BEYOND RANGOON: the unexpected outcomes of yet another ethnocentric movie?

Set in 1988, BEYOND RANGOON takes us to a little known nation of Burma, a region once recognized as the wealthiest and most ravishing in all of Asia but which, by this point in time, had all but gone up in flames.

When I fist saw the movie it really moved me. I was a lonely, bored teenager; the adventure and the exoticism of the movie temporarily lifted the boredom and nourished some day dreams. I am sure a bunch of young semi-educated and slightly interested in other cultures, equally identified with the pretty heroin, Patricia Arquette, perhaps wondering for half a second who was that woman (who later won the Nobel Peace Prize while under house arrest) bravely defy the massed troops by moving through them to address the crowd.

It was only much later that I realize [and I still probably don't fully understand it] the reach of our North American boredom and ethnocentrism, that shows so easily in some movies, and in a ever more slightly subtle manner in others, like this one.

As an internet article says it:

"Once again, the peril of a Yank on the loose in exotic
territory is made to seem of rather more urgent concern than the
fate of any number of anonymous Third Worlders."

Non-the-less, as the director says: "...I do think that when people have had the emotional experience of seeing a movie like this they will read more about Burma."



Reading the Harpers magazine today, I say a small ad about some "Worldwide Musicians' Campaign to Free Aung San Suu Kyi, with this CD: "The Lady". Who knows if this actually accomplish anything more than making the riches richer...it none-the-less made me want to learn more about her, Burma [now Myanmar], and reminded me of our North American foolishness, ignorance, and insensitivity. At the risk of making it sound like our lack of responsiveness toward the multiple cries for help in the world is justifiable, I am tempted to reflect that, it may be a just a human flaw. We may only ultimately respond to what touches us personally, if only by some weird identification to a movie character. We may be lazy and self-interested by nature, but some too rare human beings are able to identify to the world as interconnected. This way, they find the energy to stand up for others, no matter the cost.