There is a classic scene toward the end of the movie version of The African Queen where the captain of the German warship, having captured Charlie and Rosie and condemned them to death as spies, is prevailed upon by the couple to marry them. The captain reluctantly agrees, and proceeds quickly and matter-of-factly to read through the marriage service. He concludes by saying, "By the authority vested in me by Kaiser Wilhelm the Second, I now pronounce you man and wife. Proceed with the execution."
A charming bit of dark irony, made lighter by the fact that Charlie and Rosie experience an unexpected happy ending.
But what if Rosie had been forced to marry, against her will, the German captain, in order to comply with an Imperial order that virgins couldn't be executed? And the consummation having been completed as the legal prerequisite, she was executed after her "honeymoon" night? Can we agree that that would be considered barbaric by civilized people?
And that, ergo, the Islamic extremists in Iran are barbarians?
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Paco, I would argue that Islamic extremists in general are barbarians. Not because of their religious views, but because of (as Mark Steyn put it) their pathologies.
ReplyDeleteIn particular, their inability to look at other people outside their very narrow definition of "human" (their "tribe", if you like), and the subsequent inhuman treatment of them. Witness the willingness (if not eagerness) to torture people in Iraq. Including their fellow Iraqis.
What's happening in Iran is just a leaf off the same tree. More vicious, and on a larger scale, but pretty much the same pathology.
Which is why I favor a direct form of diplomacy when dealing with Islamic extremists.
Paco, I would argue that Islamic extremists in general are barbarians. Not because of their religious views, but because of (as Mark Steyn put it) their pathologies.
ReplyDeleteNope: both their religion (the form of marriage here is 'sigheh') and their pathologies.
K
A brilliant film. And of course completely agree with you about this latest gem from Iran although I believe it does have a parallel with our own medieval history and for similar reasons (although of course we've managed to dispense with this and it's not asking too much of the Iranians to do the same).
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, I've always thought the African Queen was the last Hollywood film about British imperial history that wasn't in some way americanised (if you grant that Bogart's character was Canadian as advertised) either by changing to make it happen to Americans or inserting gratuitous and ahistorical American characters.
cac: I hope the shade of C.S. Forester will forgive me, but I think the ending in the movie is an improvement over the ending in the book.
ReplyDeletePaco, I can't remember the original ending in the book indeed the film works so well that I'd forgotten they were different if I ever knew. Can you enlighten me?
ReplyDeleteApart from the fact that it's an extremely well crafted film, I've always had a fascination with the East African campaign. My grandfather got an MC chasing Von Lettow Worbeck around East Africa and it was so remote from the main battlefields that they only found that the war was over a month or so after the armistice when a native bearer finally located them in remote bushj.
cac: In the novel, the German captain delivers the couple to a British commander under a flag of truce. The British commander sends them on their way to the British Consul, and they agree to get married when they get down to the coast.
ReplyDeleteK, we may be saying the same thing in different ways, but their pathologies are caused by a religion that encourages tribalism and discourages change and innovation. Islam was established A.D. 700, and that's pretty much where a lot of the adherents have chosen to live.
ReplyDeleteWith the occasional modern convenience, like fire arms, of course.