Not enough background


This is movie is an interesting piece but it leaves a lot of things out for the viewer. It jumps into the violence of war too soon. The director and producer could have provided us with a background on the war or at least explored Johnny's earlier life, family up to the point where he was recruited into the rebel army than go onto the violence. At least we get to see if briefly the life of the female character and her family. The film is missing a lot of the why the war occurred, early life of the main characters. It should've begun on a slow pace than gradually built up the scenes of war and violence as Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April did.

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I agree with you. This made me give it a rating of 6 and not higher which it had the potential to be.

/h2

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If you do some research into the war in Liberia there's plenty of information there, you will also instantly recognise the beach (West Point slum) and the graveyard as being in Liberia...

The film didn't even show the worse aspects of this war, this series of documentaries sheds a lot of light into it.

The graveyard where the girl buried her father became homes for those people who had nowhere to go after the war.

Watch this parts 1-8:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQSjyYRTDVM

(Vice Guide to Liberia parts 1 to 8)

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[deleted]

i couldnt have disagreed with you more.... this movie, at least the way i see it, is not about individuals or individual wars, but about the experience of those involved. i dont think you could have captured the raw injustice of the civilians being treated like nobodys, the feeling of being left behind by the world and government, and the child-soldiers naive play-like mindset, if you had a buildup where the characters were rooted in some deeper destiny-sort-of narrative - i think the point is that war strips humans of their individual worth, and shows an injustice and arbitrariness that is really hard for humans, as reason-giving beings, to fully understand.

as for why the war occurred, i found the reasons given, even though they might seem simplistic, both shocking and true - the generals quest to get hired by the regular army and Martin Luther Kings speech.

all in all, given how much we all ready know about how they acquire and brainwash child-soldiers, seeing a movie that gives you this sort of first-person experience was really intense.

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