Product Description

"PARADISE NOW" follows two Palestinian childhood friends who have been recruited for a strike on Tel Aviv and focuses on their last days together. When they are intercepted at the Israeli border and separated from their handlers, a young woman who discovers their plan causes them to reconsider their actions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9906 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-03-21
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Arabic, English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 91 minutes

Features

• "PARADISE NOW" follows two Palestinian childhood friends who have been recruited for a strike on Tel Aviv and focuses on their last days together. When they are intercepted at the Israeli border and separated from their handlers, a young woman who discovers their plan causes them to reconsider their actions.Running Time: 90 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG-13 Age:&

Amazon.com
Two men, best friends from childhood, are summoned to fulfill their agreement to be suicide bombers for the Palestinian cause. Khaled and Said (Ali Suliman and Kais Nashef, both making striking film debuts) believe fervently in their cause, but having a bomb strapped to your waist would raise doubts in anyone--and once doubts have arisen, they respond in very different ways. Paradise Now is gripping enough while the men are preparing for their mission, but when the set-up goes awry and Khaled and Said are separated, it becomes almost excruciatingly tense. The movie passes no judgment on these men; impassioned arguments are made for both sides of the conflict. This is a work of remarkable compassion and insight, given the shape and sharpness of a skillful thriller. Its psychological portrait goes beyond the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and resonates with fanaticism and oppression throughout the world, be it related to a religious, nationalist, or tribal cause. A stunning film from writer/director Hany Abu-Assad. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Great Movie That Is Fair and Promotes Peace
As to the previous reviewer: you should not attack a film you have not seen...

In reality this movie does not glorify or demonize the two main characters. The central message of the movie is one of peace as transmitted through the only glorified character in the movie: the rational Suha who only wants peace. The film accurately depicts the state of utter desolation and poverty that Palestinians are living in today. I believe the movie is a great device whose purpose is to give the world another viewpoint on the psychology of many Palestinians and why suicide bombers exist at all.

an extremely powerful movie
I have just returned from watching "Paradise Now". Other reviewers have written much more fully about its plot, and so forth. I don't want to do that. I just want to say, in response to other viewers, and to those who may want to see the film or the video, that the claims that some reviewers make about the film--that it glorifies suicide bombings, that it is one-sided, that it condones violence--are utterly false. The film does not condone suicide bombings or anything of the sort. Rather, the film shows how such violence shatters worlds. What the film does is plunge the viewer into the midst of a situation most of us are aware exists, but know all too little about. The movie does so so vividly that you feel you are there, amidst the house-studded hillsides, ramshackle poverty, & isolated moments of beauty within Nablus. (I haven't been there, but apparently the movie was filmed largely in Nablus, until the danger of the situation forced filming to shift to Nazareth, so most of the footage of the city was indeed shot on location.) The movie is set in the Palestinian territories not as a slight to Israel, but rather because that is where suicide bombers happen to come from; it's a real place, even if nobody's been able to fit it politically onto the modern world-map. In my opinion, based on having just seen the movie, "Paradise Now" does *not* take sides, let alone in favor of suicide bombing, but rather presents a wide range of views about the conflict, with those of Suha, the young woman who argues most passionately against suicide bombings, specifically set up by the plot and the director so as to be at the forefront of the viewer's attention and sympathies. The movie is simply one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen. I recommend you see it as soon as possible if you have not done so already.

Anatomy of a Bomber
This is one of the most gripping movies I've seen recently. It has a feel of authenticity. "Paradise" addresses one of the most interesting of questions: what motivates people, be they Palestinian, Tamil or other, to sacrifice their lives for a cause.

Two young Palestinian men are called to honor their pledge to become suicide bombers. The movie depicts the squalidness of life in Israeli-occupied Palestine, the careful ritual of their preparation to die, the conflicting moments of doubt and certainty of the two men, and their journey to the location at which they will perform their act of protest. Perhaps the most effective scene in the movie shows them amidst the urban delights of Tel Aviv, so vastly different from the life they lead in a shabby ghetto only a few miles away. The only possible false note for me in the movie was the suggestion of Israeli collaborators with the suicide bombers. Is that plausible? I don't know.

The counterpoint to the suicide bombers is Suha, a young, sophisticated, and very appealing woman who argues eloquently against the rationale of suicide bombing. This is powerful stuff, unsullied by cheap propaganda, easy answers, or cinematic tricks. That the movie portrays the Palestinians in a sympathetic light could, I suppose, in the eyes of some be propagandistic. However, my cynical eye accepted the characterizations as credible.

"Paradise Now" is of Oscar quality for its originality, depth, and relevance.