Blood Diamonds, amongst other things...

I just finished Blood Diamonds and it was a pleasant (probably not at all the right word for this film...) surprise in a lot of ways. Leonardo DiCaprio certainly put on a performance I found powerful; the capacity of certain actors to portray people with dubious character in a way that makes the viewer care for them is a special talent few of them possess. The rest of the cast did a really nice job, too. The film, if you haven't seen it, is beautiful and should be viewed by everyone. It is, to be sure, one of the most affecting films I've seen in an awful long time.

What has me thinking, though, after the film, is the abundance of internationally-themed films that have been getting mainstream attention the last few years. My reaction after finishing the movie surprised me. (Bear with me, this involves dodgy theology and, vaguely, postcolonial theory.) I started to think about all the films and news stories that have been more accessible to everyday newsreaders and film-watchers in America and the staggering amount of ostensibly thoughtless bloodshed contained therein. Then, as those who know my history will understand, I started considering the notion of the world's end in the peculiar nomenclature of rapture-speak--wars and rumors of wars, etc.--and found myself frustrated that I might even bother myself that way. As I quickly reminded myself, wars (civil, preemptive, whatever other titles you'd like to give them) have been waged for as long as man has been around; however, it is just the proliferation of news and information that has allowed the rest of the world to see them nearly firsthand and get involved in one way or another. It is always frightening when I consider things like this because I cannot help but think of all the people who grew up in situations similar to mine that watch films like this (if they watch R rated films, that is) and read news stories and fail to connect the more poignant, real-life issues to their own lives because they are so consumed with the "next" life. I keep coming back to a thought I had a few weeks ago: It really seems to me that, as the privileged of the world, we are obliged (morally, theologically, humanly) in a way that closely resembles the ideas wrapped up in the idea of noblesse oblige. Royalty so often avoided guilt and/or responsibility by suggesting the rewards for the less fortunate here on earth when they reach heaven. It is a frightening thought and a connection that, I believe, is made very infrequently. How we help those in need without exercising hegemony or Otherizing them is another issue altogether, but what cannot be ignored is our corporeal responsibility. I know these thoughts are hardly amazing, but they are my own, and they are how I, in all my multifarious wanderings and wonderings, try to come to terms with who, what, and where I am.