M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.
Comments I have seen about the film complain that it is gratuitously violent, brutally graphic, and unnecessarily sensationalistic, and that it is merely shameful self-promotion of her new album.
I couldn't disagree more. The violence depicted is simply reality for many people. The fact that most Americans don't have to face this reality makes this video seem sensationalistic, but this is the violence we take part in and promote throughout the world on a daily basis. M.I.A. knows first hand about this type of violence given the civil war in Sri Lanka with the Tamil Tigers. The film also brings to mind the abuse of Palestinians by the Israelis, the night raids on Afghan civilians, and the torture of alleged "enemy combatants." It may also be a glimpse into the future treatment of immigrants, or perhaps the rounding up of leftists during the Palin Administration.
We are subjected to gratuitous violence everyday, whether it is first-person shooter video games or stylized slaughter in movies and TV; however, it is always removed from reality and desensitizes rather than appalls. We pretend this type of thing doesn't happen. Our media ignores the raw violence of war and makes it palatable. It treats those in positions of authority with deference, always making excuses and never questioning the official version of events. We Americans are blind to the truth. This video uncovers in an unflinching, in-your-face manner the jack booted, truncheon wielding, terrorizing, tactics those in authority use on the powerless everyday throughout the world, often with the support of our tax dollars.
People claim to want art to be provocative, but when it hits a little too close to home or touches a nerve as it approaches an unspoken truth, then it is "offensive" and "distasteful." Shame on Youtube for pulling this video. Their claim of it being pulled due to gratuitous violence is questionable. It seems more likely that it is due to the video depicting American militarized police perpetrating ethnic cleansing. It is censorship of ideas. Would they censor a clip from Saving Private Ryan?
It is disingenuous of Americans to be so outraged when we are the ones perpetrating this violence against so many others. To borrow a line from Martin Luther King, Jr., we are, after all, the greatest purveyors of violence in the world today.
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Comments
There's nothing there that would be cut from a Quentin Tarantino movie, I don't think. It's a cool song, I hadn't heard of M.I.A.
Also look at meat-eating. I am omnivorous, but am horified by farm-raised livestock slaughter. We aren't exposed to it and the concept is sanitized in the mainstream media. That being said, hunting (not with machine guns, but bows and arrows and old school bolt-action rifles) is far more justifiable on an ethical level, but is hated, because of the "image" rather than the reality. I would much rather hunt and eat natural, wild Venison once a month, than eat store-bought beef, pork or chicken every week.
We as a society exist based through the santization of "bad" knowledge.
Worse still, the media caters to populism instead of reporting the news. If we don't ferret out the information ourselves we will simply be in the dark...good americans,
I'm sure that boy is still alive and well, it is a sleight of hand (so to speak) to make an explosion like that on screen; and make the boy's body appear to atomize in that way.
Maybe I missed something in the video, but in the sense that AP was talking about it, we could really use it as analogy for so many repressive regimes or occupying powers over defenseless (or poorly equipped to defend themselves) people.
Red hair. A name like Martinez in Arizona today. A Jew in Berlin in 1939, a Japanese family in California - in the 40s, an Irish job seeker late 19th century, a non-Jew in Jerusalem. You tomorrow.
Powerful little film.
Next time Liz Cheney talks, I want a disclaimed taped to her forehead that reads "this is the daughter of a international war criminal, do not believe anything she says."
I don't know all the facts here, and I don't trust you at all to give them to me. Why don't you provide some sources to back up your claims rather than just make a bunch of claims?
Art is art. If you want to say that some art is to be banned because you don't like the artists positions or affiliation then that makes you an anti-Constitutionalist.
If you read this post here it about artistic expression and not about issues in Sri Lanka that I can't claim to be well versed in.
Newsflash: people lie.
Maybe you're lying, maybe not. Either way an artist doesn't need to answer to you to produce their art.
http://pcolman.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/mia-flips-the-bird/#comment-469