Journal 5

Dominique Sandusky

English 1109 Monday- Wednesday

10-2-16

Journal Five: Beasts of No Nation review

After watching the Beasts of No Nation your views will change on our everyday hassles, and they won’t seem so drastic. I would recommend this movie to an older, more mature audience, because of the gruesome imaging and profanity.

In the beginning of the movie, Agu was living his life like a normal young boy pranking his brother, hanging out with his friends, and scamming people for money. When one day his whole life changed. Agu had to endure the separation of his mother, the execution of his father, murder of his older brother, and was forced to flee his village. Later he was discovered by a group of men called NDF where he joined, and went through a brutal training process to become a child solider. They raided villages, and fought in the war killing indecent men, women, and even children. The commandant, started to see Agu’s potential, and gives Agu more attention than the rest of the platoon including rape. This makes Agu separate himself from the commandant, and eventually gives him the courage to leave the commandants side, and leave with some of the other boys in the group.

During the war Agu lost his family, but has created a new one within the NDF. This is similar to the book A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah. He also lost his family, but met a few boys his own age and they stayed together, and protected one another. Losing people in the war is rough, and you can see this in both the movie, and book. When Agu’s close friend, Stika passes away it takes a toll on him, as well as when Beah loses Saidu. Both boys were in denial of their friend’s death, and continued to try and bring them back.

Again, I highly recommend Bests of No Nation, but to an older more mature audience. Watching this movie is such a great learning experience, and really opens your eyes to what people, including young children have to go through.

“The scene when Agu is being trained by the NDF, slowly loosing his innocence’s, becoming a killer”