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A comment on “Land of the Blind”!
Dr. Artin - Oct 10, 2006
Dr. Artin is a member of Kurdish American Education Society and Kurdish National congress of North America; however, his views are not reflecting the views of all members.
Accidentally I came across the "Land of the Blind", a recent movie directed by Robert Edwards. Surprisingly two months after its theatrical release in June, the movie was released to video stores in August 2006. Such a short interval might indicate the unpopularity of the movie, despite a great performance by its main characters: Ralph Fiennes, Donald Sutherland, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Tom Hollander. Maybe questioning the misuse of power by glorious sociopaths is not something that a movie director can count on to attract many people. George Orwell would most likely have given this political drama a very good rating, since it is almost a replica of his novel, Animal Farm, in a human zoo.
In Land of the Blind, Edwards differentiates the mindset and behavior of a remorseless sociopath from a decent and remorseful guard by emphasizing on the link between human outlets to their personality. While the tyrannical head of the state in this universal anti-dictatorial movie has no respect for anyone, kills as he wishes, and defecates in front of his advisors, the revengeful revolutionary uses own feces to write down his thoughts on his prison cell walls and is as violent as the tyrant when he overthrows him! In contrary to them, the patriotic guard who had no other option but to show his loyalty to the master in power temporarily by inflicting pain on the prisoner, is deeply saddened and starts sobbing after he beats up the inmate! Maybe Edward tries to emphasize that hate and violence are as repellent as feces while love and affection are as relieving as tears.
Every scene might deserve a critical review, but I leave it to the audience to draw their own conclusion. Those who question the integrity of the violent and revengeful political leaders might see a confirmation of their views in this movie. If not everyone, at least those who have experienced the tyranny or those who treat people with traits of sociopathy should see this movie. The most important message of this artwork by Robert Edward for public is to question the integrity of revengeful and violent politicians. For behavioral health experts the message might be a reminder of the severe pathology of a small minority of their patients who disregard the rights of others, and needs a very special treatment to find peace and leave others in peace.
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