I watched a rather good movie last night, a 2018 film called Burden, which just happened to end up being particularly pertinent in these recent times. This film tells the true story of a young member of the Ku Klux Klan who is converted by a girlfriend and by a local black pastor through an expansion of his viewpoint gained in interacting with the black community and being introduced in a meaningful way to the teachings of Christ--not the sword carrying, blue eyed, blond-haired bigot of the Klan, but, you know, the real guy.
The movie begins with the opening of a KKK museum in a small South Carolina town. The ensuing protest led by the pastor (Forrest Whitaker) leads to increasing division and mounting violence. And this is in 1994, believe it or not. The part of the young Klan member is excellently played by Garrett Hedlund, portraying an Army veteran who is often kindhearted, fair-minded, and is yet a product, through upbringing and culture as well as poor white Southern norms, of a long tradition of ignorance and hatred so ingrained that it has become second nature. Hedlund's attitude and mannerisms, his gait, speech, facial expressions, simple emotional reactions and conflicted response to the awakening that forces itself upon him are all perfectly done.
The film speaks to us as well about the power of the Klan, not only over its members, but over community structures and institutions. Going against the Klan is not just a matter of alienating one's friends, but of having the entire fabric of one's existence--job, opportunity, home, esteem--pulled out from under him.
It is, in a large sense, a tale of conditioning--not only in white culture but in black as well, and speaks ultimately of growth, of healing, of what it means to love not only one another, but to love one's enemy.
The movie begins with the opening of a KKK museum in a small South Carolina town. The ensuing protest led by the pastor (Forrest Whitaker) leads to increasing division and mounting violence. And this is in 1994, believe it or not. The part of the young Klan member is excellently played by Garrett Hedlund, portraying an Army veteran who is often kindhearted, fair-minded, and is yet a product, through upbringing and culture as well as poor white Southern norms, of a long tradition of ignorance and hatred so ingrained that it has become second nature. Hedlund's attitude and mannerisms, his gait, speech, facial expressions, simple emotional reactions and conflicted response to the awakening that forces itself upon him are all perfectly done.
The film speaks to us as well about the power of the Klan, not only over its members, but over community structures and institutions. Going against the Klan is not just a matter of alienating one's friends, but of having the entire fabric of one's existence--job, opportunity, home, esteem--pulled out from under him.
It is, in a large sense, a tale of conditioning--not only in white culture but in black as well, and speaks ultimately of growth, of healing, of what it means to love not only one another, but to love one's enemy.
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