Of All the Things to Say

I had a light hearted post planned earlier today, but I witnessed something today that I feel demands immediate attention.

I went to see The Kingdom this afternoon. It's a rock 'em sock 'em yet thought provoking political drama about terrorism in Saudi Arabia. Basically, anything Peter Berg does I love. The movie ends on a morally ambiguous yet poignant note that implies, however cheesy it may sound outside of the movie's context, that we are more similar to "the terrorists" than we might like to admit.

Upon leaving the theater, two couples got into some kind of scuffle. Not sure what it was about - maybe someone stepped on someone's toes. The men started to raise their voices, and, in a moment to pure fury (which I was close enough to witness), one said to the other, "Why don't you just go back where you came from!"

It was visceral. And a slap in the face. Not just to the other man, but to the rest of us. I felt it. The communal experience of sitting in a darkened theater for a couple hours was ripped away, along with everything the film tried so earnestly to impart upon us.