Seeing the Humanity of “the Enemy”: Movies to Provoke Thought and Discussion
by John Whitehead
One of the many pernicious effects of war and other violent conflicts is how they push people into demonizing people on the other side of a conflict. Once people become identified as “the enemy” in a conflict, they become one-dimensional figures of evil or otherwise less than human in their opponents’ eyes. This psychological process of demonization makes killing other people much easier.
In contrast, art, at its best, can make us appreciate the humanity and complexity of the characters it portrays. Art can provide a more rounded portrayal of characters even when those characters belong to groups or act in ways that otherwise might make us reduce them to negative stereotypes.
When works of art deal with real-world conflicts in an intelligent way that reveals the characters’ humanity, they can serve as a welcome antidote to the demonization such conflicts encourage. I can think of three notable movies that do this important work of showing the humanity of different sides of violent conflicts.
Each movie comes from a different country and deals with a different historical conflict. Captivity and the complicated relationships that arise from it are themes in all three.
Prisoner of the Mountains [Кавкавский Пленних] (1996): This Russian movie, an updating of a Leo Tolstoy short story, is set during an unnamed conflict that is presumably meant to be the First Chechen War (1994-1996). This war pitted Russian government troops against Chechen separatist insurgents. The movie revolves around what happens when two Russian soldiers, Vanya and Sasha, are captured by insurgent Abdul-Murat.
Abdul-Murat hopes he can exchange the two soldiers for his own son, who is held prisoner by the Russians. He is willing to keep the two men alive as long as he can get his son back, but no longer.
Through the men’s captivity and the accompanying negotiations, we get to know Vanya and Sasha and Abdul-Murat and his family, as well as Vanya’s mother, who plays a role in trying to free her son. Both Russians and Chechens are capable of demonizing and killing each other, but they are also capable of kindness and mercy. Captives and captors can even connect as people and enjoy each other’s company. The movie also makes clear how all parties are to some degree victims of a corrupt Russian military establishment that is almost as indifferent to its own soldiers as it is to the insurgents.
While the movie includes scenes of violence, Prisoner of the Mountains is highly unusual among war movies in not sensationalizing violence. Even movies trying to show the horrors of war can portray violence in a way that is dramatic or exciting. However, when violence occurs in Prisoner of the Mountains, it is generally presented in a quick, matter-of-fact way, with few cinematic effects. The movie avoids being exploitative while reminding us of how war and wartime hatreds destroy human lives.
Some Mother’s Son (1996). During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a significant conflict arose in the early 1980s over the status and treatment of IRA members imprisoned by the British. Margaret Thatcher’s government insisted on treating the IRA as a group of criminals. The imprisoned IRA members insisted that they were prisoners of war and should be accorded the rights of POWs, including being allowed to wear their own clothes rather than prison uniforms. Several IRA prisoners, most famously Bobby Sands, protested their treatment by going on hunger strike.
This fictionalized retelling of the prison conflict looks at two widowed women whose sons are among the imprisoned IRA hunger strikers. Annie Higgins is a staunch IRA supporter who looks with pride on her son’s activities; Kathleen Quigley is an apolitical schoolteacher who rejects the IRA’s violent tactics. Despite their differences, the two women unite to campaign for humane treatment for their sons and the other imprisoned men.
Some Mother’s Son clearly abhors the Thatcher government’s draconian policies (the main government representative is portrayed as being unrelievedly hateful, in one of the movie’s less subtle touches). Nevertheless, the movie also, in some very powerful scenes, condemns IRA violence. Both protagonists and their diverging views are treated respectfully and other characters, including some British officials, display intelligence and humanity.
Perhaps most interesting, Some Mother’s Son poses the question of whether trying to extract concession by slowly killing oneself through a hunger strike is an ethical tactic. The movie also questions the ethics of sacrificing lives—even one’s own life—to make a political point.
Four Days in September [O Que é Isso, Companheiro?] (1997) In 1969, a Brazilian radical group called MR-8 decided to challenge the military dictatorship ruling their country by kidnapping Charles Burke Elbrick, the US ambassador to Brazil. By capturing the diplomat, the radicals hoped both to force the US-backed regime to release some of their comrades from prison and to gain publicity for their cause. Four Days in September dramatizes the kidnapping and the complications that ensue.
The focus of the movie is Fernando Gabeira, one of the MR-8 radicals. He and his comrades are mostly college-aged intellectuals. They are idealistic and self-serious but also prone to bickering and joking around like any other group of students. The movie also shows that for all their passion they are largely out of their depth when it comes to violence.
Their hostage is well matched to such captors: Ambassador Elbrick is an intelligent man who feels guilty about US support for the dictatorship. Fernando and the others soon start talking and arguing with Elbrick and something almost like a rapport develops between captors and captive. Nevertheless, radicals must face the question of whether to kill Ambassador Elbrick if their demands are not met.
The movie also follows the Brazilian police’s attempts to track down the kidnapped ambassador. The officer in charge of the investigation has been deeply involved in the regime’s repression, including torture. Rather than present him simply as a villain, though, the movie shows how the police officer is haunted by what he has done; he seems to be suffering from Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress, which now mars his life.
Because the movie takes the time to show us all these different characters as real, flawed but sympathetic people, how the crisis is resolved and the various fates people meet makes the viewer feel the tragedy of the whole situation all the more deeply.
All three of these movies were made roughly 30 years ago and thus are due for rediscovery. Any of these movies would make for valuable viewing and topics of discussion among consistent life ethic advocates or other activists concerned with peace and justice. All serve as important reminders of the need to see past the passions of political conflict and recognize others’ humanity.
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For more of our movie reviews, see:
The Movie “Wicked”: Making a Real Person of the Witch of the West
A Complex Man’s Complex Legacy: What the Movie Rustin Leaves Out
The Violence That Didn’t Happen
Seeing Is Believing: Films to Inspire a Consistent Life Viewpoint
Movies with Racism Themes: “Gosnell” and “The Hate U Give”The Darkest Hour: “Glorifying” War?
Hollywood Movie Insights I (The Giver, The Whistleblower, and The Ides of March)
Hollywood Movie Insights II (Never Look Away, The Report, and Dark Waters)
Jasmine, Aladdin, and the Power of Nonviolence
The Message of “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”: Abortion Gets Sexual Predators Off the Hook
Justice Littered with Injustice: Viewing Just Mercy in a Charged Moment
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