Every once in a long while, you watch a movie/film that actually sets you thinking. And I stress, long while.

I just finished watching Lions For Lambs. Not the best movie ever made (compared to Lee Ang's beautifully made Lust, Caution), nothing too complicated either be it in terms of set/costume design, plot progression or cinematography. But through its simplicity and the juxtapositioning of 3 separate plots (well, at times in a rather "in your face" sort of way, being American as the movie is), it makes you sit up, pay attention, and listen. Suddenly, that dormant part of the brain flicks its switch back on - to thinking mode.

Lions For Lambs is essentially a commentary on America's war on terror - taking stock on where America's gone with this, and echoing the current sentiments of some Americans about the war. The movie interlaces 3 conversations - one of a senior reporter with a Republican senator, the 2nd of 2 US soldiers dropped off somewhere in the mountains of Afganistan to fight the Talibans, and the last of a political science professor and his student who's been cutting classes.

I suppose like the Vietnam war, the age-old issue of when to stop, remains. And its a tough issue, with equally compelling cases on both ends of the spectrum - on one hand, you do whatever it takes to fight the enemy and protect freedom and liberty for your people and the people you seek to protect, yet on the other hand, you do consider the plight of each soldier and want to keep each and every person safe and bring them home as much as possible (as opposed to treating them like pawns in a game of war).

The sub-message of the movie, I felt, is the question posed to us - how much do we choose to engage in our daily lives? Do we choose to remain apathetic, moderate, without opinions of our own but live comfortably, or do we choose to be authentic, engage actively, and be willing to stake our actions on our word? There was a scene in the movie of 2 high school students who were asked to research and present a paper on engagement. They spoke passionately about engaging proactively in the war on terror, and that every citizen has a role to play, hoping to engage their class in conversation about the topic. The entire class laughed at their ideals, brushing it aside as propaganda. But these 2 boys stood for what they believed - they showed letters of enlistment to the US Army, much to the shock of everyone in the class. That one struck a deep chord within me.

Its so easy to live that moderate and apathetic life, to be comfortable, to just get by with our daily lives, but not actually LIVING, thinking, engaging, being authentic. Not that being comfortable is bad, just not enough, I suppose. I encounter too many, who when asked for an opinion on certain topics, merely echo the opinion of the majority view/government/church. Without having thought it through for themselves, without having differentiated the voices of others, and really paid attention to their own voice, their own beliefs. Quite frankly, I find myself doing that a lot too, just going about the motions of daily living, never really engaging until required to - its bloody disturbing! And when that rare occasion where a view that is different or shocking is surfaced, I find, oftentimes, most Singaporeans would be eager to push arguments (and not their own I might add) to drag me back to middle ground, where the majority stand. What compelling reasons?? Surely there is safety in numbers, right???

Why bother engaging and learning more about the other side of the matter? Its too much hard work figuring that out and we're too busy getting on with our lives and staying comfortable. Oh let's not rock the boat, lest we tip over and have to face whatever uncertainty's on the other side. At least on this side, we look good, we look strong. Oh, and we have no time.

I've been there before and constantly run back there for alleged safety. But it makes us such frauds, all of us. Mere phonies. No better than robots.

My extended family's not divided on the matter of war, but on the matter of religion. Half of the family's Protestant, the other half Roman Catholic. The Protestant part of the family are only too eager to denounce Catholicism to the ground, just short of (entirely my opinion) calling them evil or the devil's workshop. Its a mere perception (and some Protestant churches even drum it into the brains of their congregation that Catholics aren't Christians), rather than a deep examination of the tenents of the Catholic faith. I roll my eyes everytime the rantings start - neither sides have bothered to fully read up and understand the other's faiths before splitting hairs and pronouncing judgement on one another. Doesn't this sound like where Ku Klux Klans or Islamic fundamentalists start? And you know what? I attend a Protestant church, but some of the most profound and balanced Christian writings I've ever read, came from the Catholic church. On the contrary, I've found a lot of phony Christian literature in Protestant type writing - all hype, very little real substance. Interesting isn't it? And don't even get me started on the Penal Code debate.

A parable in the Bible teaches us to look at the log in our eye first, before we start telling our brother about the speck in his. Such is the inauthenticity of our lives.