Journal 5

Kian Raheem

English 1109 Mon/Wed 10:30-12:20

October 2, 2016

Beasts of No Nation

            The movie Beasts of No Nation is a movie I recommend to an older and mature audience. The movie captures the gruesome action that takes place in Africa. While people all around the world who think they have it bad cannot compare to what not just adults, but children witness in the country.  

            This movie is about a young boy named Agu whom becomes a child soldier, after witnessing the execution of his father and brother. Agu was able to escape, and is now on his own in the middle of the war, he is faced with the challenge of survival. He was then discovered by a group of rebel’s known as the NDF. They take him in and train him to be a solider. The commandant, who is the leader of the battalion favors Agu and makes him his right hand man. After being raped by the commandant, another young solider known as striker comforts him as he too was a victim of commandant. Together they become an unstoppable team and take over many villages. Later in the film, the battalion undergo mean attacks and ambushes decimating the group. Striker gets wounded from an ambush, and dies. With no money, very little resources and no ammunition to defend themselves the remaining boys of the group abandoned the commandant and surrender to the UN soldiers.  

            The movie over all was an amazing production. The director paid attention to detail in displaying a visual picture of what was happening. Also, the actors did an amazing job of playing the roles of the characters and showing the emotional side of the people and what they were going through. The role of Agu was amazingly acted the reason being, during the scene where his family was killed, the training process of the NDF, and standing up to the commandant was acted as if he was the one who actually experienced them. Watching the film, you don’t feel that it’s a watching something, rather you feel like you’re in the movie with the cast. The imaging and the angles of shots during scenes were put together to reveal more detail of the enviorment and what you were to witness if you were there.

            Overall I believe that this was an amazing movie that was well rehearsed, with an amazing cast, and a great director. I would recommend it to an older audience, but I do warn you that some of the scenes can be very gruesome. However, I do not recommend it to a younger audience simply due to the actions you witness.

  “Agu, watching the village get bombed witnessing people get killed”