Monday, August 19, 2019

The Red Sea Diving Resort

This post is about a film I was so engaged in from start to finish that I actually had to pause it a couple times to prevent myself from being overwhelmed and remind myself that it was, in fact, just a movie.

However, some people didn't like it, to say the least:
"The Red Sea Diving Resort makes uninspired use of actual events, using thinly written characters to tell a story derailed by its own good intentions."
- Rotten Tomatoes
"It's impossible to ignore how badly the film marginalizes the courageous Ethiopian refugees about whom it purports to care so deeply."
- Variety
"Gideon Raff’s 'The Red Sea Diving Resort,' [...] turns real heroes into generic tropes and real victims into manipulative props." 
- Roger Ebert

What.

WHAT.

WHAT?!


These quotes may make you want to steer clear of The Red Sea Diving Resort for your next Netflix viewing, but let me tell you why these people don't know what they're talking about. (My only complaint? The font chosen for the credits and location stamps. But don't let that distract you!)

First, here's the tagline and summary from Netflix, via IMDb:

  • Israel's Mossad agents attempt to rescue Ethiopian Jewish refugees in Sudan in 1979.
  • Inspired by remarkable true life rescue missions, this is the incredible story of a group of Mossad agents and brave Ethiopians who in the early 80s used a deserted holiday retreat in Sudan as a front to smuggle thousands of refugees to Israel. The undercover team carrying out this mission is led by the charismatic Ari Kidron and courageous local Kabede Bimro.

It's been a couple weeks now since my husband and I watched this movie, but I knew before it was even over that I'd want to blog about it. I only waited because I wanted to do some more research around the historical events on which the production was based, and I still have some strides to make on that front, but I was afraid if I waited any longer, I wouldn't write this at all.

The first point I want to address is the idea that the movie was doomed by its flat characters. I love good characters, and if the characters in a movie are boring, I'm not going to watch it. While I won't say that the characters in Red Sea Diving Resort were the most fleshed out I've ever seen, I think it was important that the characters didn't run the show in this one. The story was so important that you almost don't want any vibrant individuals stealing the spotlight.

Now, I am a Chris Evans/Captain America fan, and if you're not I can understand your hesitation. But I don't think, like some Rotten Tomatoes reviewers suggested, that he plays that superhero role and comes off as the star. In fact, when his best friend and fellow spy calls him out on being an asshole, the friend is pretty much right, and Evans' character acknowledges it. (Hello, growth!) He's not perfect or bland by any means.

But this is not a #MCM post, so I want to address the other accusations that Red Sea "marginalizes" refugees or makes them "manipulative props." Ugh. Makes me sick to even type that.

The reason I feel so strongly that those perspectives are NOT accurate is because a couple Ethiopian characters actually stuck in my mind as much as the Israeli characters. Kabede, the guy who led all the refugees to Mossad, for example, struck me as hugely courageous and selfless, despite not having as much screen time (and I don't think this was a conscious or unconscious marginalization, it was simply a function of the narrative, which I think was appropriate). Then there was the girl in the refugee camp who only had like, a minute, onscreen — "upset Ethiopian woman" in the credits — and she made a huge impression on me in her speech to Kabede and Ari (Evans) about how she was promised freedom and instead had lost her family, both literally and to disease while waiting in the camps.


I'm not sure I'm expressing my thoughts on this movie as clearly as I could with more focused reflection time, so let me just bring us to the heart of the matter. At the end of the Roger Ebert review, the author writes, "It’s a story that most viewers won’t know before they watch the film," and that is the point. (He goes on to say that we "won’t really feel like they know after, either," but he's obviously wrong.)

I did not know this story before this movie, and I'm so glad I know a part of it now. Maybe I'm sensitive to civil war, having been to and studied the genocide in Rwanda, but I was moved very early on in this movie to look more into Operation Moses and Mossad and Ethiopia in general. Can an artist ask for anything more with a historical work?

Sure, I'm American, and a lot of based-on-a-true-story films seem like they're meant to make us feel bad for things we did or didn't do for less privileged people/countries at some point in history. But that's not what this is about. This movie didn't leave me feeling "depressed" like some asserted — sure, my heart was heavy, but I was also moved to inform myself about real horrors not far from my lifetime. This movie actually gave me hope for humanity, based on the actions of government and non-government organizations, as well as individuals. Yeah it was almost 40 years ago now, and maybe the world's just as screwed up now as it was then — or more, I don't know — but I still think The Red Sea Diving Resort is an important and entertaining movie (and I for one was not bothered by the Duran Duran 'intrusion' one reviewer complained about — doesn't even compare to the jarring musical scene in the Season 3 finale of Stranger Things).

To conclude, I applaud Raff for taking this story on, and I encourage you to read some of his thoughts on the film — and watch the trailer — here.

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