Because I read the book. And the book had a few pictures of Danny and Marianne, and i cannot get these images out of my head. I see the joy in Marianne's eyes as she dances with Danny wearing her white wedding dress trimmed with roses. I see Danny's dashing sunny smile and wonder how different the world could have been if we have more journalists with a heart as mighty as his.
I then look at the picture on the front cover and see the sadness, the resolve and the unfathomable strength in Marianne's eyes. And i realize i cannot watch the movie just yet. The past is still too much in the present, it seems like all this just happened yesterday. I am not ready to move on just yet. 
The real life images, combined with Marianne's compelling writing makes us empathize with her tragedy in ways that movies can never achieve.
It took me a few days to read the book, and recover. At times, i had to set the book aside, and take a deep breaths before continuing to read. The book grimly portrays the horror of Daniel Pearl's abduction and execution, while simultaneously offering heart breaking insights into his amazing personality, and the wonderful life he shared with his then pregnant wife. Marianne's strength and her undying hope for her son (and hence all our children) shines throughout the book.
The movie may be pretty good, Angelina may have given a wonderful performance....i'll probably watch the movie on dvd later...but for now, I'll just head to my library again.
Source of images -
www.templeofunderstanding.org
2 comments:
Your lovely blog inspired me to read about the Pearl family online. I was horrified to read about the three minute video which was available online showing his be-heading. He was such a handsome man and god help a woman who knew that she had the option of watching her husband die in a gruesome video.
Really makes me so angry to think of the people who would do this to others. Do you know there was a small controversy about the fact that Jolie was not a minority and hence should not play the role ? Marianne intervened and said that Jolie's empathetic understanding of the world inspired her to believe that she has every right to do the role irrespective of her skin color.
Yea, i didnt get the whole skin color thing, and was really surprised to hear that it was such a big topic of discussion and controversy. Just goes to show how color-obsessed some people end up being
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