And now for a cigarette

Occasionaly, even I need a break from kinky movies about sexual politics.

I wasn't sure I wanted to see Paradise Now when I first began seeing trailers in the theatres last spring. This sort of movie, in which Middle Eastern Muslims are protagonists, generally get me as stirred up as left-leaning documentaries. And now that I've seen it, I feel that this movie should be required viewing for all Americans-- just like I said about Who Killed the Electric Car?.

This is a movie about two guys who are Palenstinian would-be suicide bombers. If a movie like this can engender even the slightest sense of empathy in an American audience, we might be able to turn this country in another direction... a direction that points away from this retarded succubus of a war that we've got on our hands right now.

If you think all the suicide bombers must be lunatics, must be irrational religious zealots, must not give two shits for their families or those of whom they take down with them, must not have brains in their heads...well, then this movie will provide the perspective adjustment that you need. They are not going out with bombs strapped to their bellies in a vaccuum...or for no reason... or just to be mean. There is a cultural contexts that creates these guys.

But that said, there's not much analysis I can offer of a movie like this because, frankly, I'm too invested. Rent it. Seriously. Like I said, it should be required.