Posted by Benjamin on: 06.22.2007 /
His first day at school, six year old Moncho was so frightened and humiliated that he lost control of his bladder, which only made his fellow students laugh uproariously at him. But that evening, his new teacher, Don Gregorio, comes over to his home to apologize and request that he return to school. Thus begins a beautiful relationship in which Moncho and his teacher explore nature and the wonder of learning together. We watch Moncho’s year unfold with his tailor father, his older brother, and the small Spanish town where he lives.
At one point Moncho asks his teacher “Is hell real?”. His teacher replies “Can you keep a secret, just between us two? Hell is not some place where you go when you die. Hell is here–we create our own hell”
When Don Gregorio retires from his position as school teacher, he gives an impassioned speech in which he says “If we could see just one generation–just *ONE* generation–grow up being inculcated with the ideas of liberty and freedom, we shall have changed Spain!”
Don Gregorio, however, is a Republican, and the Fascist forces in the country are becoming stronger in the lead up to the Spanish civil war. The movie ends up being, in some ways, very disturbing. It makes, however, a profound and extremely powerful statement about violence and conflict as forces in and of themselves, and how they deeply affect and change us as humans.
Some questions that arose for me:
If you haven’t yet seen Butterfly, you can rent it from NetFlix
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Comment by: Rachel
1 06/27/07 8:14 AM | Comment Link |Wow, that is a tough question, Benjamin. I’ve really been thinking about this one. It seems to me that if we are to be peacemakers in a violent world and if we follow Jesus’ teaching to return evil for good, then we would have to be willing to suffer violence. Does that automatically make one a victim? I don’t know. It seems that in some situations there is a third category.
I’m thinking of Martin Luther King leading the march across the bridge in Selma. The sheriff told them not to come any further but Martin said, “We’ve come too far to turn back now.” And they chose to walk right into the billy clubs and tear gas and bull whips.
So they were victims in the the sense that injustice and violence were perpetrated against them. But they were not helpless. They made a choice and they had dignity in the midst of their suffering. And when the horrible footage made it onto television, people’s hearts finally began to change. It seems to me that this is the epitome of following Jesus’ example.
Comment by: Janice
2 06/29/07 8:25 AM | Comment Link |Benjamin,
I joined Netflix, rented the movie, and have now watched it. You are right, in some ways this was very disturbing. In other ways this was very beautiful. I viewed the movie with my mother and my daughter. I have a question – did you watch this in Spanish or view it with subtitles?
In response to your questions - I am not sure it is possible to wholly escape, but I think we can position ourselves to avoid as much as possible being either a victim or a perpetrator. Being educated and aware of our actions and communicating with others to get a sense of perspective outside ourselves should help to enlighten us and equip us to be instruments of peace rather than participants in violence.
As far as fear…that’s a good question. One of my initial responses is ‘anger’ and that’s not really a good alternative to what other people may experience (fear). As the name of the site suggestions – compassion – would be the ‘best’ response I suppose. How I turn my fear or anger or digust into compassion though….for me I think the movie helps in some ways as I see what happened with Moncho in the end. In some ways we are products of our environment, not as an excuse, but as an acknowledgement of reality I think that can help me formulate a more compassionate response.
I don’t know how to respond to your third question. My experience with ‘the church’ is limited. Can anyone give some thoughts on this?
And Benjamin, I was wondering as I read the questions if you could translate any of the movie into a present day situation? Who is the “Moncho” of today?
(also, can you let me know in advance of any future movies you will be watching? Do you have a list or do you do a weekly movie night?)
Comment by: Rachel
3 06/29/07 9:08 AM | Comment Link |Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Janice! Benjamin and I each do one movie review per month. We post our “Upcoming Movie Reviews” in the right hand column of the blog page underneath “Active Discussions.” Each one has a link so you can learn more about the film and we definitely hope people will watch the movies with us and join in the discussion.
My movie review for July will be A Thousand Pieces of Gold. Benjamin is on vacation this week so he hasn’t posted his next movie choice yet, but I’m sure it will be thought-provoking as always.
Comment by: Janice
4 06/29/07 11:46 AM | Comment Link |Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Rachel! Guess I overlooked that in the sidebar. I couldn’t find your upcoming movie on netflix, I’ll check my local blockbusters though. Do you have a Netflix account?
Comment by: benjamin ady
5 06/30/07 8:35 AM | Comment Link |Janice,
I’m stoked that you watched and it sounds like you enjoyed the movie. You said “In some ways we are products of our environment.” That seems very true to me. It’s impossible, it seems to transcend our time and culture more than a certain amount. This is something I must keep in mind when judging so called “heroes” and leaders of other times and cultures.
About the church–it was just interesting to me that the catholic church was (and still is) *so* strongly entrenched in Spain, and somehow became associated with the tyrannical powers that were. This comes out strongly in the grand inquisitor story in brothers karamazov too–that the church which was founded and designed to be *against* tyrannical powers is led and peopled by individuals who themselves have a very human lust for power.
That really translates today, doesn’t it? I remember Jesus talked about how it it harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kindgom of heaven. As a nation we in the U.S. are rather enormously rich and powerful, and like the R.C. church in Spain during and before the civil war, the evangelical church in the U.S. has given reason to many of the poorest and most disempowered to hate it and to associate it with harm to themselves. This is really enormously intertesting in the way you see it in the movie and in this country. For instance, the republicans during the spanish civil war thought that by giving women the right to vote, all the women, who had been so disempowered, would then vote for the republicans, and thus against the fascists who didn’t want them to have the vote. Instead, the exact opposite happened. We see this in Moncho’s mother’s actions. She was very afraid and quicksticks got her husband to burn evidence of his association with the republicans, and then got the whole famity to dress up for church and do that whole horrible final scene.
We see the same thing in many parts of the evangelical church today. They associate themselves strongly with the warmongering of GWB, and many parts of the church in this country–especially the more right wing, fundamentalist types, put down and disempower women, and very often the women on the inside of that whole system defend it and propogate it with all their power.
Who is Moncho today? That’s a great question. …. If I won’t get in shocking trouble for saying so, Moncho is all the children who grow up in right wing repbulican christian schools, go to right wing republican christian universities, and then firmly get ensconced in right wing republican, warmongering, americocentric, jingoistic, neocon, power centers in academia, politics, and the corporate world (have I offended everyone yet?).
By the by, I’m thinking Netflix doesn’t have 1000 pieces ’cause it’s only ever been released on vhs, and they only do dvd (I think)
Comment by: benjamin ady
6 06/30/07 8:42 AM | Comment Link |Oh–Janice–to answer your other question–we watched in spanish with english subtitles. To be perfectly honest, I’m not at all sure I could have followed the spanish without the subtitles, although the attempt probably would have been better for my spanish language development.