Journal 6 Emma

As painful as it was to watch, I enjoyed Beasts of No Nation. I don’t think I would have been as interested if I didn’t read A Long Way Gone. The movie begins by showing Agu’s family life. He is a very happy child and plays with his friends. His village gets notified that the rebels are coming. Only mothers and children are taken to the city, The rebels attack and Agu is disturbed as his father and brother's lives are stolen right before his eyes. Agu escapes into the woods and comes across the NUF and they make him a boy soldier. He fights and constantly prays to his mother. Agu’s headaches begin, like Beah as they do drugs. After a lot of brutal fighting goes on Agu’s best friend is murdered and he stops feeling emotion. Eventually the soldiers surrender and end up in the rehabilitation center.

 I recommend this film because people are ignorant to what has happened and what is happening in our world. People that have it all often complain about little things. If more people see what Agu and his country experience, it may help people to become more grateful and open to helping others. This movie educates in a slightly more intense way than A Long Way Gone because it is easier to connect with a situation if you are physically watching it. The movie helped me understand A Long Way Gone more thoroughly. I pictured the villages completely different in my head. I also thought it was interesting how mature the young children are in both the book and film because they are forced to grow up so quickly and take on important roles in the community, even before they are forced into fighting. Beasts of No Nation greatly added to my experience of reading A Long Way Gone.

Cary Fukunaga did an incredible job directing. The setting was captured very well and most of the characters did a good job with their roles. A creative scene was when Agu did drugs and the saturation of the movie changes and you experience the hallucinations that he does, to a smaller degree. The main characters like Agu, his family, and the commandant did amazing displaying intense emotion but I feel like some of the minor characters like some of Abu’s fellow soldiers and dada good-blood didn’t do that great of a job, they seemed unexperienced. Overall I recommend and enjoyed the film.

African village where the war took place.