Skip to main content

The Water Diviner - My 2 cents



After a long period of abstinence in Cinemas, I watched this movie last night with some of my CG members. Not for religious purposes, but just an entertainment for some city people.I did not know that ratings was high on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, most probably its because of Russell Crowe's first debut as director. Maybe some Australian & Turkish pride in the mix. Honestly speaking, the movie is flawed, in terms of editing, plot, flow of the story. But, the message it is trying to send through, its tickling my brain and thus, I have to write this down.

My 2 cents worth of thoughts:

1) Love of our Father.

John 5: 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.

Russell Crowe searched for his sons after they died in war for 4 years. Much to our dismay, he actually accepted that he is dead. It is the wife who couldn't let go and ask him to read stories from Arabian Nights to 3 empty beds. It was heartbreaking scene. And thus, he begins his journey to look for his son's bones in Turkey. 

During the journey, he easily found the bones of the 2 younger sons (Ed & Henry), which puzzles me how on earth did he do that??! Because the eldest son's guilt for killing his brother to end his pain, he is afraid to go back home to his parents. And his father knows that, and never give up to search for him.Which reminds me of this verse:

Mark 2:17 " It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners"


2) No one wins a war

In the movie, we were told 10k ANZAC troops died in Galipoli. And thus, there was hostility between the Turks and the British/ANZAC army. But after that, they were told that 70k of Turks has died in that same war. Almost immediately, it felt cold. That is the true facade of warfare. 

Despite the political motives about war, which the movie did not explore,; young people, like Russell Crowe's demised sons as well as the teenager that the Major Hassan asked to take his binoculars in his compartment (I suspect it was intentional to keep the young boy away from war), losing their lives for the greater purpose. Which many at times, they do not know about. 

As war continues to erupt in the modern era, the same thing happens again and again. Parents and children are displaced, the civilians suffers, family and friends lost in war. What's the reason for war then? But due to human nature, we greed over stuffs. Land, minerals, ideology, people. What ever that was given to us is never enough. I guess humans race are doomed after all. 

3) Interfaith tolerance

It was the Turks that helped Russell Crowe finds his sons. Despite having different beliefs, God brings us all together. The scene when he dreamt about His son, with the dervish whirl dancers, it resonates so much in me that I keep talking about it. More so when he woke up to Azan (Muslim early prayers).

The dervish whirl is part of a ritual of Sufi to reach a 'spiritual ecstasy'. It was believed that once they reach that state of high, they will be able to see God, or be nearer to God. Arthur (Russell Crowe's son) was seen whirling together with the dancers. To me, it feels like he is still trying to seek God. even though he felt the guilt of sin. He was  even painting the abandoned church when he was found. 

Different faith, but it does not stop us from wanting to be near to God. Waiting for the day to return to Him.This hold a strong message of tolerance, which unfortunately our country doesn't have. We are more intrigued by the ISIS war in Syria & Iraq, to kill in the name of God. But we chose to ignore the part where God wants us to love each other as we are all His creation. 

So, that's my thoughts about the movie. Heart warming, full of messages, but it does seems that its trying too hard to please everyone. Nevertheless, good solid movie, worth watching and worth pondering. 

Happy Saturday peeps!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Road back home -A marriage of accounting, planning, and acting skills

What a jovial mood i'm in. Nothing particular exciting but just felt good, at least until now. Gonna go back home later on a 2 1/2 hours of bus travel... Sigh... Just realized that I've been travelling back home like this for years. During my uni days (hah, sound like it's been so long!), i couldn't afford to travel back home every weekends/month. Too far away and the only transport available is airplane. So, I went back twice or a year, sometimes during holidays, sometimes during term break. Remembering back then, we students are really good in calculating the lowest expenditures to go back home.. Many of us had actually mastered all the required skills (accounting and planning skills) and can easily passed off as travel agents or accountants. We even mastered our acting skills especially to the staffs in airlines booking agency and airports ( it's due to the fact that we are almost certain to bring overweight luggage every time we stepped on an airplane).. The who...

My funny friend and I

It's funny how it all started. We hated, or perhaps in a better definition, "dislike" each other when we first met. Both of my closest friends were someone that wasn't pleasant having around at first. Probably i'm the one who need to be blamed for not trusting people easily. This particular friend of mine was my schoolmate* in uni (*noted that school here refers to School of Psychology and Social Work, not secondary school/high school/primary school). We heard about each other, we disliked each other, but in a very unexpected way, we became friends after attending a same class in our 2nd year! (God have it's own reason i guess..) She was not in my course by she took on of the subject in my course as an elective. And after the IVAC ( Inter-University AIDS Conference) 2004, we became even closer. Closer than any of my coursemates whom I've accustomed with their presence in my uni life for 2 years. I was really skeptical at first. How can a person trust some...

Face-o-lo-gy

One night, my Ah Yee (My Aunt, mum's sister) said to me: "Ah Ling ah, your nose is big and fleshy. It indicates that you will be having a good life in the future." Literally means that I will earn big bucks in the future. Yay! Money come money come... "But your nostrils can see the sky (whatever it means) , it means you are like me! Earn big and spend big. But no worries, you won't get poor." Haha, so I can spend whatever I want from now on?? "You have a round face, lots of bak (means meat or flesh in Hokkien), indicates that you will get early recognition from your boss. Hmm, not bad." Yeah, not bad huh. Should tell my boss and ask for a raise soon! " Your eyebrows are quite nice. Dark and long. It means you will get a good husband in the future. But... wait , where did u get this scar?? Haiya, its not that good la like that. But again the scar not that big, shouldn't be a problem la I think. Hm.." So is it good or not??! How come ...