The Kingdom

We rented and watched the 2007 movie - The Kingdom last night. I started out doing a crossword as the movie began, but ended up paying attention.

Jamie Fox is the lead roll and I think he did a great job. This guy always amazes me. Is there anything he can't do? There are a lot of big names in this flick - Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman.....others too. But in my opinion - Jamie was the show. He made you feel the tension, anger and compassion.

The only reason I'm mentioning our movie time, is that this one - gave me compassion for the Arab community and terrified me all at the same time. It was so stinkin' real. The most terrifying part came at the very end - when the mother of a young arabic girl asks her daughter what the grandfather said to her, when he was dying. And then, the USA FBI agent asks Jamie what he said to Jennifer (real names not parts) when he whispered to her after they discovered a friend was killed in a bombing. Their answers were the same - and so chilling.

One moment you are watching folks from different walks of life becoming friends. The next you see the hatred that people carry, for folks they do not know. Scary. I don't know how else to describe it. I don't think I have ever felt this kind of hate for another, let alone someone I don't know. I'm glad, I can't imagine having that inside me. I can barely stand seeing it on others - the movie was hard for me to watch at times.

Yet, like the infamous $1 million dollars, I know this hatred exists, even when I don't see it.

I never heard about this movie before it entered my home. Could be the emotional tension behind the theme or maybe my tastes are too extreme for others. Or maybe I just wasn't drawn to the advertisements.

Whatever the reason - I'm still being moved by what I saw last night. Visuals...much like 9/11. And now, I feel compassion for the ones in those countries that do not harbor this hate. That are living under a microscope. That are being lumped into this terrible place, where they don't belong. Much like we, the American People, are being lumped in with Bush.