A Mighty Heart, the film recounting the disappearance and subsequent murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002, successfully personalizes the true stories of individual journalists in contrast to the sprawling beast unaffectionately known as “the media” In fact, A Mighty Heart successfully and repeatedly allows us to look at individuals separate from and in contrast to the mass bodies that they also represent and help comprise from the chaos of Karachi, the whim of terrorists and the motives of governments.
Told in a fairly disjointed style that gives the film a realistic immediacy we see the events as they unfold in three different arenas – that of the house Daniel Pearl shared with his then pregnant wife Marianne that becomes the command center for those trying to locate and rescue him; the city of Karachi (which, we are informed at the start of the film is so populous there is, in fact, no way to determine the actual size of its population); and the memory of Marianne which shows us her life with Daniel from the morning they said goodbye on the day of his disappearance to floating remembrances of earlier times in their relationship. Each of these elements is portrayed with a stark matter-of-factness and an energy and drive that precludes sentimentality.
A Mighty Heart works because it does not strive to be “an inspirational true story” but emphasizes the often unfortunate reality of real life narrative that journalists do battle with every day – people’s motives are unclear, information is confused and the good guys, if anyone can be termed such, don’t always win. And here we do see grey area aplenty, largely from various government officials such as Captain, the head of the Pakistani security forces who becomes a shocking and ruthless ally. Even a brief bit of archive footage used showing Collin Powell talking about the lack of human rights abuses at Guantanamo reminds us that journalists, while seeking the truth still exist in a world where there is no such thing.
If you’ve been reading my articles for some time, you may know that I am a former Associated Press journalist, and that one of my jobs there was to support journalists on location all over the world with computer-assisted research. I believe deeply in the integrity of reporters and the importance of journalism and am often and repeatedly saddened when people rant about the hive mind that is “the media.” A Mighty Heart does a magnificent job at differentiating between the mob and the individual, showing us both Marianne Pearl, the reporter and Marianne Pearl, the widow besieged by cameras.
After false leads and false reports of his death, Daniel Pearl was eventually beheaded, probably on February 1, 2002. The beheading was video taped and his body later was found cut into ten pieces. Marianne Pearl went back to France, had their baby and continues to work as a journalist. For anyone who wants to understand what the lives of individuals look like in times of chaos or how the world can be beautiful even in places easily dismissed as merely teaming and ugly, this is a stunning film, excellently directed and well acted. It's brutality is far more emotional than visual, but Angelina Jolie's masterful performance will shake you to your core, as it is not showcase of actorly histrionics, but very proud, still and ultimately searing
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 15
pj