left...yeah,that one.She's studying there right now,so I'm seriously considering going there for a holiday...tunggu you datang then we can go together =)

Shits. I just noticed that I've practically written a short essay.Haha.I'll just give you a call lah.Just wait and see =)

Afifah said...

woah.. explosions in the sky!!!!
[a great joy for friday night lights fans!

Afifah said...

Ttheir music is just awesome but I dont think I can make it due to the venue. One that I listen to when I wake up and go to sleep. The switchfoot concert was held in a more 'acceptable' venue. That's why.

Gold Coast is an 'unsure' thing dulu. Subjected to parents.

Anonymous said...

oooohhh interesting how much i can remember all those quotes, having watched the film like a loooong time ago, hampir sebulan @.@ and yup, i guess streep's performance was somewhat brilliant, but i think they gave her too little screen time to really shine, unfortunately - she was absolutely awesome in the Devil Wears Prada. and about the film, i thought the end twist was somewhat brilliant tho, never expected it to end that way =D cant remember the film too well now, but i remember that it was a bit of a letdown, though, imho - could've used just a little more angst and profoundness, i guess?

and hear hear to all this crap with regard to biased portrayal of islam >.< havent watched the kingdom lagi, will do soon i guess (the dvd has been collecting dust for a while now lol), but it's interesting to point out how much hollywood nowadays likes to centre their plots on "that crazy Arab-Muslim culture" eh? Syriana, the Kingdom, Rendition... @.@ all they care about is to dish out some happy pop-culture-appealing rubbish and then kumpul2 all the resultant moolah

Nabster said...

By the way, I really liked the movie. Not bad.