Message from hlee

[Anonymous]

Gie is a 2005 Indonesian film by Riri Riza. It is about the life of a student political activist named Soe Hok Gie based on his journal entries and the political events of 1960s Indonesia. Apparently, he is a much admired student political leader who had a great part in awakening political involvement within university students. He is said to have written as a student journalist that since students are the lucky group who was able to get better eduation compared to others, they were the ones who had to fight for the nation so that those suffering wouldn't have to commit anything to put their lives in danger.
This movie reminded me of THe Motorcycle Diary about Che Guevara's life. It is rather long (about 148 minutes) and slow but, I enjoyed seeing the Indonesian culture and the countryside in this movie, not to mention the historical facts behind this figure I had never heard of. I really admire him for being true to himself and sticking to his principals when a lot of his friends left him for money and power. He worte in his journal " I'd rather be isolated than surrender to hypocrisy".
He was also a mountain climber, so you get to see a lot of beautiful Indonesian mountainscapes in this movie.
This movie also has some great music it. I don't understand Indonesian but, I would buy the sound track just for the sound of it. You can hear the theme song when you visit the site:

http://www.milesfilms.com/gie/

This site also has scenes from the movie, historical context, the trailer and more.