I know this may at first glance appear to be in the wrong subforum, but I hope that any discussion which proceeds from it may be more suited to this one.
I don't normally watch TV or movies (which is somewhat ironic given my most recent job) and I have dozens of friends in the movie industry who never cease suggesting new films to me that I am never going to watch.
However, I read this article this morning:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40418967
And while I would usually instantly dismiss any suggestion that everyone should watch a program, I noticed who it was written by:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Rashid
Firstly the guy is very educated and knowledgeable about the region, but secondly the guy used to be a militant insurgent himself. This seemed immediately to be something worth checking out on a Sunday morning.
Luckily... and to cut a long story short.... someone has left me with a Netflix account which I noticed before very heavily promoted this film (it being an exclusive). So I got to watch it.
Wow. This is not a normal film by any stretch of the imagination. It is THE skeptic's film. Regardless of your viewpoints on war, the message is connected with the problems of personalities affecting political processes, leading us into disasters of their own egotistical manufacturing, and the psychological flaws in humans which keep producing these Trump type idiots and making them our leaders. The scope is way beyond war or Afghanistan or any such specific detail - it's a film that actually tells its audience that we need to stop believing and start thinking. I've never seen such a message in a film before, and I think the timing couldn't have been more fortuitous.
I don't normally watch TV or movies (which is somewhat ironic given my most recent job) and I have dozens of friends in the movie industry who never cease suggesting new films to me that I am never going to watch.
However, I read this article this morning:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40418967
And while I would usually instantly dismiss any suggestion that everyone should watch a program, I noticed who it was written by:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Rashid
Firstly the guy is very educated and knowledgeable about the region, but secondly the guy used to be a militant insurgent himself. This seemed immediately to be something worth checking out on a Sunday morning.
Luckily... and to cut a long story short.... someone has left me with a Netflix account which I noticed before very heavily promoted this film (it being an exclusive). So I got to watch it.
Wow. This is not a normal film by any stretch of the imagination. It is THE skeptic's film. Regardless of your viewpoints on war, the message is connected with the problems of personalities affecting political processes, leading us into disasters of their own egotistical manufacturing, and the psychological flaws in humans which keep producing these Trump type idiots and making them our leaders. The scope is way beyond war or Afghanistan or any such specific detail - it's a film that actually tells its audience that we need to stop believing and start thinking. I've never seen such a message in a film before, and I think the timing couldn't have been more fortuitous.