Last night I watched Rambo 4. I’ve never watched a Rambo movie before, cause gratuitous violence doesn’t appeal to me. So, why did I watch number 4??
1) it was mostly filmed here in Chiang Mai;
2) some of our friends were stand-ins for the stars;
3) the missionary aspects of the plot interested me;
4) I was hoping for some mindless drivel that I could easily turn off if I got bored or annoyed (I chose poorly).
The opening sequence impressed me. News clips from what’s REALLY happening in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi. Monk protests. Karen genocide. Stuff that the world mostly ignores. It set the stage for the entire movie, and got the Truth out to millions in seconds. But I admit that the cynic within me thought, “Most of the people watching won’t realize or believe that this is REAL.”
Sean and I analyzed the movie as we watched – a favourite pastime. It’s rare for us to watch something without pulling it apart. The characters, the acting, the plot, even cinematography is open to critique. Character development is poor – what do you expect, it’s Rambo, but they had successfully painted the head missionary as a dufus in the first few minutes, so by the time the pirates showed up, I was hoping he’d be ‘removed’ from the scene… by a pirate.
The scene that impacted me the most and made this film worth seeing takes place in the Karen Village in Burma. The Medical Missions team is treating the villagers when the Burmese Army attacks. The images are so graphic, so violent, I began to weep. People are ripped apart by mortars; heads blown off; tied up and raped; arms cut off with machetes. I couldn’t watch it. I sat there with my head in my hands sobbing. This is real. This happens every day! It’s not just a movie. This scene is not just gratuitous violence for violence sake – It reveals a reality that we can’t even imagine. It’s so unreal, that as a culture we have turned it into entertainment.
Just a few hundred kilometers from my home, the Karen people fear and experience this violence on a daily basis. They are murdered because of their ethnic background; because the government wants to exploit natural resources; because they follow Jesus. The Karen are nomads on their own land (the Karen State). Officially, they are referred to by the UN as Internally Displaced People (IDP), and those who flee Burma are not given refugee status. Ignored by the world, they struggle to survive. But they are a formidable and beautiful people.
Many of our friends are Karen. We work closely with a Karen village. And I have known about the plight of the Karen since my teens. So, this movie had a greater impact, because it was like watching friends and neighbours being slaughtered.
If you are interested in finding out more about Burma and the Karen, please visit one of the websites below. There really are people who risk their lives to help them.
Free Burma Rangers
Partners Relief and Development
Christians Concerned for Burma
Compasio
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