> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> > Since both Said and Khaled make personal decisions embedded in their
> > shared culture (in which family and friendship mean a lot) and
> history
> > (of the occupation), the film can't contrast one as making an
> > individual moral choice and the other as following a herd.
>
> Even further: the distinction between "herd mentality" and
> "individual moral choice" is dubious, because, the meaning of every
> individual action or thought emerges as a product of social relations.
I agree with you in terms of philosophy. Simply looking at films as fictions (as opposed to accurate representations of the real world), though, it is not impossible to make the kind of film that Wojtek believes he saw in Paradise Now: contrast between a person who makes a moral choice and a person who follows the crowd, exhibiting a "herd mentality" and the works. For instance, Fritz Lang's Fury has a memorable representation of "a mob seized by a herd mentality" if you will. I'm just saying that Wojtek's scheme of contrast doesn't map onto the two main characters of Paradise Now: both are distinct individuals who make personal decisions (rather than following any herd), neither exactly motivated by morality, the decisions which at bottom remain opaque to the audience. If Wojtek wants to make a contrast between "individuals who make decisions" and "those who act like a herd" among the characters in Paradise Now, he would have to make it by contrasting the three main characters (Said, Khaled, and Suha) on one hand and Jamal and his associates (who are not portrayed as individuals with their own unique personalities and histories and make up their own minds -- in fact, we don't even get a glimpse of their individual minds -- the director simply has them represent "types") on the other hand. That contrast is typical of a conventional narrative film (which both Paradise Now and Munich are): the main characters are the ones who make (often tortured) decisions (which the audience are invited to examine) and the rest are just the background, narrative devices, props, etc.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>