I watched the cell-phone video of Saddam's execution. Mel was very bothered that I wanted to see it, particularly that I would seek it out. I honestly didn't really ever think about *not* watching it once I heard it was out there. How about you -- have you watched it? Have you had any internal debate about watching it?
I've got some thoughts but I'd like to hear yours first.
4 comments:
Haven't watched it. I am torn.
Part curiousity, part sense of justice, part long standing feeling that certain violence, solemn, purposeful violence, can be healthy to see (refraining from a long diatribe here; suffice it to say, I think it was a good thing for the Israelites to see so many animals sacrificed... violence has its place), I want to see it.
Part pity, part don't need that image in my head, part 'hanging has always been a sore spot for me', I don't want to see it.
Your thoughts?
I have no desire to see it and it even bothers me that someone recorded it on their cell phone. It has the same feel of someone spitting on him. I agree that justice had to be served, but after all the talk of making this dignified and non-abusive...I don't know. I guess I don't see how hanging is non-abusive in the first place. And then the fact that someone recorded it and is now exploiting it...it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Well, the cell phone recording isn't really exploitive, is it? The actual hanging isn't the point of the cell phone recording (I have seen it, by the way). The disturbing part is the taunting that's going on by people who are less witnesses and more of a peanut gallery. Why taunt a dead man, anyway?
A sentencing might carry with it the weight of justice, but the behavior of man at an execution rarely does. Remember the first electrocution? People showing up for the fun of it, the debates of AC versus DC, having to shock the prisioner 3 times....People are drawn to execution videos like car crashes. And how people act at an execution gives you a pretty good view at their being.
Having rambled for a bit, I'm coming down on the side of "important video moment". But then again, another important video moment was US GIs filming liberated camps in WWII and mass graves in Iraq. Importance doesn't mean everyone has to see it. It just has to exist.
-EJ
Haven't watched it. Won't.
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