Journal Entry Week 3
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Feb 20, 2024
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LITR233_Week 3 Journal Entry_25 Apr 2021 Dave Silva
I chose to analyze the 2019 movie Waiting for the Barbarians
. The movie’s storyline is based on the 1982 novel by the same name written by J.M. Coetzee (Munro). The fictional story was set at an unnamed frontier outpost in what would be a colonialism period in the Middle East (Munro). This outpost is owned by an unspecified empire and serves as the first line of defense against the barbarians who are the nomadic indigenous people of the area. The movie begins with a calm day at the outpost, run by the story’s protagonist, the Magistrate. The Magistrate welcomes a character named the Colonel to the outpost who is there to investigate the activity of the barbarians and plan future moves for the empire. Shortly after the Colonel arrives, his investigative methods are questioned by the Magistrate who found that the Colonel was torturing
and even killing the barbarians in his search for information. These events continue to snowball until the Magistrate is accused of treason for aiding a young barbarian girl who was tortured by the Colonel and returning her to her tribe. He was relieved of his position in the outpost and the Colonel decided to take an expeditionary force into the desert to push the barbarians back into the mountains. However, this campaign did not go well for the Colonel and one of his men is returned to the outpost missing the contents of his head. After this intense episode, it is rightfully
assumed that the expeditionary force has been slaughtered by the barbarians. The imperial soldiers then raided the outpost and quickly fled for their own safety. The final scene showed a long wall of barbarians quickly approaching the outpost, giving a sense of impending doom for the occupants of the outpost to include the Magistrate (Waiting for the Barbarians).
The theme of this movie was about the destruction caused by colonialism. The lives of the so-called barbarians, the outpost citizens, and even the imperial soldiers themselves were changed irrevocably from the events that occurred. However, had the point of view been changed
in the movie, I believe in the new story would have placed the barbarians as the protagonists,
LITR233_Week 3 Journal Entry_25 Apr 2021 Dave Silva
overcoming the terrifying force of colonialism. It may have shown how the tribe observed the imperial forces move in, build an outpost, and then begin making excursions into their land and attacking their people. The tension would have grown until the imperial soldiers made their attempt to wipe out the barbarians. The barbarians, through their bravery and cunning, would have defeated the imperial forces and moved on to destroy the outpost to reclaim their land. It would have been a triumphant story of David versus Goliath in colonial times. I also believe the final scene would have been one of vindication, instead of concern for the innocent people remaining at the outpost.
Dave Silva
Work Cited
Munro, Shaun. “Movie Review – Waiting for the Barbarians (2019).” Flickering Myth
, 5 Aug. 2020, www.flickeringmyth.com/2020/08/movie-review-waiting-for-the-barbarians-2019/.
Accessed 24 Apr. 2021.
Waiting for the Barbarians
. Directed by Ciro Guerra, Samuel Goldwyn Films, 2019.
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