The War (1994)
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- Themes
- Grace, Forgiveness/Reconciliation
- The scene where the Dad gives the two children
(from the family who beat up his son) some fairy floss he had
intended to take home because "they looked like they had never
been given anything". (The Scull Family)
- Classic scenes of loving your enemies &
forgiveness. Kevin Costner plays a Viet Nam-vet father who tries to
instill non-violence in his kids and struggles to practice it
himself. His poor children and their friends are harassed and beat
up by the even-poorer Lipnickeys. In scene full of foolish hopes
seemingly ripe to be crushed, Costner and a son (Elijah Wood) go to
the fair. Somehow the son gets separated, surrounded by Lipnickeys
and beaten badly. His father rescues him and takes him to their car,
but stops along the way when he sees a couple of Lipnickey children
(early elementary age). We expect, as do the children, an angry or
violent confrontation. Instead, he presents them each with a cotton
candy cone. His son is outraged, but Costner explains, "They
looked like nobody had given 'em anything for a long time."
(Scott Hill)
- War and its Efffects
- Parallels the war in Vietnam with the war between
children in a family.
- "War is like a big machine that no one really
knows how to run and when it gets out of control it ends up
destroying the things you thought you were fighting for, and a lot
of other things you kinda forgot you had."
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