Brotherhood

Just watched this Korean war movie on.. the Korean war (duh), on DVD. Fantastic movie I must say, and it is rather different from normal war movies. This movie depicts war as ugly, ruthless, immoral, and even inhuman. I must say that any misconception regarding how I like war (I don't) which might arise from the fact that I like garang-ness in NS rather than slackness, is wrong. As I told my sister, it's true that I like to train to kill. But I would pray that war never happens that I will have to kill (or be killed for that matter). So it goes that I do not like war. So how could someone who hates war loves to train to fight war?

I love not war per se. War is stupid and useless. But I love the positive qualities that some breed of men show, that only war can bring out of them: the heroism, bravery, self-sacrifice, righteousness, never-say-die attitude, the 'Band of brother'ness. It is that simple. Do you not love history precisely of this?

Which explains why I can enjoy both Saving Private Ryan, which depicts war in the light of American heroism against evil, as well as Brotherhood, which depicts war the opposite: as utterly futile, and ultimately, evil too.

Brotherhood contains some powerful scenes. One particular one impressed and touched me a lot. The South Koreans were about to shoot the North Korean soldiers who had surrendered, with shouts of 'Kill these commies!' or 'Kill these pigs!'; which is true - the North Korean soldiers are really animals. They kill entire villages of innocent civilians. But the issue here is perfectly balanced by a character who protested vehemently, saying that they, the South soldiers, will be animals themselves if they shoot unarmed and surrendered soldiers. It goes to show that no one can talk about morality when it comes to war. Nobody is morally superior to anybody, reagardless which side you are fighting on. Nothing is fair in war, nothing can repay what was lost, nothing can be gained. This is why I hate war.

The only way you can possibly console yourself for killing the lives of so many, is that little voice inside you - and sometimes you doubt if it is really yours- which keeps telling you to do so, for the sake of 'good'. But is it really good you are fighting for? It might be; but that goodness so easily corrupts you may not know what you are doing. Good may just easily turn into a necessary evil. War to me, is as good as any other kind of perversion, plagued with the distortion of sin, and so, so far way from what Things Should Have Been.

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"Because...there's some good in this world, Mr Frodo. And it's worth fighting for." - Samwise Gamgee