Most moving scene
There were many moving scenes in this movie. Which one was the most moving for you?
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LOVE The Constant Gardener. READ THE BOOK.
The entire film is moving because everything is so very real.
For me I have to say the scene where Damien is asked to look at the sick child and he tells Dan "He's half-starved." The look of worry in the humble mother's eyes, the look of that angelic child's suffering, and Damian's gentle and kind treatment of the child makes me break down every single time. I kept thinking Damian would have made such a great doctor.
I agree with all the scenes stated, but I would also add the scene where Dan is shot, and Damien is yelling at the other soldiers and trying to hold Dan...its very moving mainly because the soldiers were previously Damien and Dan's friends and now suddenly they have turned against each other and treating each other like enemies.
Also the scene in the lane where Damien is telling Sinead about his visit to Chris' mother, and afterwards he says 'I can't feel anything.' I found that scene really heart-breaking.
"I'm not a heathen, I'm a sinner." - Sebastian Flyte, 'Brideshead Revisited'
I have to agree - the whole movie pretty much.
The early scene where Michael refuses to speak in english and give his english name. That just is horrifying and sets the stage for everything else.
When Teddy is tortured.
The execution of Chris.
The execution of Damien.
It is just all so heartbreaking. I think this movie showed that neither side was entirely in the right and both sides had to do horrible things for what they felt was "right". My biggest pet peeve with conflicts like this (be it Ireland/North of Ireland or Palestine/Israel) are the ones who take it too black/white. It's not as easy as one side being totally right and the other wrong. Both are right. Both are wrong. And the violence can't stop until both sides realize that.
You said it. Things are never as simple as we wish they were.
"Life's like a Dick; when it get's hard, it takes you quail hunting and shoots you in the face."
Execution of Chris. There was something deeply painful and comical about his final request: "please don't bury me next to that guy".
I could really never buy the whole Damien execution scene with his own brother ordering the commands- no one would have allowed Teddy to do it, I personally think - but I admit the part where he untied his brother's hands afterwards got me.
Also the interrogation of Damien side-flipping into an interrogation of the guard. One of Cillian Murphy's finest moments. This entire movie was so riveting.
Loudness Isn't Power
A brief remark to SapphireMind over the well-intentioned, but horribly uninformed and overly naive comment about both sides being right and wrong and how it can't be viewed as black and white. Anyone with a modicum of historical research/knowledge of this period can attest that what the British Government did to Ireland ranks just below what some communist nations do to their citizens. Not only were basic civil rights routinely ignored, but the people were brutalized in the process.
Yes, the rough group of freedom fighters were harsh at times, but it was all reactionary and deemed necessary given the overall oppression brought on the general population by the hated Black & Tans (largely made of of remnants of the WW I British regulars and those who were the marginal among that lot, e.g., older men and outright misfits.) As for the much discussed execution of the young Riley lad, recall that all fighting forces sometimes have to resort to the ultimate penalty to maintain order and send clear messages. George Washington had to execute several men during a critical period in the Rev. War to set an example. In addition, the cause for which those IRA lads fought were, by any standard, completely justified...far more than the American Colonists if you examine the activities of the British in both areas. To the Brits, the Irish were inferior folks...an attitude that has long historical roots, going back hundreds of years. It wasn't until the end of the 19th century that the Irish could even have freedom of religion and even later for full civil rights to be granted. While things got out of hand from time to time, by all objective standards of criticism and analysis, this was not a gray area, no more than what the Russians, Yugoslavs and other occupied nations did to the Nazis during WW II.
A critical note to remember...the IRA of that time was not like the IRA of the 1960's who operated in Northern Ireland and were a little short of gangsters using the Catholic cause as cover for their activities (mainly aimed, we now know, as keeping the pot boiling in hopes of creating economic and social havoc for those in England) which were counterproductive to say the least.
well-intentioned, but horribly uninformed and overly naive comment about both sides being right and wrong and how it can't be viewed as black and white
Although it's quite a while after lepanto's post, I felt I had to comment. I can't stand that oh-so-politically-correct crap from SapphireMind either about "how it can't be viewed as black and white". It is very black and white. You have a foreign country's troops occupying your country and, as long the occupation exists, it doesn't get more black and white than that. share