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Saturday, 7 June 2014

Johnny Mad Dog

Rating:
80%
Format:
DVD
Year:
2008
Predominant Genre:
War
Plot:
Child soldiers fight an unknown war in an unknown country.
Themes:
Personal change
Self-expression
Compassion
Totalitarianism
Similar Titles:
Unknown
Best Performances:
All

Movie that sums up the horrors of child soldiering in Africa combined with excellent performances from a young cast. They sum up perfectly the trauma suffered by children caught up in such events through the blankness of their expressions and their robotically murderous exploits.

However, there is no explanation as to why the events we witness are happening; making the whole affair rather a White look at people who should really have told their own story.

After centuries of Whites not respecting tribal boundaries with White-created national ones, it is hardly surprising that such murderous ethnic conflict should occur at all. Here, Blacks behave like the Whites who went before them in using force to achieve any and all ends. Part of the decolonization process requires that traditional ethnic boundaries be re-established in conflict with the demands of nation states created in a non-organic fashion. But, given the White perspective shown here, none of that understanding is even implied. Instead, we get an anti-child soldier film that contains little real understanding of its own themes, despite the harrowing and compelling nature of its content.

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