I was there just after this. The film is restrained (yep - hard to believe after you've seen it) and not quite as graphic as the reality - no-one could watch it if it was. (It's still incredibly graphic - be warned. The word James Brabazon used is 'visceral'.) My hats off to the filmmakers - they have true guts (to keep in the theme - sorry).
Where I feel it would have been more rounded for them to explore more fully is the psychological grappling of the ordinary citizen. That is one of the biggest horrors of this war. Yes, they went about their business (of survival) as best they could but the horror of being randomly close to death at every moment, and dependent on someone else's volubility, is as difficult to witness as the actual physical traumas. And, maybe some views from the parents of the drugged-to-their-eyeballs child soldiers would have shown them more as people. Although, to be honest, they weren't really people then.
And, yes, it's very critical of the US government but it doesn't come from an anti-American 'bias' - it is a just accurate reflection of the reality. The Liberians were absolutely sure their American brothers would come to help them out. And even after all that, there is still an incredible depth of feeling that Liberians have towards the USA. As a whole, they still think of themselves as the 51st state, though some have a better understanding of where Liberia fits into American thought processes (nowhere except for the commodities they have that the USA wants). But still the Liberians harbour historic sentimentality. Maybe they should all see this movie too. Oh, maybe not, until the trauma psychologists have been in.
Where I feel it would have been more rounded for them to explore more fully is the psychological grappling of the ordinary citizen. That is one of the biggest horrors of this war. Yes, they went about their business (of survival) as best they could but the horror of being randomly close to death at every moment, and dependent on someone else's volubility, is as difficult to witness as the actual physical traumas. And, maybe some views from the parents of the drugged-to-their-eyeballs child soldiers would have shown them more as people. Although, to be honest, they weren't really people then.
And, yes, it's very critical of the US government but it doesn't come from an anti-American 'bias' - it is a just accurate reflection of the reality. The Liberians were absolutely sure their American brothers would come to help them out. And even after all that, there is still an incredible depth of feeling that Liberians have towards the USA. As a whole, they still think of themselves as the 51st state, though some have a better understanding of where Liberia fits into American thought processes (nowhere except for the commodities they have that the USA wants). But still the Liberians harbour historic sentimentality. Maybe they should all see this movie too. Oh, maybe not, until the trauma psychologists have been in.