Top 5 Films Based on Communal/Civil Wars and Internal Feuds

A couple of days back I watched a film, only to get a headache and I forgot its name too. But still, I watched it, some people won't change. Will they? Like nations in continuous wars and internal feuds -God knows what they get out of it. War has not done good for anyone ever. While their purpose is best known to them, my purpose as a cinema lover is to create a list of films that cover topics of Communal/Civil war and internal feuds:  

1. The Killing Fields: I had no idea about the history of Cambodia, till I watched this 1984 film, during my mid-twenties. A nation that was absolutely devastated as a result of the killing of thousands of its citizens under the bloodthirsty Khmer Rouge reign - Killing Fields covered this history through the pen of a New York Times journalist and his Cambodian associate. The movie is difficult to watch due to the depiction of the horrid nature of the brutality that innocent people had to go through. Pran, the Cambodian journalist had to endeavour a lot to escape the feuding country and that forms the main plot of the film. What makes the film more special is the fact that Oscar-winner Haing Ngor, who played Pran had survived Khmer Rouge captivity in real life, before coming to the US. Perhaps this experience had helped him to give such a compelling performance later. The Killing Fields is a good film to watch if historical docu-style dramas are your choice, provided you are in for the severity of the horrendous treatment the captives had to go through.

2. Hotel Rwanda: When I was working, I had a few colleagues who shared the same interest in watching movies. And we often discussed the stories, of the latest films that we had watched during our breaks. I had heard about this 2004 film during one such discussion and I knew I had to watch it. When I watched it, I exactly knew why my colleague was all praise for the film. This is a very tough movie to watch, as it's from the perspective of a family man, who has little to do with political and communal differences, and who is married to a woman from another tribe to the ruling party with who he belongs is at war with. Still, he gets involved in the barbaric genocide and all he is hell-bent on is protecting his family and others from the atrocities. The film is a riveting experience, throughout the shocks that are shown, eg: kids as small as 12 getting trigger-happy, killing and raping with no remorse, and people forced to watch friends being killed mercilessly and situations that has no way out. Amongst all the films on this list, I would tag this one as a must-watch.

3. Glory: An all-black regiment of soldiers during the American Civil War was led by a White Colonel. This exceptional history has been told from the Colonel's point of view in this 1989 movie. Although there is blood, battles, guns and knives, what makes Glory a fine War drama is the intensities of the varied emotions, ranging from prejudices, false pride, inhibitions, revolt and conditioned submissiveness of the various characters. Denzel Washington is extraordinary in his Oscar-winning portrayal of Trip, a black soldier who is the closest to Colonel Shaw. The glory of the event is the honour and recognition that the Black Army was bestowed with, even after their defeat. This is because mostly they were slaves who volunteered to form the regiment, with the able and continuous support of Colonel Shaw. One of the interesting things to notice about the film is the similarity in features of actor Mathew Broderick with the real Colonel Shaw. 

4. Appocalypto: Out of all the films in the list this 2006 film has the most grotesque visually graphic scenes. During the last days of the Mayan civilization, a happy family man of a peaceful forest tribe is taken captive along with his tribesmen, by the powerful and ruthless rulers of the Mayan city. Their lives are taken mercilessly in front of the entire city as a sacrificial act to please the God. How the protagonist Jaguar Paw escapes death, partially through luck and mostly with his undying will to survive is the story about. There are some intense scenes, apart from the gore and blood, like Seven (Jaguar Paw's wife) giving birth under water while hiding from captors, Jaguar Paw hiding himself under piles of rotten and mutilated corpses and of course the picturesque scene where he emerges as a Survivor and come walking with the Mayan Tomb as the backdrop. Mel Gibson's direction is applaudable, but it came under criticism, mostly due to some supposed historical inaccuracies. 

5. Blood Diamond: When a civil war in Sierra Lenone, destroys the country, with most citizens being enslaved and forced to work as miners in diamond mine, Solomon who is a slave,  finds a rare pink diamond. The story is about various characters who gets acquainted only for the greed of the diamond, in captivity. The greed for that rare pink diamond took many lives along with the on going war. Solomon looses his friend Danny and thus the diamond gets its name: Blood Diamond. The film is heart-wrenching with some powerful performances and some outstanding African landscapes. Although it is not the most likeable performances of Leonardo di Caprio, given his other works, still the scene of his death left me teary-eyed. 

This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’
hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla 
in collaboration with Dr. Preeti Chauhan.