Comments on: Movie Review: A Mighty Heart http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/06/22/movie-review-a-mighty-heart/ Blogging the Reel World Wed, 9 Jul 2008 04:50:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: J http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/06/22/movie-review-a-mighty-heart/#comment-59136 J Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:47:37 +0000 http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/06/22/movie-review-a-mighty-heart/#comment-59136 The film's message is antithetical to the real meaning of Daniel Pearl's murder. A Mighty Heart should never have been made. It is painful to watch the true story of journalist Daniel Pearl whose abduction and gruesome execution by Muslim extremists in 2002 reverberated around the world. The reason the movie fails so spectacularly is because the message it sends is one that is antithetical to the true meaning of Daniel Pearl's martyrdom. The monsters who beheaded Pearl and proudly filmed his execution, clearly explained their purpose. The video they released of their victim's final moments was titled "The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl." Before being murdered, Pearl was forced to say, "My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish." Being a Jew was his "crime." Yet Michael Winterbottom, the director, inserts a prior scene where the man who organized the kidnapping is asked why Pearl was taken and responds, "Because he was an American." Angelina Jolie put it in one of her many PR interviews for the film: "Mariane is a person who has every right to be full of hate and yet she's completely the opposite. She wants to have a dialogue." Yes, a dialogue. A dialogue with those who have abandoned all reason. A dialogue with evil. A dialogue with the devil so that you can 'understand' him while he wants only to glory in your death. The film’s message is antithetical to the real meaning of Daniel Pearl’s murder. A Mighty Heart should never have been made. It is painful to watch the true story of journalist Daniel Pearl whose abduction and gruesome execution by Muslim extremists in 2002 reverberated around the world.
The reason the movie fails so spectacularly is because the message it sends is one that is antithetical to the true meaning of Daniel Pearl’s martyrdom. The monsters who beheaded Pearl and proudly filmed his execution, clearly explained their purpose. The video they released of their victim’s final moments was titled “The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl.” Before being murdered, Pearl was forced to say, “My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.” Being a Jew was his “crime.” Yet Michael Winterbottom, the director, inserts a prior scene where the man who organized the kidnapping is asked why Pearl was taken and responds, “Because he was an American.”
Angelina Jolie put it in one of her many PR interviews for the film: “Mariane is a person who has every right to be full of hate and yet she’s completely the opposite. She wants to have a dialogue.” Yes, a dialogue. A dialogue with those who have abandoned all reason. A dialogue with evil. A dialogue with the devil so that you can ‘understand’ him while he wants only to glory in your death.

]]> By: Jim http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/06/22/movie-review-a-mighty-heart/#comment-52613 Jim Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:02:58 +0000 http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/06/22/movie-review-a-mighty-heart/#comment-52613 As another reviewer put it: "To experience the grief of a death, one must know something of the life, no? That's the assumption of a movie like Silkwood. It is not assumed in A Mighty Heart, which tells us precious little about Mariane and Danny." I agree. This film is a joke. The film also did nothing to actually bring Daniel Pearl to the fore and it should have. The man was kidnapped and decapitated, for God's sake. This was a set-piece for Angelina Jolie and anyone who thinks its too much more than that is deluded. As another reviewer put it: “To experience the grief of a death, one must know something of the life, no? That’s the assumption of a movie like Silkwood. It is not assumed in A Mighty Heart, which tells us precious little about Mariane and Danny.”

I agree. This film is a joke. The film also did nothing to actually bring Daniel Pearl to the fore and it should have. The man was kidnapped and decapitated, for God’s sake. This was a set-piece for Angelina Jolie and anyone who thinks its too much more than that is deluded.

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