Remind me not to work for the government. Or with explosives. Or take phone calls from strangers...

[frameofmind6]

Just finished watching Rendition. Now there's a downer of a movie. I was sorta hoping it might put me in a dark frame of mind so I could start brainstorming ideas for my half of the fic exchange challenge I have going with Ren -- but instead it just made me want to put on my pajamas and curl up with a nice fluffy romantic comedy (*grin*). Oh well...maybe I'll be able to come up with something creepy and twisted tomorrow...

It was a good movie though -- very well constructed, and totally captivating. Not in a "friendly" way, of course -- more of an "oh moy god, this is so horrible," "I can't believe this actually happens," "I physically can't look away" sort of captivating. I made it through the whole thing, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was especially intrigued by this one really interesting structural twist they gave it. At first it sort of seemed like they were telling several different stories, but gradually the connections among the various people involved became clearer and clearer -- all except for this story of a young muslim boy and girl (in North Africa, where the bombing that sets everything in motion takes place), whose only real connection seemed to be that the girl's father was one of the people torturing the American who had been imprisoned (by the CIA, under extraordinary rendition). We see her running away from home to be with this boy, and the family looking for her, and the boy becoming involved with some kind of a terrorist group, but the connection between this storyline and the rendition scenario seems peripheral at best. Not until the very end of the movie do we realize that this story of the boy and girl actually happened before the other, apparently parallel storyline of the rendition. The girl and boy conclude their story when the girl discovers what the boy is involved in and runs to the square to stop him from killing her father. Of course, he's wearing a vest of explosives, and when he shows signs of indecision, his comerades kill him and set off the explosion -- the explosion that set the rest of the story in motion in the first place. It was very strange, almost surreal to come to the point where you realize what's really been going on -- that you haven't been watching two parallel stories, but rather a story and a backstory -- but it was really, really cool, and I think it was a great way to show that perspective in such a way that the audience wouldn't be prejudiced against him too early on. The great thing about the film is that it really does try to show all sides of the whole mess. It's absolutely unfair and unproductive what they do to this American man -- but on the other hand, if torturing a handful of people saves hundreds of thousands, doesn't that seem worth it? And yet, how much does the torture truly contribute to the saving of lives? How can we ever know that the same information could not have been procured by other means? How can we ever know that the same results might not have been achieved even without that particular piece of information? And how much time do we waste torturing innocent people and following up on lies blurted out in the desperation to escape torture? Perhaps most importantly of all, if we save our own lives by sacrificing our most fundamental beliefs and the very principles that protect us, and that we claim to be protecting -- not to mention the lives and welfare of other innocent people -- what exactly have we proven?

None of these are easy questions, and there are no good answers. And to its credit, the movie offers none.

Aaaaand now I need something happy... (*grin*)