I Don't Know What to Say

I decided to post again today. Don't normally do that, but I just finished a movie which was recommended by a friend of mine. It is called, The Visitor.

It's an excellent movie, and if you can get a copy to watch I strongly encourage you to do so. But I don't know that I can say much about it without spoiling the entire movie for those who have yet to see it. Jennifer did an excellent job, I think. Here is a link to her Review.

Jennifer makes the statement, "The New York Times says, "The curious thing about “The Visitor” is that even as it goes more or less where you think it will, it still manages to surprise you along the way." That's just it. Is the ending predictable? Basically. And yet we were riveted until the very end. "

It's a true statement. I was rivited, too. I was also troubled. For years I've wondered how so many people can be in this country "illegally". Especially when it seems they must have come via airplane. This movie does a fair job explaining at least some of them. Maybe a good many. If I understood correctly, the "illegal" people didn't come illegally. They got here via legal means. Only later were they declared illegal. Many don't understand why. I'm not sure I do either. But if this is so it explains a lot.

I felt bad because I found myself wondering if the movie would have been so riveting had there not been a stereotypical American in the lead role. It's a question I cannot answer, despite the fact that I found myself identifying with all four main characters to some extent.

I think the movie does an excellent job of showing how a nation's fear can result in actions otherwise unthinkable by its people. Consider the treatment of U.S.-Japanese citizens in the 1940s. We kind of have it now with Arab and/or Muslim young men. We are told nearly all of the terrorists in the world trying to destroy us are Arabs and/or Muslims. So we fear them all and treat them accordingly.

That's kind of what Hitler did in the 1930s to Jews, Gypsies, and other "non-desirables". The fear then was mostly economic, but not entirely. They are taking our money. They are taking our jobs. They are teaching "foreign ideas". This fear imposed on the German People made it easier for them to accept what was happening in their country. Otherwise decent people turned their backs on things they would never have condoned just a few years earlier.

Hitler used "work camps", I believe they were called. People were hauled away without reason and locked up without trials. A few years later we did the same thing to our citizens because they had Japanese - or suspected Japanese - ancestry. Then we tried to hide it. I was never taught about American concentration camps when I was in school. I found out after I left college. By accident.

At least this time we couldn't hide what we did to so many young men, although we went so far as to call them "detention centers". True, some of them were/are guilty of crimes against our nation. But it was never proven. That's the problem. And what frightened me most during the eight years of the Bush Administration (the time during with The Visitor takes place) was that even when told by our own judicial system that it was illegal it didn't stop. The only thing which ultimately stopped it was a term limit on a presidential administration.

President Obama frequently invokes President Lincoln's legacy. The message he appears to be trying to send is that he intends to operate similarly. That's good. But we should remember that it was President Lincoln who suspended the rights of certain citizens in order to protect the country. Hopefully, President Obama will not find himself in a similar quandry.

In President Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address he talks about "the government of the people, by the people, and for the people". After eight years of the Bush Administration, I find myself worrying that that just isn't true anymore.

The Visitor is an excellent movie. It troubles me because it makes me realize things about myself and my country which are not pleasant to acknowledge. Yet if the opportunity arises, I think I shall buy it so I can watch it often.

I realize I have really told you nothing valuable about the movie. The trouble is, I don't know what to say.