Bamako & The Constant Gardner

In class people took issue with The Constant Gardner because they felt as though the love component took away from the plot of the story, or the real crisis, of pharmaceutical companies essentially abusing African lives. I understood this concern, as I found it confusing what the actual point of the movie was. I was not sure if the movie wanted me to focus on the conflict in Africa, or a man’s unwavering love for his wife of whom he tries to uncover her final days with him. But, when I think about this movie compared to the likes of Bamako, I much prefer The Constant Gardner. In Bamako, there was a clear message pertaining to the IMF and the World Bank, and their ill treatment of underdeveloped nations. There were no extravagant effects, filming techniques, or added plots to complicate the story. While I found the statistics interesting, I found Bamako particularly uninteresting as a film. There is no doubt that a lot of useful information was presented, but it is information that I would have much rather read about in a book than seen presented so plainly in a film. I think that when audiences approach a movie they expect a certain level of entertainment value which was not present in Bamako. And while The Constant Gardner can be criticized for only skimming the surface of larger issues, at the end of the day I walked away from watching Bamako and The Constant Gardner with the same level of urge to learn more and take action against the information presented in each film. This comment lends itself nicely to the ideology behind project red that we pointed out in class: at the end of the day you can’t stop consumption, but you can at least inform people and try to create some good out of that consumption. The same goes for movies, they should not have to be deprived of entertainment value to make a point, you can raise awareness and have a Hollywood film at the same time.