'Tangerines' anti-war movie review

I had the opportunity to catch a screening of a well-reviewed foreign film, Tangerines (2015).  Tangerines tells the story of an Estonian farmer, Ivo, in wartime Abkhazia (northwest Georgia, between Russia and Turkey).  Ivo doesn’t care about the war or to take sides; all he wants is to harvest his crop of tangerines and be left alone.

The remote mountain village Ivo shares with his business partner, Margus, is exquisitely beautiful.   It could be the scene on the back of a postcard.  The village is also a ghost town, as the inhabitants fled in the early days of the war.  To Ivo’s horror, the war comes to his doorstep only days before the tangerines are to be harvested!

After a loud firefight rages past the village, Ivo and Margus check the battlefield for survivors.  There are two:  a Chechen (pro-Russian) mercenary and a Georgian soldier.  Both are badly wounded and require medical care, and both are taken to Ivo’s house where they begin their recuperation.   Ivo and Margus must then find a way to keep the two warfighters from killing each other while they heal.  They must also hide one or the other from enemy troops, depending on what nation’s army or militia passes through the contested area.  As if they didn’t have enough problems, they still need to find a way to harvest an entire crop of ripe tangerines!

This movie is delightful and thought-provoking in a variety of ways.  For starters, there’s not a whole lot of war violence in this movie.  The violence and the impact of the war are mostly implied, so this film is heavily performance-based.  I like the lead actor’s performance as Ivo; he’s a stern grandfather who imposes his authority in his own house, but will also surprise people with a subtle-yet-irreverent joke.  Ivo comes across as James Stewart in Shenandoah, but with a touch of Denis Leary in The Ref.

Next are Ahmed, the Chechen mercenary, and Niko, the Georgian soldier.  Ahmed is an extroverted, often loud-mouthed warrior who often vocalizes his intent to kill Niko.  Niko, an introverted intellectual, cites Ahmed’s ignorance and invites him to follow up on his threats.  Both characters grow as the plot unfolds.

For added context to the film, the story takes place during the Abkhaz War of 1992-93.  There were a series of small wars across Eastern Europe and Northwest Asia once the Soviet Union disintegrated.  Apart from countries seceding from the nonexistent Soviet Union, other nations and “autonomous” republics within former Soviet republics also tried to secede.  Abkhazia today is a de facto independent state and partly occupied by Russia, though it’s internationally recognized as a part of Georgia.

Another element of truth is that the film presents the intermingling of ethnic groups.  Aslan is a white, blue-eyed Chechen Muslim whereas his comrades have Middle Eastern features.  Other Europeans are seen with mixed features as well.  The absurdity of the ethnic cleansing that happened in this war is reflected in the film when, more than once, different soldiers and militiamen from various nations’ troops have to ask what someone’s ethnic background is.  The jackbooted thugs asking can’t tell, because most characters in the film look the same and speak the same language, despite being ethnically different.

Abkhazian war veterans and their families march in a parade.

One sad irony that most American viewers won’t pick up lies in Ahmed’s political loyalties.  Abkhazia’s war of independence was turned into a proxy war for Russia, one of several in the 1990s by which the Russian government hoped to weaken its newly independent constituent republics.  Though a mercenary, Aslan is aligned with Russia and believes in Abkhazia’s right to secede from Georgia.

However, Ahmed is also a devout Muslim, like most Chechen people.  But like most Russian mercenaries in the 1990s, he is probably a veteran of the Soviet Army.  The year following the end of the Abkhaz War, 1994, was the start of Chechnya’s wars of independence.  Chechens heavily rallied around Islam and their war against the Russian government became a holy war.  This leaves the viewer to wonder, should Ahmed survive the Abkhaz War, which side would he choose in 1994: Russia or Chechnya?

I truly appreciated the libertarian message entrenched in the movie.  Apart from the obvious theme that uses war to appeal to the viewer’s humanity, the film also stresses peace and commerce.  Throughout the movie, both Ivo and Margus lament the war and how it’s taken all the men away from productive work, like harvesting their tangerines for an daily wage.  Ivo and Margus repeatedly try to recruit militiamen from any side to work as day laborers in the orchard.  Their focus on peace, unhampered commerce, and ignoring nationality to increase economic cooperation, is a vivid reflection of the pillars of Austrian economics.

Tangerines is a movie that gets it right.  It's also a valuable tool for libertarians to touch minds in eastern Europe.

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Tangerines movie poster courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and used according to Fair Use. Abkhazian parade picture by 'Apsuwara' and used via CC BY-SA 3.0 license, and was obtained from Wikimedia Commons.

Secession, Shout-outs, and Ron Paul Shiznit

So yesterday Ron Paul delivered what’s probably his farewell speech to Congress on the House floor.  Did he really just call 400+ Representatives “psychopathic authoritarians” to their faces?  Why, yes, yes he did.  I see the election is over and Congressman Paul doesn’t need to behave himself either.  Bravo, Congressman, bravo.  Golf clap for Ron.

Honestly, I’m going to miss having that man fighting for all our rights in Washington.  Words simply are inadequate when it comes to finding a way to describe his accomplishments and the impact he made on my own life.  I’m especially touched by his opposition to SOPA and PIPA.  After all, had I not been illegally downloading audio books in January of 2009, I never would have stumbled upon The Revolution: A Manifesto and I probably wouldn’t be on the right side of history.

Now that Ron Paul is officially retiring from Congress I find myself crying like a fifteen-year-old girl who’s suddenly come to the brutal realization that Twilight is over, there will be no more books or movies, and Jacob will die alone.

Jacob will die alone.

But wait, there’s hope on the horizon!  There are hundreds of thousands of voters now sympathetic to libertarian ideas, tens of thousands of newly inspired activists carrying on the Ron Paul revolution, and the very real possibility that Rand Paul will be our figurehead and candidate in 2016!  [Angel choirs are singing.]  Okay, I’m not sad anymore.

Next, I’d like to put on blast all my fellow Ron Paul supporters who actually still believe in these secession petitions.  Unless you’re an authentic Southern nationalist, you’re probably just a whiny Republican or a militant-beyond-reality libertarian.  This protest is useless, Obama will not hear you out, and filing the petitions on WhiteHouse.gov gives them no more legitimacy than a police report that cites the witness seeing flying saucers before the crime took place.  The President’s answer to the petitions will be: “No. See 1865.”

The only way to enact change in government is by gathering a large mob of angry voters and protesting at the offices of elected officials one month before a primary election.

If you still have faith that these petitions will enact change, prepare to be more disappointed than the militant LP members who thought Gary Johnson would actually win!

Are you mad at me now?  Good.  You’re probably all conspiratarians anyway…  Seriously though, like Ron Paul, I have much love and respect for Gary Johnson.  What do they have in common?  Three main things:

·         A correct and inspiring philosophy of liberty and rugged individualism

·         A mountain of accomplishments that dwarf those of most human beings

·         Thousands of obnoxious conspiratarian supporters who thoroughly love wasting time on sign bombs and annoying the living hell out of me (and probably the rest of the planet).

On that note, I would like to personally thank you for making the campaign trail even rougher for those of us who were actually winning real votes for Ron Paul.  We sustained enough damage from the Republican establishment without you guys delivering your Bilderberger speeches and handing out your 9/11 truth DVD-Rs.  Is it still libertarian enough if I can convince you to voluntarily commit yourselves into private mental hospitals instead of having the government sending you to public ones?  I sure hope so :)

A very clean, Hollywood representation of a conspiratarian

Conspiratarians, even if you have facts and hard evidence to back your kooky claims, you can’t shock-and-awe people with the truth.  You can’t shove truth down their throats and expect anything other than the gag reflex.  You have to spoon-feed the truth to people and even make it sound good so they want more of it.  Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down…

Finally, I’d like to throw a major shout out to the folks at Ron Paul Problems and (the less funny or cared about) Objectivist Problems for being libertarians with a freaking sense of humor and an actual grip on bridge building, implementing our ideas into public policy, and reality itself.  Much love, mi gente!

I thought I’d take a break from politics after the election but now I realize it’d be counterproductive to the effort Ron Paul put in setting things in motion for the liberty movement.  At this point, I can’t wait ‘til December 2015 so we can all head over to Iowa and caucus for Rand Paul.

May the Force be with you.

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Ron Paul painting courtesy of Prison Planet. No known image owner.
Taylor Lautner photo by Eva Rinaldi and used via CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
Conspiratarian GIF courtesy of Ron Paul Problems.

I totally missed last night's episode of South Park and now I have to wait before it'll be available online.  I hate everyone.

Should California Secede from the Union?

Should California WHAT?  Are you insane?  Has anyone actually thought this crackpot idea through?

What they THINK Cali independence will look like

I fully understand the sentiments of many of the even-tempered conservatives, anarcho-capitalist libertarians, and even neoconservative Republicans (the kind who hate Obama more than Satan and are reconciled with God through his supposed Other Son, Ronald Reagan) who support this naïve utopian idea.

It also seems as if many of the people asking me to sign that petition firmly believe Ron Paul could have won as a write-in candidate, that Gary Johnson stole his thunder, and that using Instagram will significantly boost the integrity of their photography portfolio.  Now they believe that a petition will help bring about a peaceful 10^th Amendment-style revolution to restore state sovereignty and individual liberty.

I wish they would all quit this obnoxious exercise.  Then again, I could wish in one hand and drool in the other and we’ll see which one fills up faster.

In case no one’s figured it out yet, I’m completely against California seceding from the Union, even if I’m for secession in other countries.

First of all, I stick around in politics because I want to build bridges within the country, not fracture it.  I have just as much love for the Blue Ridge Mountains as I do for the sunrise over Boston Harbor and the sunset over the Mojave Desert.  Okay, well, maybe not so much the Mojave Desert….

But in all seriousness, Mass media and the hyper-polarization of politics has greatly divided Americans and splitting up the country will only further the division without actually doing anything about the polarized attitudes inside of every newly seceded state.  Elimination of the Democrat and Republican Parties doesn’t eliminate the masses who strongly identify with “the left” or “the right,” no matter how correct Murray Rothbard was in his Left, Right essay.

Second of all, I believe we owe it to the memory of our country’s Civil War veterans—both North and South—to remain united and find better ways to solve our national problems than cutting and running, and especially through fighting.  [Can we just elect Rand Paul already???]  If I may quote Confederate veteran Sam Watkins:

“Our cause was lost from the beginning.  Our greatest victories—Chickamauga and Franklin—were our greatest defeats.  Our people were divided upon the question of Union and secession…  The private soldier fought and starved and died for naught.”

In other words, it ultimately wasn’t worth it.  By the way, if anyone’s offended that I’m quoting Confederate veterans, they might as well stop reading here and now.  This is my rant and if they don’t like it, I will now make it my personal mission to offend them even more deeply.

Just because it’s possible for someone to respect the white, black, Hispanic, and Native American Confederate veterans doesn’t mean that person has the Birth of a Nation movie poster on their bedroom wall.  Sheesh!  [By the way, any politically correct bozo who thinks I’m full of it can Google search “HK Edgerton” and have their mind blown.]

You’re welcome.

What Cali independence will actually look like

Thirdly—and this is the one no one’s expecting—any libertarians who think this will be the new state for anarchist experimentation, or “conservative” Republicans convinced that secession will save us from the tyranny of Obama and help restore the Norman Rockwell painting of what California used to be many decades ago, are sorely mistaken.

[Let me point out that the former spend entirely too much time making maps of where the FEMA concentration camps are located while the latter believe that Rick Santorum was popular enough to have defeated Obama in the General Election.]

Take one moment to think about the political reality of California… THIS STATE IS A BASTION OF LEFTISM!  Seriously, a California Republic will become the People’s Socialist Republic of California in, like, 7 freaking minutes.  Sure, recreational marijuana users won’t have to worry about the DEA, but there will also be:

• ·         Individual mandates that make ObomneyCare look like a fiscally responsible mere suggestion… (God forbid we should allow market-based solutions!)
• ·         Taxes and the state budget deficit flying to the moon faster than Red Bull’s impressive space program
• ·         More police to hassle everyone
• ·         More regulations and state control on private industry here than in the Third Reich.

Yes indeed, people will need that weed to get as high as possible just to cope with the depressing realities of life in the new Workers’ Paradise.

If we want to boost states’ sovereignty, nullification and noncompliance with federal law are a much better method than secession.

Now that I’ve angered libertarians, Republicans, Democrats, and Marxists alike, my work here is done… for now.  I’m off to procrastinate on Facebook for the 900^th time today.

Toodles!

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"Writing the Declaration of Independence" painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.  "Lenin on Board the Cruiser Aurora" painting by Sandor Legrady, made into a postage stamp by the government of the People's Republic of Hungary.  Both images were obtained from Wikimedia Commons and are in the public domain.

Even if the second one wasn't public domain, I still wouldn't pay any royalties to Marxists because it would go against their ideology.  People over profits, right??  Booyah!