Steve Biko : You can beat or jail me or even kill me, but I am not going to be what you want me to be.
1970年後半の南アフリカで白人ジャーナリストのドナルド・ウッズが黒人の活動家スティーブ・ビコと交流していくことでそれまで気がついていなかった白人優位の世界観を認識するようになる。
いろいろと衝撃的な映画だったのだけれど、なにが衝撃ってこの映画を見ながらすごい既視感を覚えたということ。
アパルトヘイト政策が行われていた南アフリカでの黒人の住民の人たちが警察に受けた仕打ちが、そのまんまこれまで観てきた1990年代のサウス・セントラルを描いた映画で見たことすごくダブって見えて、それってつまりアパルトヘイト政策を行っていた時の南アフリカがたまたま異常な状態だったということではないってことで、そのことにすごくゾッとしたし、怖いと思った。
スティーブ・ビコをデンゼル・ワシントンが演じているのだけれど、もうなんだか似合いすぎていて。
この映画でスティーブ・ビコの言葉をきいて「Black is Beautiful」のフレーズの意味がよくわかった。
ジョン・シングルトン監督の映画にもでてきていた「白人のことしか書かれていない歴史しか教えない学校教育を受けると劣等感を覚えるようになる」という話もとても理解しやすかったし、あらためて沁みた。
ネルソン・マンデラ大統領がまだ刑務所に拘留されていた時のことなのだけど、この映画をみると獄中でよく無事に生き延びることができたものだと驚嘆してしまう。
エンディングに獄中で亡くなった政治犯で拘留されていた人たちのなまえが流れるのだけれど、もう本当に言葉を失ってしまう。
人種の違いが問題なのではなくて、人種の違いが問題なのだと思わせている何かこそが問題なのだなと。
人類という種族の存続ということで考えるなら、生き方文化は多様であればあるほうがいい。たとえば問答無用の大天変地異が起こった時、どこかで誰かが生き延びるかもしれない確率が高まるからだ。
それにしてもビコとウッズが会った当初ウッズはビコのことを「白人差別主義を煽っている」と非難して、ビコが説明してもなかなか話がかみ合わないというか、同じ土俵に全然乗れてない会話しかできていなかったのだけれど、その部分も本当に衝撃で。
その観念の中にいると本当にこんなにも気がつけないものなんだなと。
ウッズは何もアパルトヘイトをよしとしていたわけではないし、偏見もなければ差別もしていないと思っていたのにそうではなかったことに気がつかされ、ひとたび気がついてしまうと恐ろしく歪んだ世界にいることに耐えられなくなる。
この人がすごいなというのはちゃんとそこに向き合って命がけでビコの物語を世に報せた。ジャーナリスト魂というのかもしれないけれど、すごく勇敢な人だなと。
私はとんでもなく臆病で怖がりなので、あんな怖い思いをすることになるぐらいならいっそ気がつかないままでいたいと思ってしまうかも。 長いものに巻かれてそのまま眠っちゃえ、みたいな。
あ、でも有色人種だから目を閉じていたからといって安穏と暮らせるわけではなく殺されちゃう側か！
スティーブ・ビコさんが獄中で命を落としたのは30歳の時。 映画ではほぼ中盤。
もう本当にショックでしかなかった。
あんないい人がなんでそんな恐ろしい死に方をしなくてはならなかったんだろうと。デンゼル先生がビコさんのことをとても魅力的演じていただけに余計に悲しくなった。
デンゼル先生はどんな気持ちでこの役を演じたんだろう。
しんみりしつつ検索をかけたら当時デンゼル先生は「St. Elsewhere」というドラマの撮影との掛け持ちで時差ボケがとんでもなかったらしい。
月、火はジンバブエで撮影して飛行機三回乗り換えてイギリスに向かって、そこからLAに帰ってドラマの撮影という感じだったとか。
映画を見ながらもっとデンゼル先生のビコをみたかったと思っていたけれど、スケジュール的にあれが精一杯だったのね....。
でもデンゼル先生のカリスマ・オーラが凄すぎて、映画みながらこの人のために何かしたいっていう気分にさせられまくっていた。
なんだかもう色々とえーん😭な感じな映画だった。
この映画みた後にN.W.A.とかLogicのアルバム聴くとなんだかあらためてガツーンと打ちのめされる。
- When I was a student, trying to qualify for the jobs you people will let us have,... ...I suddenly realised it wasn't just good jobs that were white. The only history we read was made by the white man, written by the white man. Televisions, cars, medicines, all invented by the white man. Even football. Now, in a world like that, it's not hard to believe there's something inferior about being born black.
- But I began to think this idea of inferiority was an even bigger problem for us than what the Afrikaners were doing to us. That the black man had to believe he had as much capacity to be a doctor, a leader, as a white man. So we tried to set this place up. My own mistake was to put some of those ideas down on paper.
- It's a miracle a child survives here at all. Most of the women who have work permits are domestic maids,... ...so they only get to see their kids for a couple of hours on Sundays. The place is full of drunks, thuggery, ...people so desperate for anything they'll beat a kid bloody if he had five rand.
- Was that kid you, a few years ago?
- Yeah. Maybe more scared. But if you do run fast enough, ...if you do survive, you grow up in these streets, these houses. Your parents try, but in the end, you only get the education the white man will give you. Then you go to the city to work, or to shop, ...and you see their streets, their cars, their houses, and you begin to feel there is something not quite right about yourself..about your humanity. Something to do with your blackness. Because no matter how dumb or smart a white child is, he's born into that world. But you, the black child? Smart or dumb, you're born into this. And smart or dumb, you'll die in it.
- A man and wife who can't find work in the same white town, are not allowed to live together in the same black township. You split up black families, ...so that for thousands of husbands and wives, if they see each other once a year, they're lucky. - - You keep saying "you". You're talking about the Afrikaner government. Don't blame all the whites for apartheid.
- How many live-in maids do you have, Mr. Woods?
- Look, I'm not defending what's been done, but he's the one who's against liberals. We're trying to move towards integration.
- Of course. You want to give us a slightly better education, so that we can get slightly better jobs.
- At first maybe, but...
- I won't be forced into your society. I'm going to be me as I am, and you can beat me, or jail me, or even kill me,... ...but I am not going to be what you want me to be. The best you want for us is to be allowed to sit at your table,... using your silver and your china, and if we can learn to use it like you do, then you will kindly let us stay. We want to wipe the whole table clean. It's an African table, and we will sit at it in our own right. You must remember, before you arrived we had our own culture. We had many villages, small. You know our language, Mr. Woods. The word we use for nephew is "my brother's son". Tenjy calls my wife, not aunt, but "mother's sister". We've no separate words for members of the family. All begin with "brother" and "sister". We took care of each other. We got a lot of things right, which your society never solved.
- You did have tribal wars in this land of yours.
- Well, what do you call World War I and World War II?
- Because when we fight amongst ourselves, he can say; "See? They aren't fit to run their own lives!" Then he can go on telling us where to live, and how to live. He can pay us nothing, and pass his laws without listening to one word we say.
- All we've got to decide is the best way to do that. And as angry as we have the right to be,... ...let us remember... that we are in this struggle to kill the idea... ...that one kind of man is superior to another kind of man. And killing that idea is not dependent on the white man. We must stop looking to him to give us something. We have to fill the black community with our own pride. We have to teach our children black history,... ...tell them about our black heroes, our black culture,... ...so they don't face the white man believing they are inferior. Then... we'll stand up to him any way he chooses. Conflict if he likes, but with an open hand too, ...to say that we can all build a South Africa worth living in. A South Africa for equals... black or white. A South Africa as beautiful as this land is, ...as beautiful as we are.
- When I was a student, trying to qualify for the jobs you people will let us have, I suddenly realized that i wasn't just good jobs that were white. The only history we read was made by the white man, written by the white man. Television, cars, medicines - all invented by the white man, even football. Now the way like that, it's not hard to believe there's something inferior about being born black. I began to think this idea of inferiority was an even bigger problem for us than what the Afrikaans were doing to us. At first a black man had to believe he had as much capacity to be a doctor, a leader, as a white man.
- We are going to change South Africa. What we've got to decide is the best way to do that. And as angry as we have the right to be, let us remember that we are in the struggle to kill the idea that one kind of man is superior to another kind of man. And killing that idea is not dependent on the white man. We must stop looking to him to give us something. We have to fill the black community with our own pride. We have to teach our black children black history, tell them about our black heroes, our black culture, so they don't face the white man believing they are inferior. Then we'll stand up to him in anyway he chooses. Conflict, if he likes, but with an open hand, too, to say we can all build a South Africa worth living in
- a South Africa for equals, black or white, a South Africa as beautiful as this land is, as beautiful as we are.
- I just expect to be treated like you expect to be treated. Come on, what are you so afraid of? Once you try you see there's nothing to fear. We're just as weak and human as you are.
- But your own words demand for DIRECT CONFRONTATION!
- That's right, we demand confrontation.
- Isn't that a demand for violence?
- Well, you and I are now in confrontation, but I see no violence.
追記: この映画をみた時は1990年代のサウス・ロサンゼルスを描いた映画を思い出して既視感を覚えたが、ここにきて"Black Lives Matter"ムーブメントが巻き起こっているアメリカの様子とこの「Cry Freedom」で描かれている南アフリカのアパルトヘイト政策と戦う人々の様子に既視感を覚えてしまって、打ちのめされてしまう。
私の好み度: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🍅: 79%
