“Journey From the Fall”
Thursday, January 1st, 2009In order to better understand and appreciate “Journey From the Fall”, it helps to be familiar with two products of the Vietnam War: re-education camps and boat people.
Re-education camps were the Vietnamese government’s of solution to the problem of what to do with supporters of the old government. In the movie, the difference between real prisons and re-education camps is that in a real prison you know what you’re in for and how long you’re going to be there.
Boat people fled Vietnam often in fishing boats not meant for open water. If they were lucky, they’d bump into freighters in shipping lanes in international water and be taken to safety. If they weren’t lucky, they could encounter a number of inconveniences including pirates.
White people don’t show up too much in the movie. When they do appear, it’s only to say something stupid. Really stupid. Insanely stupid. Blagojevich stupid. Like how they (white folks) can relate to the recent immigrant’s plight on account of their Irish immigrant grandparents.
Nonetheless, this transgression can easily be forgiven since it is true that people do say stupid things.
What should the refugees do when they get to America? Forget about the past and start over in America? Or keep the sometimes painful memories of the past alive? That’s the question they face in a convincingly recreated depiction of early 80’s Southern California.
