'MUSIC AS A WEAPON FOR NON-VIOLENT CHANGE' (Or, 'LAND OF MY FATHERS, LAND THAT I LOVE')

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THE  BLUE,  BLACK,  AND  WHITE  FLAG  OF  'ESTONIA'

All y’all know FarAwayEyes (FAE) of the blog Far Away Series, right? She’s the person who invented the ‘Battle Of The Bands’ (‘BOTB’) concept on July 10, 2013, with her blog bit titled ‘House Guests & Battle Of The Bands’ right HERE.

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Well, FAE is really big on music in general, and on January 16^th, half a year before introducing us all to the ‘Battle Of The Bands’ Blogfest idea, she published a blog bit in which she included a link to the trailer of a documentary movie I’d never heard of titled ‘THE SINGING REVOLUTION’.

The movie depicts how the small country of Estonia (only one million citizens in 1939) managed to survive brutal occupation by the Soviet Union, followed by brutal occupation by the Nazis, and followed by long-term brutal occupation a second time by the Soviet Union. I was curious enough to click the link to the film’s trailer provided by FarAwayEyes:

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‘THE SINGING REVOLUTION’ trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp0h9Z97w1s

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I can tell you that this trailer in no way at all indicates the greatness of this film. A week after seeing the trailer via FAE’s blog, I rented the movie from NetFlix. Very shortly afterwards, I purchased a copy of the movie, and last night I watched it for the third time. It is an astounding, heartrending but exceedingly powerful and inspiring film that puts the human heart and the will to survive as a nation on full exhibit like few things I’ve ever seen before.

I am a fan of well-made documentaries in general, but ‘THE SINGING REVOLUTION’ is probably my favorite that I’ve ever seen and is quite possibly one of the 25 best films of ANY genre that I have ever had a chance to view.

Other than the good, happy dog seen romping about in the first few minutes of the movie, the first 22 minutes of this documentary is brutally depressing, but the stage is being set by explaining Estonia’s history of troubles with invading brutes like the Nazis and Communists. But don’t give up too soon! (The Estonian people didn’t!) Hang in there through the awful mistreatment, torture, and murdering of the Estonians until you hit the 22 minute and 12 second mark when the narrator says triumphantly: “SINGING!”

That’s when the hope and resolve and non-violent protesting begins through the country’s rich musical heritage that binds all the Estonian people together. You are then in for a real treat - one exhilarating ride of human nature, HOPE and DETERMINATION! This is the point where ‘THE SINGING REVOLUTION’ starts becoming the best documentary I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen plenty of them!)

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Film Critic Robert W. Butler said of the film, "If ‘The Singing Revolution’ were a fictional film it would be dismissed as a pie-in-the-sky fantasy. But it's all true."

Estonia’s ‘Hirve Park demonstration’ was somewhat similar to America’s “Boston Tea Party”; the people were gathering to protest and bind themselves together by a common cause.

“Creator, protect Estonia”

~ An Estonian song lyric

“Singing would be the fuel for change.”

In 1969, a real, musical revolution began with the collective singing of “this one forbidden song”: ‘LAND OF MY FATHERS, LAND THAT I LOVE’.

“One day, no matter what, we will win!”

~ Heinz Valk

I watched the film last night with my brother Napoleon. At one point the movie was depicting events in Estonia that were occurring in 1988. I turned to Nappy and said, “Damn, that’s around the time we were watching Kirk Gibson hit that famous World Series-winning home run at Dodger Stadium. And we didn’t know anything about these events in Estonia!”

Nappy replied, “Because it was the same media then that we have now. Most of the negative things about Communism, it doesn’t like to tell us about.”

In the end, I thought this was a movie that ought to shame the Americonned Sheeple, who are largely dumbed-down and docile. And brother Nappy seemed to agree, because as the final credits rolled, he said to me, “I wish I had been born Estonian, rather than American”, and I couldn’t have agreed with him more. (Too bad though that “this world” is ultimately going the way that “it is written”, and there is no place a person can go to avoid it... except to God and to the Son He sent to save us.)

If there’s any sort of weakness in this film at all, unfortunately, it’s that the makers of ‘THE SINGING REVOLUTION’ seem to buy into the idea of a newer, more democratic Russia, and accepted at face value the staged coup in the U.S.S.R. and the “arrest” of Mikhail Gorbachev. Sadly, I’m convinced that was all Communist deception, and I don’t believe this story is really quite over yet. (See the Introduction titled ‘Did Communism Really Die?’ in John Stormer’s classic political work ‘None Dare Call It Treason...25 Years Later’.)

Nonetheless, I consider ‘THE SINGING REVOLUTION’ to be one of the most inspiring, most uplifting movies I’ve ever seen. It’s enough to make a grown man cry, and wish he were Estonian so he could claim the patriotic pride that belongs to those people.

‘THE SINGING REVOLUTION’ - Official Website

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If you’ve never seen this superb documentary, I urge you to make a point of doing so. Would FarAwayEyes lead you astray? I took her movie recommendation to heart and am very grateful for it. ‘THE SINGING REVOLUTION’ is a film that I know I will watch yet again, sometime in the not too distant future. (Thanks, FAE!)

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.

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