1. Bohemian Rhapsody &...

Lyrics:

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,
Because I'm easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,
Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to
me, to me

Mama,
Just killed a man,
Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger,
now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun,
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, oooh,
Didn't mean to make you cry,
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow,
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come,
Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all
the time
Goodbye, ev'rybody, I've got to go,
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, oooh, I don't want to die,
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all
I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the
Fandango!

Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me
Galileo, Galileo
Galileo, Galileo
Galileo, Figaro - magnifico

I'm just a poor boy nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family,
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let me go) Will not let you go
(Let me go)(Never) Never let you go
(Let me go) Never let you go (Let me go) Ah
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me,
for me

So you think you can stop me and spit in my
eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to
die
Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby,
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta
here
Nothing really matters, Anyone can see,
Nothing really matters,
Nothing really matters to me
Any way the wind blows...

Bohemian Rhapsody is a truly incredible and unique song. There really has never been another song like this. Unfortunately I've heard it so often that I'm now a bit tired of it. The lyrics can be about anything, but when I first became a fan of this song, around 2005/2006 it struck me how easily they could be about a young Muslim terrorist who has to go on a suicide mission. The narrative is about a poor boy who is nervous, because he is about to do something which is probably going to kill him. So he is saying goodbye to his mother. That can be about a suicide mission, but it also, obviously, could be about something else. The use of Islamic words like Beelzebub and Bismillah though really nails it. Around 2005 there was quite a lot of discussion in the Netherlands about a Palestinian movie called Paradise Now. The movie was produced by a Dutch company and was the Palestinian submission to the Oscars for best foreign language film. There was a bit of controversy whether the Netherlands should finance a movie that looked sympathetically at Muslim terrorists. The threat of Muslim terrorism was coming closer and closer to The Netherlands after the attacks in New York, London and Madrid. I remember that the plot of the movie reminded me a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody, since it apparently was about two poor boys from poor families, who were going on a suicide mission. And it actually was then that I first got the idea to do something with movies and songs like I am doing now.

The Movie: Paradise Now (Hany Abu-Assad, 2005)

Paradise Now is a pretty good, and often very tense, movie that tries to understand the suicide attacks by Muslim terrorists. That does not mean that it justifies them. It is pretty obvious that the director thinks they are wrong. For the most part it doesn't say anything new. The terrorists give the usual arguments for their terrorism: Israel treats them as animals, this is the only way to liberate Palestine,it's Allah's will, etc. The arguments against terrorism are given by a woman who works for a humanitarian organization and who hopes to achieve piece through negotiation. Her arguments are also pretty much the usual ones: It only makes Israel angrier and living in Palestine thus more dangerous for their surviving families,Allah condemns killing, it doesn't help their cause at all, etc. There is not much new here for anyone who follows the news.

The movie did have two interesting observations though. Firstly the suicide attacks are meticulously planned and organized. They have managed to build great secret underground compounds where everything can be, they work all hard and are very efficient and they manage to get all the materials they need. And their bombs are quite ingenious. This makes one wonder how better their life could be if they used all this intelligence, efficiency and hard work to do something more fruitful that really could make their, and other Palestinian, lives better. It's at least worth trying.
Secondly the organizers of the terrorist attacks convince the suicide bombers that they are heroes for doing what they do and that they will be mourned. At the same time they are convinced that after they are death they will go to heaven, which is a wonderful, idyllic place where Allah will love them eternally. An act is not really heroic if you are certain that the consequences of it will be good for you. Something I actually find interesting about a lot of religious people is that they do not act as if they believe in God. They act as if they are absolutely certain that there is a God.

If you hope to see an objective film on the conflict between Palestine and Israel, then this is not it. While the director is not on the terrorists side, he is certainly on the side of the Palestinians. The arguments against or pro terrorism are only seen through Palestinian eyes. And it's made fairly obvious that the Palestinians are the weak side in this conflict. The poverty in Palestine shines through every shot. And when we are shown Israel, we are given the impression of a pretty wealthy country. There is a shot where a car is riding past a beach in Israel and we see a lot of exotic trees on the road. It's very reminiscent the famous shots of LA. This is not really a criticism of the film. This conflict has become enormous and incredibly complicated. I assume it's very hard for a director from either country to make an objective film about it. Even with this film Assad got death treats from both Israelis and Palestinians.