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"A Mighty Heart", directed by Michael
Winterbottom; written by John Orloff, from Mariane Pearl’s memoir;
starring Angelina Jolie and Dan Futterman.
Many Americans feel that the single most horrendous
act in the months after the 9/11 al-Qaeda suicide bombings of the Twin
Towers was the beheading of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel
Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan. No, contrary to the picture given at the time
in the U.S. media, the most horrendous act was the U.S. air strikes on
Afghanistan in early October 2001.
British director Michael Winterbottom, who also
directed the documentary, "Road to Guantanamo" (reviewed by
Socialist Action in July 2006), based his recently released film, "A
Mighty Heart," on French journalist Mariane Pearl’s book about her
and her husband’s ordeal, during their five or so weeks on assignment in
Pakistan, which ended with his death.
People who go to this film should be aware that since
it follows Pearl’s memoir, it is an unbalanced account that skirts the
political issues exacerbated by the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and the
Middle East, which certainly had a bearing on her husband’s kidnapping
and death. Mariane Pearl’s book, moreover, is quite amenable to the Bush
administration and its policies; and in a similar vein, viewers could see
the film as making the case (though perhaps unintended) for support to
Bush’s “War on Terror.”
In late January 2002, shortly after they arrive in
Karachi—with Mariane (Angelina Jolie) several months pregnant with their
first child—Danny Pearl (played by Dan Futterman) tries to contact
someone who can give him information about the "shoe-bomber,"
British citizen Richard Reid. Pearl fails to return for a dinner party at
the home they share with Asra (Archie Panjabi), their Indian assistant.
By February, he is dead.
Winterbottom shot his film in a darkly lit,
documentary style of hand-held cameras, quick cuts to various locations,
lots of talking heads, interviews, and shots of Pearl in cabs
traveling at night through narrow streets choked with
vehicles and pedestrians.
"Heart" is riveting and suspenseful despite
its known outcome. However, once Mariane reports him missing, the film
devolves into a detailed police procedural. Asra’s home becomes a command
center. Techies rewire everything for better communication, internet
access, and wire-tapping, regardless of the effect this has on neighbors’
lines.
Thousands of cell-phone calls are meticulously traced,
innocent Pakistanis’ homes are raided. Bearded men are dragged from their
beds as covered women protest their innocence. It is brought out that
Musharraf’s government accuses India of trying to embarrass it by setting
up the kidnapping; Pakistani intelligence even accuses Asra of spying for
India.
Pearl’s subsequent videotaped beheading turns up as
evidence of his death. Eventually it is shown on Arabic television but is
never seen in the U.S., though it still circulates on the internet.
Winterbottom’s film sidesteps taking a close look into
the political issues surrounding Pearl’s kidnapping and murder. What
exactly drove militants to kidnap and murder Pearl? Because he was a Jew,
or a suspected CIA agent? To what degree was it “blowback” due to decades
of U.S. political and military activity in the region?
Compared to "Road to Guantanamo,"
Winterbottom played it safe. Take the scene where a Pakistani police
captain has his men chain a suspect, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (Alyy Khan),
by his wrists to the ceiling (he’s shown naked to the waist) and torture
him. The exact means are not shown; we hear only excruciating screams of
pain. Here, Winterbottom avoids the moral outrage he displayed in
"Road" on the torture of "enemy combatants." Saeed
Sheikh only recently confessed to Pearl’s beheading.
Confusing also is whose story he is trying to tell:
That of a white, ruling-class journalist and his ethnically mixed but
equally affluent wife—the ideal, cosmopolitan couple torn apart by
fanatical idealism, with the wife, like Ulysses’ stoic Penelope,
unemotionally waiting for her husband’s return? Or, a political suspense
thriller shot in a foreign country?
Actor Brad Pitt bought the film rights to Pearl’s book
as a vehicle for Jolie, his soon to be, if not already, wife. Both actors
are active supporters of socially conscious causes. In addition, I
imagine Michael Winterbottom was delighted to have the popular actress
star in his film, as she would ensure its success at the box office.
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