Friday, October 21, 2011

Singleton-Harp of Burma

           


     Death is the termination of a person biological being.  Being around the present of Death, one can become very sad and have come into mourning.  Death is also very hard to come around when it is associated with a love one.  In the film Harp of Burma, death played a big part.  First, death was portrayed by the young soldier.  When he was sent away to go fight and didn’t return, his comrades thought that he died.  They accepted this belief until they saw him at a passage way.  They were all excited to see him, until he did the unexpected.  He walked right passed them and didn’t say not one word.  Although not physically dead, he was dead to them because he has found a greater purpose to do.  This relates to the reading because it showed a form of heroic suicide.  Even though he didn’t really kill himself, be still detached himself from earthly things in order to fulfill he’s mission to properly bury the corpuses of the other Japanese soldiers.  Also, the film is associated with one of the scenes form Iwo Jima.  In the scene, it presented death similar to that of Harp of Burma.  For examples the letters in the films.  Both letters where around in the present of passing away.  In the Harp of Burma, the letter explained why the soldier couldn’t live amongst his friends anymore.  However in Iwo Jima, the letter was a symbolism of hope towards the young American solider that died in the war.  Another way these two films were alike, was the tow deaths.  In Iwo Jima the captain committed suicide. Like the solider in the other film, his was also heroic.  The captain lost his eyesight due to the explosion that occurred.  To him, he became useless in the war and to his troops.  So instead of counting on, he shot himself with his rifle.  Even though the two deaths were different, they were still link because the spiritual dead young soilder also allowed his comrades to go on without him.  These two films were very good and really brought insight about death.


1 comment:

  1. I never thought of the letters as a similarity between the movies, but that may be because I was late to class haha. The two letters do make sense in a way that they covey the feelings of the dead to the living, being it their wills for the future, or their regrets from the life. The deaths is something that everyone should've related. The two deaths are very important and heroic in their own way, but the one in Harp of Burma was very symbolic. I agree with you about how he died to them, and had started a "new" life with a mission, that is to bury the fallen soldiers that were left behind. These two films are very good, and convey the message of death clearly.

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