Reflection On The Film Paradise Now

When I was first told that we were going to watch a film that would go in depth of how terrorist groups recruit suicide bombers, I was surprisingly excited. No, I do not support any of these acts of violence at all but I find the state of mind these terrorist groups are in fascinating. In the United States, terrorist groups recruitment is very rare but in the Middle East it is very common in most places to run into areas filled with many different terrorist’s organizations. This film is involved all around the Israel and Palestine conflict, which is a constant battle between who gets what land and how it's controlled.

The setting of the film is in West Bank which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority but at the same time is occupied by the Israelis. With the occupation of the Israelis, they have created security and boarder checkpoints which are ran by the Israeli soldiers. With constant disagreement that has been going on for a few decades this has caused terrorist organizations, mainly on the Palestine side, have formed to take action upon themselves as they think their “government” is not putting in the effort to make things work. These terrorist organizations form to created damage and since then series of acts of violence have happened, which has taken many innocent lives.

In the film “Paradise Now”, it shows you from a first-person point of view the many different mechanisms that go into recruiting and persuading these innocent men to take their own life. While watching the film, I surprisingly was able to correlate material I have learned in class to the film as it was showing. As many of the theories were coming to mind I constantly had a few major theories that I believe relates not only to the film, “Paradise Now”, but to the overall process of recruiting/developing suicide bombers and on why they are taking part in these gruesome acts. The best suited material I found came from Michael Howard “The Causes of War”, Neil Whitehead’s “Violence”, and Chris Hedges “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. ” While watching the film, the viewer tell that suicide bombings are pretty common thing when Said and Suha enter into the video store and Suha asks the clerk what those films are and he proceeds to tell her they are the martyrs films. Also, you can depict that this isn’t Abu-Karem first time setting up these attacks as he has a whole design of how the bombs work and how to cross the border without being spotted. During these specific scenes, a line from a previous reading came to mind.

“An act of violence to compel the enemy to fulfill our will”. This specific statement could not describe any better on why these bombings are happening. They are using these bombing to try to make the Israeli government agree with the their own, I see these acts of violence as intimidation. A frequently asked question is always along the lines of where and how they find these people willing to give their own life. It’s not so much where they find them and more of how they develop these bombers. In the beginning of the film, Said and Khaled are shown going through a typical mundane day in West Bank while working terrible jobs as car repairmen, smoking hookah, and drinking tea. As you can tell their live almost seem like they are going nowhere. Then Said is approached by Jamal who is the messenger for the terrorist organization which has chosen Khaled and Said to carry out a mission which involves taking their own lives. “Most give themselves willingly to the seduction of unlimited power to destroy, and all feel the peer pressure. Few, once in bottle, can find the strength to resist. ”

During the film, you can easily depict how they manipulate these innocent men into taking their own life and many others. They would make them feel praised as they would give them a huge feast and tell them they will be met by angels when they would pass away. It is the power that most of the men are craving and most likely why Said and Khalid first agreed to carry out the mission, as they neither have had that much power in their hands before. As the film goes on, Khalid at first is the one more interested in it not having any second thoughts all while Said is. Khalid was amazed with the fact going to destroy as a martyr and Said was pretty much going to follow the mission because of the peer pressure. Later as the film goes on, Khalid realizes what he is doing is wrong and tries to convince Said to stop but it was too late Said was already bottled up. Most of this type of violence is not meaningless, most of the time it has a sentimental value that even sometimes relates to personal past experiences. “However, such cultural forms of violence are in fact deeply meaningful, recalling the histories that shore up the conflicts in which antagonists are engaged and nightmares of the past into the walking realities of the present”.

Towards the end of the film Said starts to recall more of his father who was a past martyr which ends up turning into more encouragement to follow through with his operation. It comes to show that Said was most definitely going to follow through for not only his culture but to also to overcome shame and turning it into a revenge factor for his past father. In the film, I recall that Said and Khalid discussing what they wanted to be when they were younger and that was to grow up and become martyrs, which in a way relates to Whitehead’s theory of mimetic violence. Which is equivalent to the saying as “monkey see monkey do. ” This could also give us a better explanation to not only why all martyrs did their part for their home/religion but because they were brought up watching how past martyrs before them have done. To conclude, this film was not only made to show us the process of suicide bombing but the significance behind why they did what they did.

In my opinion, this film was an eye opener, I see this as a blessing that I can live in a country that the society is not very fond of terroristic actions and especially the act of suicide. As I did not agree with the majority of the film, I still found it very fascinating on not only why they choose the way to get their point across but how they were just also picked randomly and were pretty much ok with the fact they were going to die and take many others with them. But you know what they say, “You got to hit them where it hurts. ”