Sweet 'N' Sour: Combination

***Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!!!!*****


****BIG GIANT SPOILER ALERT!!*****


Seriously, if you haven't seen this Aussie movie, and you want to - do NOT continue reading this post.

All non-wanting-to-have-film-spoiled readers gone? (Yes, son. I'm talking to you.)

Good. Then we can get right down to it.

OK. So. About this movie.

It was beautifully made film, a real credit to the Lebanese-Australian writer, but it really packed a punch. I can confidently say that, no matter what background you came from, the filmmakers were not kind to you. They certainly weren't kind to me. But, considering the lot of the characters in the story, I think that I got off pretty easy....

Yes, the blonde racist teenage was a little fuck job. He was an angry tosspot, ill-educated, and very prejudiced. His introduction to the audience was aggressively pushing the very anti-social line that people of Lebanese descent were "not Australian" and "wogs that should go back to where they came from." Quite uncool behaviour, effectively sneering at other teenage boys that their cultural identity as an Australian is not valid, that he is not welcome in the country he grew up in. That he is basically living a lie.

However, does the admittedly very fucked up behaviour of blonde teenage boy warrant a death sentence? His story was pretty sad, with his mother gunned down by Sydney p'liceman, and him being addicted to drugs. And recently dumped to boot The film didn't explicitly say so, but I don't believe that he would have have devised the racial stereotypes all on his own. He was extremely angry, wrongly pouring angry shit on other kids in a very detrimental fashion to them, but conditioned by family and community to do so. I don't have the magic medicine, I don't know wht you do with teenage boys who are that troubled and trained to hate - but killing would not even make it onto the table as an option.

To the individual in the cinema today who applauded when blonde kid died - wtf? The event was not a victory. No cause for celebration. Just another life that never really had a chance. I will admit it was troubling as all fuck to see this kid in such a mental state that he was willing and able to shoot the blonde kid - just because the blonde considered him and his mates to not qualify as Australians. However, one racist kid's tragic death doesn't solve anything. And if you looked a little closer, you might just see the film maker making this very valid point. If you applaud the murder, you also applaud the Leb-Aussie kid going to jail. You applaud the use of violence to solve complex and deeply embedded social problems. In other words, you aren't doing much better than these morons.

I must convince, hearing people I was in a cinema with applaud the murder of a teenager, gave me pause. It made it just a tiny bit real, brought home the fact that this was based on real cultural dynamics, really present in Australian society. Definitely made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up a bit.

But, getting back to unreality.. the film would not have been such a shock to the system if there hadn't have been some really positive heartwarming aspects. The open family love between the two Lebanese boys/men and their mother. The beautiful subtly yet strikingly done interracial romance between the blonde woman and the older Lebanese guy. The rough but honest goodness of character demonstrated by the Aboriginal characters in the film. The rich cultural display of Lebanese language, food and dance within Australia. The film had some pretty sweet highs, for sure.

But the lows. Oh, they went pretty low. For example....

WHY DID THE BEAUTIFUL LEBANESE BOY HAVE TO DIE!!!!! The pusher man got his money. Seriously. Lebanese boy had to put up with so much crap. Dead father, brother in prison for the past couple of years, fucked up social circle, racism, and then some more racism. WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE?!?!?!?! Don't they understand that he was too beautiful to die?

*sigh*

Despite the fact that it was a bit of a jagged pill, I am glad I saw the film. It was well-done, and very relevant. It raised some interesting points, such as whether women of minority groups tend to be less a victim of racism than men (one instance where a girl was referred to as a 'wog', as distinct from the boy being a 'dirty wog'), how cultural difference isn't a death sentence for partnership and also how easy it is to be blind to racism (both in how prolific it is and how detrimental) when it's not targeted at you.