BEYOND RANGOON

 

FOUR STARS – Powerful, Revealing

 

 

       There is despair so great that it breeds its own kind of courage.   Though often misunderstood, this courage comes not from an empty place of having nothing to lose, but from a place full of such pain and sorrow that it rages in the soul.

       Fearful of being overwhelmed, the person tries to control their pain, only to find that their tight control intensifies their inner struggle.It is from that intensity that they act in often overwhelmingly courageous ways.  “BEYOND RANGOON” is a study of such courage.

       Set within the brutal true-to-history military dictatorship of Burma, the film explores the parallel journey of a woman in her private dispair and a country in corporate dispair.  Both exemplify profound courage in response to their dispair.

       The woman is an American medical doctor who is fleeing the pain of her past. Having discovered the brutal murders of her husband and little son, Dr. Laura Bowman (Patricia Arquette) is on a far-eastern adventure to escape the pain of her loss.

       But her pain travels with her.  She cannot block out of her days or her dreams the nightmarish memories of the  loss of her family.  Deciding that her life is over, she gives up her practice of the healing arts and lives in a cold despair.

       Burma is in a similar situation.  Being controlled by a murderous dictator, the entire nation is living in a continual state of denial and wish to escape.  Encouraged by the meditative techniques and philosophy of Buddhism, the religious people try to empty themselves of their pain.

       In an insightful scene Laura Bowman observes a group of Buddist monks in a chanting meditation and muses that they are attempting to block out the world just as she is doing.

       How do we deal with the great sorrows of life?  What enables us to face a new day, when yesterday’s pain still oppresses our soul?  As the tour guide explains the philsophy of Buddhism and its teaching to deny all feeling, it offers one such solution to our pain.  As we see a huge stone statue of a Buddha lying on its side, we are told that the Buddha had finally reached a state of complete emptiness, feeling nothing, and that is signified by the smile of contentment on its face.

       But is that the solution to suffering?  Does denial of the pain truly bring about inner peace?  We are soon aware of the fact that it does not.  Both within Bowman’s life and the Burmese people’s lives, we find that denial only intensifies the inner struggle.

       When Bowman’s life is serendipitously united with a former monk and professor named onKyo, we find that his spiritual journey has led him to a place of political activism.  Having joined with students seeking democracy for their land, onKyo is struggling to change the suffering of his land rather than just accepting it.

       But how do we fight evil?  Must we take on its ways and become a soldier?  Must we hate, as they hate, in order to stand up and stop them?

       As Bowman and onKyo are fleeing the tyranny of the soldiers, they are thrown into a company of refugees, one of which is a soldier dressed as a Buddhist monk.  When this young soldier-monk proclaims that we must fight with hate, onKyo proclaims the power of love and explains that if we hate, we become like them.

       This truth that evil is not overcome by evil, but rather evil is overcome by love is lived out in the final scenes of the film as onKyo helps a soldier turn from his violence and Bowman finds a place of loving service in which to become a healer once more.

       As this film powerfully portrays, the denial of the sufferings of this world is not the solution to our pain.  The suffering of our world is transformed only by the compassionate, powerful, caring, expression of love.   Translating this love into corporate action is the greatest challenge this culture or any culture faces.