"Fire" An Explosive Political Thriller
Catch a Fire
Movie review by Nick Olds
Happy Scary Day Halloweeners! Hope you all went to see Catch a Fire this weekend
like I did. It deals with the scariest theme of all - terror-ism. I'm getting damp in my
skivvies just thinking about it. My white liberal guilt horrified the Hell outta me during
this and I was a wreck the whole weekend. And you'd think having grown up in a Bible
humping police state that I'd be used to this stuff by now. But terrorism still spooks me,
man. Especially when it's as real as this.
If you thought you were paying for a heartwarming David and Goliath tale, you
probably walked out. Coward! Catch A Fire stars Derek Luke and Tim Robbins and is
based around apartheid era South Africa, but presents an all too relevant analogy for our
current "war on terror". Similarities abound. From a rebel nationalist group bombing
a target representing corporate western industrialism, right down to the wealthy westerners
vs. the poor browns from the center of the world. The major difference being we need to
kick Iraq's ass, but the South African people deserved what they got for messing with their
kindly British custodians since...KIDDING! Had ya going there didn't I?
Seriously ladies and germs, Catch a Fire's broader themes all filter into unmasking
Western imperialism's ghoulish disguise of knowing what's best for the world. You can
debate either side, but the fact is the Western ideology is dominant because we can kick
everyone's ass when we have to. Western ideologists like to think they are the torch-bearers
for world progress, but throughout history they've been nothing more than colonials
invading foreign lands, creating artificial states and rule systems that have nothing to do
with the needs and concerns of the native population. A situation that can only lead to
dissent, conflict and violence. Since Vietnam, occupying a foreign land is in no way a fools
strategy and apartheid couldn't last any more than the current Iraq occupation can
succeed, unless we are to have a military presence there forever.
What else separates Catch A Fire from other movies is its portrayal of the British as
a virus sucking the life out of the South African people and the concept of terrorists
creating terrorists. Innocent people are picked off the street and tortured only to become
part of the rebel nationalist movement that would overthrow their previous oppressors.
Consumerism, the inherent hypocrisy of modern Christianity, the psychology of terrorist
interrogation tactics, Russian communists, they're all here. And you thought Syriana had
a lot going on!
You can't help but see a young America when the South Africans struggle for their
sovereignty over the British. This is our history too, man. Our beginnings. It's difficult
to think that we've become the old imperialist Brits and are now everything we fought
against. It's Animal Farm on a global scale and just because you're species is more equal
today doesn't mean you can't be eaten tomorrow.
So, impressionable youth, get outta your computer chair, call up that girl you wanna
impress and tell her what I said. If she says no, remember, older chicks dig a guy with brains
so ask her hot sister who's home from college. But by any ruse or excuse necessary, see Catch
A Fire and keep aflame hope that the world can change and not just for the worse.
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