The heroism of devoting oneself to a movement that is doomed to fail, knowing it will only lead to your own personal demise, believing in the nobility of the wider movement to resist tyranny, occupation, and oppression. Yet, the irony that such resistance can also lead to greater repression.
I wondered what this film may have meant to a 1969 France, and upon looking it up just now discovered that there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding this film. In light of the uprisings of 1968, critics dismissed the film as being too glorifying of Charles de Gaulle. As a result of these bad critics the film was unsuccessful and was not even released in the U.S. (and Britain) for 40 years. It was finally restored in 2006 as Cahiers du Cinema re-reviewed the film (before it had panned the film causing art-film distributors abroad to ignore the film) and made it on numerous top ten lists in 2006.
"Members of the French Resistance work against the Nazis." Starring Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Simone Signoret, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Serge Reggiani, Claude Mann. Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. From France. 1969. 140 mins.
Showing posts with label courage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label courage. Show all posts
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Firewalled Heart
In the era of "Generation Me" we've become SO weak, we do anything to avoid any sort of discomfort.
Is this the attraction of the new cyber-reality, the ability to firewall our lives?
Am I the only one feeling hopelessly unrequited by our virtual relationships?
Can a soul truly be filled by mere suggestion or vacuous intimation, no matter how sincere, no matter how well-intentioned?
Has touch, actual human contact, and genuine interaction become quaint-- even obsolete, having lost value in our cyberized world of virtual commitments and firewalled hearts??
Have we really become so cowardly as to create barriers to pain, knowing it will also keep out joy?
Has courage become a luxury in an increasingly alienated world?
Will isolation win out over our humanity? Will individualism kill the spirit of collectivism? Will competition suffocate cooperation? The personal trump the public?
Will building defensive walls (both emotional and virtual) around our hearts truly save us from pain, or will it only weaken us to the point that we forget what the joy and tragedy of being truly human really is?
It seems so ironic that in an age of ever-increasing separation, when what every human truly yearns for is genuine human contact, that we build more and more layers to insulate us from the very connection we long for.
Is this the attraction of the new cyber-reality, the ability to firewall our lives?
Am I the only one feeling hopelessly unrequited by our virtual relationships?
Can a soul truly be filled by mere suggestion or vacuous intimation, no matter how sincere, no matter how well-intentioned?
Has touch, actual human contact, and genuine interaction become quaint-- even obsolete, having lost value in our cyberized world of virtual commitments and firewalled hearts??
Have we really become so cowardly as to create barriers to pain, knowing it will also keep out joy?
Has courage become a luxury in an increasingly alienated world?
Will isolation win out over our humanity? Will individualism kill the spirit of collectivism? Will competition suffocate cooperation? The personal trump the public?
Will building defensive walls (both emotional and virtual) around our hearts truly save us from pain, or will it only weaken us to the point that we forget what the joy and tragedy of being truly human really is?
It seems so ironic that in an age of ever-increasing separation, when what every human truly yearns for is genuine human contact, that we build more and more layers to insulate us from the very connection we long for.
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