The Americanization of Emily - A Libertarian Review

This is a very powerful film (Link 1) about the realities of war. It is a drama, with its various dialogues about war, a comedy, with many downright outrageous scenes, and also romantic, with Charlie and Emily's relationship.

Set in the months before and including D-Day, Charlie is a "Dog Robber" for an American admiral of the Navy--someone who must see to it that the admiral is very well fed and taken care of during the war. The setting is in London, far removed from any battlefront. Emily is one of Charlie's drivers and initially finds him very distasteful since he both is chauvinistic as well as not remorseful in getting to enjoy many of the items that the average British citizen has not been allowed to eat or possess during the war. However, she eventually warms up to him after attending one of the parties that he set up for the admiral. From then on, the two fall madly in love with each other.

The two are seemingly quite different. Emily is quite proud of being a war widow and having a father, brother, and cousins that have also died in war. On the other hand, Charlie believes that there is nothing to be proud of in regards to a soldier's death; that it is truly living that one should admire and respect. This conflict comes to a head when Charlie is sent to film  a live movie of the invasion of Normandy and believes that he will be able to avoid actually taking part. Emily believes that it is cruel and very dishonorable to wish to avoid the invasion while thousands of other soldiers will not be so fortunate. It is then that Emily breaks off their relationship.

After it is believed that Charlie dies on Omaha Beach, Emily comes around to Charlie's feelings about war. She lets it be known that she no longer is proud of death during war.

Throughout the film, there are several scenes that contain bitter criticism of war and how it is perpetuated. The most important of these is when Charlie meets Emily's mother (Link 2). During the exchange between Charlie and the mother, Charlie states that it is the public that are most to blame for continual war--not the generals and politicians at whom the finger is often pointed. He explains that it is the people and their glorification of war that makes it palatable to the public at large. For a current example of this, one only needs to look at how members of the U.S. military are treated--and often worshiped--by the average American.  This is the main message of the film. To put it another way, war will never truly end so long as it is seen as honorable to fight and die for one's country.

It can clearly be seen that the world today--especially in America--is not even close to this philosophy. However, if more and more people begin to see war for what is truly is (Links 3-5), then we may one day achieve this noblest of ideals.

Links

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MUd06J-F4w&spfreload=10
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reUstMn4bM8&spfreload=10
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01-2pNCZiNk&list=PLfZW33CKLKfuIrh0abieHTVYlxZV22zgE
4. http://ronpaulinstitute.org/
5. http://antiwar.com/

My Dinner with Andre - A Libertarian Review

I recently watched this very unique film (See link 4 below), and found much value in it.

Granted, the first thirty minutes is hard to get through--as it consists of Andre describing his wild journeys to Wally--but what follows is well worth the temporary pain. I nearly stopped watching it myself, but was urged on from what I had seen in a great YouTube clip (Link 1) from the film.

The conversation then shifts to a long exchange over what both characters believe to be the deeper meaning of life. Throughout this conversation, there are numerous claims advanced by both characters--especially Andre--that the viewer will no doubt find quite thought-provoking. The following statements from Andre are the ones I found to be the most valuable, in no particular order:

• Going through life on autopilot--by habit alone--is NOT truly living; instead, some degree of mindfullness should be used in all aspects of life
• habit leads to a dearth of true feeling and thought
• comfort can lull you into a false sense of security
• Most human contact is indirect and superficial; we must instead attempt to truly get to know the other person
• See the whole person, not only what/who you wish to see
• people are constantly told about what is wrong with the world; try instead to provide them with solutions (link 3)
• work to live, do not live to work

Another scene from the film (link 2)--one that will have libertarians salivating from the mouth--is when Andre poses a question about reality. He asks whether it is truly a kind of self-made matrix and that the people are going through life as drones, not even realizing that they created their own "prison". He then says that one of his friends stopped reading and watching the news in order to extricate himself from this matrix.

What I found to be the motif of this most interesting film is that in order to get the most out of life, one must take the time to look around and smell the roses, as opposed to thoughtlessly moving from one task to another. If one is always moving as fast as they can to get from A to B, they are not truly living. Awareness of life is the key to truly enjoying it.


Links:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl9wjhXqC98
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68JLWyPxt7g
3. https://www.corbettreport.com/?s=solutions
4. Full Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rc40jtqVVk&spfreload=10&hd=1