Another free movie courtesy of my membership to Cinema/Chicago....who are responsible for the annual Chicago International Film Festival.
This movie was based off of real stories about women in 1964 Ireland who were sent away and treated like cr@p for the stupidest reasons. The movie focused on 3 specifically: Margaret - who was raped by her cousin and subsequently sent away, Bernadette - sent away from the orphanage where she grew up just for being pretty, and Rose - sent away for having a baby out of wedlock. The women are sent to a type of convent which is more of a concentration camp for girls that nobody wants....the girls are thought of as whores and hookers and are treated with contempt and hatred by the nuns. They spend their days doing nothing but laundry and cleaning and given just enough food to get by while the nuns dine on the finest food that money could buy.
The things that were done in the name of religion and perceived righteousness was appalling and made me want to start beating the nuns and the parents of the girls who sent them away. Many of the girls were sent away for having babies out of wedlock...they're only crime being that they made a mistake. One girl, Crispina, was abused futher once at the convent by the priest who would take advantage of her sexually. Her real name turned out to be Harriet but when the abuse by the priest was revealed, Crispina was the one punished by being sent to an insane asylum.
The hatred and the humiliation the nuns dispense in the name of God and religion was appalling....the hypocrisy of the nuns' love toward the girls sickening and revoltiing. I wondered again how ppl in the name of God could do such horrible things to others....spouting love and forgiveness while at the same time being cruel and intolerant. The ppl of religion take it upon themselves to judge and decide the evil-ness of others and dole out punishment because they believe themselves as God's messengers, believing that anything they do is excuseable while the same actions by others are not.
And the fact that such ppl actually exist and believe themselves to be right is appalling. No amount of arguement or logic or reasoning seem to reach these ppl.....these ppl who claim to have a person's best interest at heart are blind to their own faults and believe themselves to be doing "Holy" work. European history is filled with atrocities done in the name of God, killing and massacring for no other reason then having a difference of opinion.
How does a society become this way? A person learning to hate another for something as simple as a different gender, different ethnicity, different skin color, different opinion or a different way of accomplishing some goal. A person convincing themselves and others of their jusitfication for killing in the name of God or religion or "righteousness". Why are ppl compelled to these extreme acts? How does hatred become so horrible that fathers and mothers turn against their spounses or children.....children against their parents or siblings....how does hatred spawn more hatred without someone wanting it to end? How is one person's pain more imporant or more excruciating than another's? How do we say that pain caused through suffering is justified in ourselves when we would so quickly condemn the exact same actions in others?
I'm amazed at the level of hypocracy that one individual goes through to absolve themselves of wrong and how ppl try not to stay more aware of this weakness in themselves. If I condemn someone else of evil wouldn't I try to make sure that I pay even more attention to myself to make sure that I don't fall into the same trap? If I notice that ppl have done horrible things to one another shouldn't I try to be extra aware of not doing the exact same thing myself? And in so guarding myself am I not able to speak from a place of awareness in trying to warn others? Cautioning others to try and be as aware of themselves as I try to be of myself......to be aware of how they treat others and continue to try and remember how they'd like to be treated by others. Doesn't that awareness bring humility in a person? How does that get turned in do condemnation of others when whatever I'm condemning them for is something that I haven't even condemned myself for?
And the following out of fear and self preservation is amazing to me....I understand it and yet I can't explain it at the same time....how the force of authority can turn the strong into meek and the mouse into a lion......
I just know that this movie will eventually be shown throughout schools and universites as another tool of teaching.....as something that will hopefully show how wrong a person could be if they do not remember to try and always be in control of themselves and to treat others as they themselves would wish to be treated.
