Already being at the parental abode for Thanksgiving, I had little to do, so I watched my favorite movie, Emir Kusturica's1 Bila jednom jedna zemlja again [known in American release as Underground. Parts of its soundtrack by Goran Bregovic, by the way, were yanked by Borat, as well as some other works by the same artist.
The story is about two great friends, one of whom betrays everybody who loves him except possibly his wife, and even she is forced to at least hate him for the grave evils he makes her join in on. His friend, though stabbed in the back several times in the story, still loves him even after all is made known and breaks down when he discovers his traitorous friend has been killed. And the traitor undoubtedly loved his friend in some perverse way despite all the evil done to him so that in the resurrectional restoration of all things at the end of the movie, it doesn't seem out of place at all that they return to their pre-war friendship. He has some untouched and redeemable core of love for even those he has betrayed. Contrast with Ben-Hur, where the evil friend is spiteful to the last breath and there is no hope for him. Or I'm smoking rocks. Either way, a grand film.
1: Though his name indicates Muslim descent, he was baptized into the Orthodox Church on the feast of St George in recent years. He was already my favorite director; this only solidified his standing.
No comments:
Post a Comment