FAKULTI FILEM, TEATER DAN ANIMASI

(SKRIN)
PHILOSOPHY OF THE ARTS
CTF 542

NAMA: ABDUL MUIZZ MOHAMAD TAHIR

NO KAD PELAJAR: 2013796547
KOD. PROGRAM: FF 223 (3P) SKRIN
PENSYARAH: DR. MASZALIDA HAMZAH
TAJUK: INDIVIDUAL ESSAYS

Andr Bazin
Andr Bazin

was a renowned and influential French film

critic and film theorist. Bazin was born in Angers, France, in

1918. He died in 1958, age 40, of leukemia.
Bazin started to write about film in 1943 and was a cofounder of the renowned film magazine Cahiers du cinma in
1951, along with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo
Duca.

Bazin

was

major

force

in

post-World

War

II

film

studies and criticism. He edited Cahiers until his death, and

a

four-volume

posthumously,

collection
covering

of

the

his

years

writings
1958

to

was

1962

published
and

titled

Qu'est-ce que le cinma? . A selection from this collection

was translated into English and published in two volumes in
the late 1960s and early 1970s. They became mainstays of film
courses in the English-speaking world, but were never updated
or revised. In 2009, the Canadian publisher Caboose, taking
advantage of more favourable Canadian copyright laws, compiled
fresh

translations

of

some

of

the

key

essays

from

the

collection in a single-volume edition. With annotations by

translator Timothy Barnard, this became the only corrected and
annotated edition of these writings in any language.
The long-held standard and highly reductive view of Bazin's
critical system, now being subjected to more sophisticated
analysis by Bazinian scholars worldwide, is that he argued for
films that depicted what he saw as "objective reality"

and

directors who made themselves "invisible" . He advocated the

use of deep focus, wide shots

and the "shot-in-depth", and

preferred what he referred to as "true continuity" through

mise-en-scne over experiments in editing and visual effects.
This placed him in opposition to film theory of the 1920s and
1930s,
2

which

emphasized

how

the

cinema

could

manipulate

reality. The concentration on objective reality, deep focus,

and lack of montage are linked to Bazin's belief that the
interpretation

of

film

or

scene

should

be

left

to

the

spectator. He watched film as personally as he expected the

director to undertake it. His personal friendships with many
directors he wrote about also furthered his analysis of their
work. He became a central figure not only in film critique,
but in bringing about certain collaborators, as well. Bazin
also preferred long takes to montage editing. He believed that
less was more, and that narrative was key to great film.
As Prakash Younger notes in his involved argumentation in his
Offscreen essay, there is an ethical and moral link between
the

real

world

and

the

practice

of

artistic

creation

and

spectatorial reception of art which informs the aesthetic

practice and theory of Bazin. This moral and ethical link does
not circumvent the ideological, but stands as a way through
the impasse of the ideological, or, to once again quote
Prakash, pseudorealism to get at the true realism.
The term moral obligation has a number of meanings in moral
philosophy,

in

religion,

and

in

layman's

terms.

Generally

speaking, when someone says of an act that it is a "moral

obligation,"

they

refer

to

belief

that

the

act

is

one

prescribed by their set of values.

Moral

philosophers

differ

as

to

the

origin

of

moral

obligation, and whether such obligations are external to the

agent

or are internal .

Obligation being a set code by which a person is to follow.

can be found by an individual's peers that set a code that may
go against the individual's own desires. The individual will
express their morality by the person following the set code
through seeing it as good to appease society.

As

has

already

been

noted,

we

must

distinguish

between

positing a transcendent moral prescriber as an explanation for

the

prescriptive

positing

nature

transcendent

of

objective

person

as

an

moral

values,

explanation

of

and
the

objective existence of moral values. While the moral argument

posits

personal

God

to

account

for

the

existence

of

objective moral values per se, it doesnt employ the concept

of God qua moral prescriber for this purpose. Rather: "Gods
commands are good, not because God commands them, but because
God is good. Thus, God is not subject to a moral order outside
of himself, and neither are Gods moral commands arbitrary.
Gods commands are issued by a perfect being who is the source
of all goodness."

Transcendence

is

so

obviously

concerned

with

the

idea

of

technology ruling our lives to a point where singularity could

actually become a legitimate concern, but it has positively no
interest in looking at any of the moral or ethical issues it
has been raising. There literally just comes a point where
Will enters the computer and all of a sudden Max regrets what
he did and everyone now has to stop him. There isnt even any
discussion going into Wills soul transplant. Things and
stuff just happen with no explanation or reason to care about
them happening. Theres a massive gap about 40 minutes in
where it feels like an entire act of the story got axed, and
unfortunately it was probably the one that bothers to explain
things and established a believable timeline another major
problem because not only is it unclear if this takes place now
or in the future, but because even title cards that show
shifts in time cant account for the astounding amount of work
that people seem improbably capable of doing in a single day.
Its also a film with a problem that could have been easily
solved
4

in

seconds

if

one

person

bothered

to

actually

use

Google Maps or through use of a satellite. For a film with

such supposedly brilliant characters, I am astounded they can
even dress themselves every morning.
As seen on the trailer, Dr. Caster is shot and wounded by a
poison bullet, where his wife, Evelyn and his friend Max end
up working on what he calls a Transcendence where they made
an

artificial

intelligence

into

god,

Dr.

Will

Caster

himself. Through what Evelyn and Max do, Wills consciousness

was infused with technology, and once he is connected to the
world, he was able to take control. With all of the power Dr.
Caster

had,

both

Evelyn,

Max

and

various

others

began

to

question whether it was actually him or not.

Dr. Caster call himself as a god. But he don't realise that he
also has a weakness. Base on (al-Fussilat 41: 34-5)
Good and evil can never be equal. Repel (evil) with that
which is better, and see how, then, someone between whom and
you was enmity shall become a true friend. Yet none is given
such goodness except those who are patient; none is give this
but the most fortunate.
Dr. Caster Has be controlled by evil. He very obsess with he
own creation.
The Commanding Self is the one with the ill heart. If the
heart is not healed, the nafs continues in its ways until the
heart is blinded and then it is finally sealed.

The root of this level of the self is that it's convinced that
it is perfect and that others are flawed and that everyone
will die but it will remain immortal. It got its name because
of its constant demands and its numerous calls to satisfy its
desires. So it demands a thing and before it attains it, it
demands another thing and so on without end. The human in this
5

state is the friend and beloved of Satan and the enemy of the
Merciful. "Except those upon whom Allah shows mercy

Henri-Louis Bergson
Henri-Louis

Bergson

was

major

French

philosopher,

influential especially in the first half of the 20th century.

Bergson

convinced

many

thinkers

that

the

processes

of

immediate experience and intuition are more significant than

abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He

was

awarded

the

1927

Nobel

Prize

in

Literature

"in

recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant

skill with which they have been presented". In 1930, France
awarded him its highest honour, the Grand-Croix de la Legion
d'honneur.
Bergson attended the "Lyce Fontanes"

in Paris from 1868 to

1878. He had previously received a Jewish religious education.

Between 14 and 16, however, he lost his faith. According to
Hude, this moral crisis is tied to his discovery of the theory
of

evolution,

according

to

which

humanity

shares

common

ancestry with modern primates, a process generally construed

as not needing a creative deity.
While at the lyce Bergson won a prize for his scientific work
and another, in 1877 when he was eighteen, for the solution of
a

mathematical

problem.

His

solution

was

published

the

following year in Annales de Mathmatiques. It was his first

published work. After some hesitation as to whether his career
should

lie

in

the

sphere

of

the

sciences

or

that

of

the

humanities, he decided in favour of the latter, to the dismay

of his teachers. When he was nineteen, he entered the famous
cole Normale Suprieure. During this period, he read Herbert
Spencer. and after teaching for some months at the municipal
6

college,

known

as

the

College

Rollin,

he

received

an

appointment at the Lyce Henri-Quatre, where he remained for

eight years. There, he read Darwin and gave a course on his
theories.

Vitalism

is

the

doctrine

that

"living

organisms

are

fundamentally different from non-living entities because they

contain some non-physical element or are governed by different
principles

than

are

inanimate

things".

Where

vitalism

explicitly invokes a vital principle, that element is often

referred to as the "vital spark", "energy" or "lan vital",
which some equate with the soul.
The 'elan vital', or 'life force', is inside us all. It's the
vital energy which we give out as we go about our daily lives,
which we expend when we think, when we work, when we use our
senses to perceive what's happening around us, and which we
also need to mantain the healthy functioning of our bodies.
It's this energy which is recharged inside us when we sleep,
which drains out of us when we've been doing too many things
and our senses have been overloaded with external stimuli, and
which also passes out of us when we die. The Chinese word for
this 'life energy' is Chi, and acupuncture and the exercises
of Chi Gung and T'ai Chi are based on it, while in Sanskrit
the word for it is Prana, and it's the principle underlying
the exercises of hatha yoga. Strangely, even though everybody
accepts its existence on an everyday level (for example, when
we say that we feel 'run down', that our 'energy levels are
low' or that we need to 'recharge our batteries'), the concept
of

'life

energy'

is

alien

to

our

materialistic

Western

culture, and our scientists and doctors refuse to believe that

there's any such thing. But we too have a word for 'life
energy', even if it's not used much nowadays: vitality.

It's very important to look at the 'elan vital' in both these

areas, in connection with evolution and in connection with
ourselves, because there's a very close relationship between
the evolutionary process as a whole and the personal evolution
which can take place in our own lives. In exactly the same way
that evolution as a whole can be seen as a process by which
living beings become more and more 'vitalised', we can also
see

personal

spiritual

development

as

process

of

making

ourselves more and more 'vitalised' as individuals

In his films, Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi casts a surreal
spell. With unnerving calm, his movies show a world that is so
far removed from what western audiences are familiar with that
it couldnt possibly be realand yet, it is. Stark beauty,
horrible realities, and dreamy, magic elements blend into a
disturbing whole.

As in his first feature, A Time for Drunken Horses, the

story of Turtles Can Fly focuses on a group of children that
is

trying

to

survive

in

extreme

circumstances.

Set

in

an

Kurdish refugee camp town on the Turkish border of Iraq, the

film opens in the days before George W. Bushs invasion. Under
an icy-blue sky, in primitive surroundings made of tents and
barbed wire, a boy nicknamed Satellite commandeers an army of
children

to

work

for

the

town,

clearing

fields

of

mines.

Barely a teenager, Satellite bargains, appoints deputies, and

installs a beaten-up satellite dish: news about the impending
war is scarce.
Base

on

elan

vital

this

story

show

the

kids

survive where their have a spirit to survive.

is

going

to

Base on Islamic perspective all human need to survive their

self. Futhermore human being need to have a "istiqamah".
he literal meaning of Istiqamah: to go straight into the
right direction, acting rightly, allowing no deviation. It is
derived from the stem Qiyyam, which implies the continuity
of doing something, following up with it and making sure that
it is done in the right way and there is neither deviation nor
swerving.

The term has been used by the Quran in many verses. Allah the
Almighty says:

Therefore,

stand

firm

(on

the

straight

path)

as

you

are

commanded and those who turn in repentance with you. And do

not transgress, for He (Allah) sees well all that you do.
[Surah Hud (11): ayat 112]

Ibnu Abbas said that this verse was the hardest and most
difficult

verse

of

the

Quran

on

the

Prophet,

sallallahu

alayhi wasallam.

Indeed it is a difficult task to achieve Istiqamah, hence, the

Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, said; Be straight on
the path or be close to it.

In another verse, Allah the Almighty says:

So unto this (religion) invite (the people). Stand steadfast

as you are commanded and do not follow their desires..
[Surah al-Shura' (42): ayat 15]

Based on these two verses, it can be inferred that Istiqamah

is to stand firm and steadfast to what we have been commanded
by

Allah,

i.e.

to

fulfill

obligations

and

to

avoid

prohibitions. Also, we should not allow ourselves to follow or

be

mislead

by

desires

(whether

it

is

our

desires

or

the

desires of others) as it will cause deviation and lead us

astray.
The conclusion is if we have a force to change our self there
will be a good reward for us

10

Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in Knigsberg, Prussia, as
the fourth of nine children . Baptized 'Emanuel', he changed
his name to 'Immanuel' after learning Hebrew. Contrary to a
widespread myth that in his entire life he never traveled more
than from Knigsberg, he worked between 1750 and 1754 as a
"Hauslehrer"

in Judtschen

and in Gro-Arnsdorf . His father,

Johann Georg Kant, was a German harnessmaker from Memel, at

the time Prussia's most northeastern city . His mother, Anna
Regina

Reuter,

was

born

in

Nuremberg.

Kant's

paternal

grandfather, Hans Kant,

had emigrated from Scotland to East Prussia, and his father
still spelled their family name "Cant". In his youth, Kant was
a solid, albeit unspectacular, student. He was brought up in a
Pietist household that stressed intense religious devotion,
personal humility, and a literal interpretation of the Bible.
Kant

received

stern

disciplinarythat

preferred

over

and

mathematics

educationstrict,
Latin

science.

and

Despite

punitive,

religious
his

and

instruction

upbringing

in

religious household and still maintaining a belief in God, he

was skeptical of religion in later life; various commentators
have labelled him agnostic. The common myths concerning Kant's
personal mannerisms are enumerated, explained, and refuted in
Goldthwait's introduction to his translation of Observations
on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. It is often held
that Kant lived a very strict and predictable life, leading to
the oft-repeated story that neighbors would set their clocks
by his daily walks. He never married, but did not seem to lack
a rewarding social life he was a popular teacher and a
11

modestly successful author even before starting on his major

philosophical works.

Kant's approach to art emphasizes our interest in it rather

than the artwork in itself. The artwork is beautiful insofar
as it instigates an intellectual activity termed reflective
judgment. For Kant, the viewing of art is anything but a
passive activity. It rouses us to an intellectual involvement
with the world in which the very sense of order by which the
whole world can be articulated as a whole and be kept in
balance is brought to light.

Reflective

judgment

exists

not.

or

It

does
also

not
does

determine
not

whether

determine

something

what

specific

qualities a particular object might actually possess. Such

judgments are cognitive and belong to the field of science.

Reflective

judgment

judges

whether

something

is

beautiful.

Beauty is never experienced as a determinate thing. We do not

experience beauty directly, although it is always implicated
in our experiences of the world. Beauty is a feeling induced
by our sense of an ordering, a valuing, at work in the world
that lies beyond any explicit demonstration.
The sublime is unlike beauty: Beauty is a quality involving
the form of an object, its limitation. The sublime is preeminently a quantity. It suggests the formless, the absence of
limitation. In the sublime the imagination is overwhelmed by
the immensity of what is to be represented. Instead of a
judgment of beauty, wonder and awe are provoked. In this awe,
we undergo a momentary checking or repression of our feeling
that then rushes outward more strongly and vitally. No object
12

can be said to sublime, since the suggestion of the formless

and infinite held in the sublime utterly exceeds what any
object can be.

The Journey is a sincere, heartwarming and relatable film that

touches on general local issues such as cultural differences,
compromise,

mutual

acceptance,

language

barrier,

old

friendship and of course, family. Ah Bee (Joanna Yew Hong Im)

returns to Malaysia from England with her Caucasian fiance,
Benji (Ben Andrew Pfeiffer) for the first time since young to
pay her father, Chuan (Lee Sai Peng), and to hopefully receive
his blessing for the marriage. The young couple find it more
difficult
Chuan,

than

who's

initially

expected

old-fashioned

and

to

please

conservative,

the

stubborn

strict

with

Chinese traditional customs.

This film is overall showing the sublime of human being. The
main issue is the beauty from Benji attitude. He is showing
the true sense of beauty in human being. Base on Islamic
perspective on surah Ar Rahman 60
Is there any reward for good other than good'

applies to believers and disbelievers, since whoever does good

to another, the latter is supposed to return the good done to
him."

Imam Ali narrates from the Messenger of Allah (S) that God
Almighty said:

13

"Is the reward of the one to whom I have bestowed Favor is

other than Paradise?"

In short the blessed Verse in question is saying that those

who have done righteous good deeds in this world shall be
granted Divine Rewards
It is important to purify the nafs and the heart. The sign
that

the

heart

has

been

purified

is

its

receptivity

to

inspiration and divine knowledge, and its agreement with the

Qur'an and the sunnah. Evidence for the purification of the
nafs comes when it is free from anger, envy, pride, and hatred
of some parts while inclined toward other parts of creation.
The right state is when all creation is equal in your sight;
to love everyone, but not so excessively that is cuts you off
from the Haqq, nor to hate anyone inwardly so that it occupies
you from the remembrance of the Haqq. It is important in this
station for the salik to cut off his appetites for food and
clothing. If you see that you have a preference for some foods
and not for others, or you have a preference in what you wear,
then you need to struggle with your self to avoid excess and
negligence by these two worldly goods. This is the first step
toward the nafs al-kamala because the perfection (al-kamala)
is not arrived at unless you wean yourself from the appetite
for food and clothing. If you find that you still have these
appetites, know that you are not on the path toward the Haqq,
the path of those who are brought near. If this claim to be on
the path is made while these appetites persist, know that this
is the claim of the shaitan. Those who do not stop these
habits will fall into them and stop traveling. If you want
arrival, then disconnect from everything that stops you form
reaching your Beloved. Avoid everything other than Allah. Do
not sit with anyone, even if he claims to be al-Khidr, if you
see him preoccupied with creation in his actions and if you do
14

not see him engaged in the actions of the people of traveling,

which is the only way to reach Allah.

George Santayana
Philosopher, poet, literary and cultural critic, George
Santayana

is

Philosophy.

principal

His

figure

naturalism

in

and

Classical

emphasis

on

American
creative

imagination were harbingers of important intellectual turns on

both

sides

of

the

Atlantic.

He

was

naturalist

before

naturalism grew popular; he appreciated multiple perfections

before

multiculturalism

became

an

issue;

he

thought

of

philosophy as literature before it became a theme in American

and European scholarly circles; and he managed to naturalize
Platonism, update Aristotle, fight off idealisms, and provide
a striking and sensitive account of the spiritual life without
being a religious believer. His Hispanic heritage, shaded by
his

sense

of

being

an

outsider

in

America,

captures

many

qualities of American life missed by insiders, and presents

views equal to Tocqueville in quality and importance. Beyond
philosophy, only Emerson may match his literary production. As
a public figure, he appeared on the front cover of Time (3
February 1936), and his autobiography (Persons and Places,
1944) and only novel (The Last Puritan, 1936) were the bestselling books in the United States as Book-of-the-Month Club
selections. The novel was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and
Edmund Wilson ranked Persons and Places among the few firstrate

autobiographies,

memoirs,

The

Remembrance

of

comparing

Education
Things

of

Past.

it

Henry

favorably
Adams,

Remarkably,

to

and

Santayana

Yeats's
Proust's
achieved

this stature in American thought without being an American

citizen.

He

proudly

retained

his

Spanish

citizenship

throughout his life. Yet, as he readily admitted, it is as an

American that his philosophical and literary corpuses are to
15

be judged. Using contemporary classifications, Santayana is

the first and foremost Hispanic-American philosopher

In other pleasures, it is said, we gratify our senses and

passions; in the contemplation of beauty we are raised above
ourselves, the passions are silenced and we are happy in the
recognition of a good that we do not seek to possess

Beauty is a value; it cannot be conceived as an

independent existence which affects our senses and which we

consequently perceive.
exist otherwise.

It exists in perception, and cannot

A beauty not perceived is a pleasure not

felt, and a contradiction.

or

All worth leads us back to actual feeling somewhere,

else

evaporates

into

nothing

into

word

and

superstition.

Unless human nature suffers an inconceivable change,

the chief intellectual and aesthetic value of our ideas will

always come from the creative action of the imagination.

Our practical and intellectual nature is deeply

inter-ested in truth.
that

reason;

it

has

What describes fact appeals to us for

an

inalienable

interest.

However

unpleasant truth may prove, we long to know it, partly perhaps

because experience has shown us the prudence of this kind of
intellectual courage, and chiefly because the consciousness of
ignorance and the dread of the unknown is more tormenting than
any possible discovery.

A primitive instinct makes us turn

the eyes full on any object that appears in the dim borderland
of our field of vision - and this all the more quickly, the
more terrible that object threatens to be.

16

When a man knows that his life is over, he can look

back upon it from a universal standpoint.

He has nothing more

to live for, but if the energy of his mind remains unimpaired,

he

will

still

personal

wish

to

live,

and,

being

ambitions,

he

will

impute

to

vicarious

immortality

eternal.

by

identifying

cut

off

himself

himself

from

his

kind

of

with

what

is

He speaks of himself as he is, or rather as he was.

He sums himself up, and points to his achievement.

This I

have been, says he, this I have done.

This is the attitude of all minds to which breadth of

interest or length of years has brought balance and dignity.

The

sacerdotal

quality

of

old

age

sympathy in disinterestedness.
passion

appear

experience

has

as
not

fools,
left

comes

from

this

same

Old men full of hurry and

because
enough

we

understand

mark

upon

that

their

their

brain

to

qualify with the memory of other goods any object that may be
now

presented.

We

cannot

venerate

appreciation is not divorced from desire.

any

one

in

whom

And this elevation

and detachment of the heart need not follow upon any great
disappointment; it is finest and sweetest where it is the
gradual fruit of many affections now merged and mellowed into
a natural piety.

Our consciousness of the ideal becomes distinct in

proportion as we advance in virtue and in propor-tion to the

vigor and definiteness with which our faculties work.

When

the vital harmony is complete, when the act is pure, faith in

perfection passes into vision.

That man is unhappy indeed,

who in all his life has had no glimpse of perfection, who in

the ecstasy of love, or in the delight of contemplation, has
never been able to say: It is attained.

Such moments of

inspiration are the source of the arts, which have no higher

function than to renew them.

17

Satisfaction of our reason, due to the harmony

between our nature and our experience, is partially realized

already. The sense of beauty is its realization. Beauty is a
pledge of the possible conformity between the soul and nature,
and consequently a ground of faith in the supremacy of the
good.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, at times chokes on its own

grandiosity, but overall it marks a return to what made the
original saga so beloved in the first place. What ultimately
makes Episode III, a more towering achievement then I or II
is that while I or II were only relevant within the context of
the series Episode III, is relevant to the world around it.

Episode III deals with the corrosive nature of power, or more

to the point it deals with a Republic at war, and a war time
executive who has expanded his power in order so that he might
quell

the

insurgency.

The

Chancellor

Palpatine

has

gained

control of both the Senate and the courts.

While it may be a bit much to suggest that the Siths and Jedi
mirror

real

bring

into

life

Republicans

sharp

relief

and
the

Democrats,
danger

of

the
one

film

does

ideology

monopolizing too much power.

Anakin (Hayden Christensen) is again at odds with his Master

Obi Won Kenobi (played with great resolve by Ewan McGregor)
and

is

haunted

by

nightmares

Portman) dying in childbirth.

18

of

his

wife

Padame

(Natalie

Convinced his dreams are real he starts to become seduced by

the dark side when the Chancellor tells him that, the ability
to cheat death, is part of the power of the dark side. While
Christensen still falters at times, his performance here marks
a dramatic improvement over Episode II. That may be because
Christensen

and

Portman

share

less

screen

time

here,

and

besides having no chemistry, the tritest lines of the film all

seemed to be stuffed into Ms. Portmans mouth.

Its not surprising that the most intimate moments of a film

like

Episode

III

is

where

Mr.

Lucas

falters.

It

can

be

forgiven here, due to the fact Episode III marks a return to

what Mr. Lucas does best, which is Epic storytelling. The
melding of western philosophies with eastern religions Mr.
Lucas, as with his first three films, is again able to find
something universal.
Harmony and intimacy.
There may be powers in the universe we can connect to that are
larger than ourselves.

(The Force)

The Force is what gives the Jedi his power.

Its an energy

field created by all living things.

It surrounds us and

penetrates

together.

us.

It

binds

the

galaxy

Obi-Wan

Kenobi
Kid, Ive flown from one side of this galaxy to the other,
and Ive seen a lot of strange stuff.
anything
Force

to

make

controlling

me

believe

that

everything.

But Ive never seen

theres

Theres

one

no

all-powerful

mystical

energy

field that controls my destiny. Han Solo

When

you

have

helping others.

19

lost

everything,

(Luke Skywalker)

you

should

still

consider

You should trust your feelings.

(Obi-Wan Kenobi)

There are good reasons to lie sometimes.

(Obi-Wan to the Mos

Eiseley Stormtroopers, Leia to Darth Vader, Leia to Grand Moff

Tarkin, Han Solo to the Intercom in cell block THX-1138, C-3PO
when discovered in the Death Star)When someone is imminently
threatening your life with a mortal weapon, you can use lethal
force to stop them.
Unbalanced
power

can

pursuits
mislead

(Han Solo and Greedo)

to

improve

governments

security

and

and

individuals

consolidate
to

do

evil.

and

rebel

(Darth Vader)
When

political

against them.

20

powers

are

corrupt,

(The Rebellion)

then

protest

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

philosopher,
several

cultural

critical

critic,

texts

on

was a German philologist,

poet

and

religion,

composer.

morality,

He

wrote

contemporary

culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for

metaphor, irony and aphorism.
Nietzsche's

key

Power,

"death

the

ideas

include

of

God",

perspectivism,
the

the

bermensch

Will

and

to

eternal

recurrence. One of the key tenets of his philosophy is the

concept of "life-affirmation," which embraces the realities of
the world in which we live over the idea of a world beyond. It
further champions the creative powers of the individual to
strive

beyond

social,

cultural,

and

moral

contexts.

Nietzsche's attitude towards religion and morality was marked

with atheism, psychologism and historism; he considered them
to be human creations loaded with the error of confusing cause
and

effect.

objectivity

His
of

truth

commentary,

and

particularly

in

existentialism,
ideas

of

radical
has

his
the

questioning
been

influence

continental

postmodernism,

individual

the

the

focus

value

of

remains

philosophical

and

overcoming

of

extensive

substantial,
schools

post-structuralism.

and

and

transcendence

of
His

beyond

structure and context have had a profound impact on latetwentieth and early-twenty-first century thinkers, who have
used these concepts as points of departure in the development
of their philosophies. Most recently, Nietzsche's reflections
have been received in various philosophical approaches that
move beyond humanism.

21

Nietzsche illustrates the contrast between the two kinds of

morality by reference to a bird of prey and a lamb. Nietzsche
imagines that the lambs may judge the birds of prey to be evil
for

killing

and

consider

themselves

good

for

not

killing.

These judgments are meaningless, since lambs do not refrain

from killing out of some kind of moral loftiness but simply
because

they

are

condemn

birds

of

doer,

the

bird

unable
prey
of

to

for

kill.
killing

prey,

is

Similarly,
if

somehow

we

we

can

only

assume

that

the

detachable

from

the

deed, the killing. Nietzsche argues that there is no doer

behind the deed, taking as an example the sentence, lightning
flashes. There is no such thing as lightning separate from
the flash. Our assumption that there are doers who are somehow
distinct from deeds is simply a prejudice inspired by the
subjectpredicate

form

of

grammar.

Slave

morality

detaches

subject from predicate, doer from deed, and identifies the

subject with a soul, which is then liable to judgment. While
slave morality is definitely dominant in the modern world,
Nietzsche hopes that master morality will have a resurgence.
Nietzsche

identifies

transition

from

the

origin

huntergatherer

of
to

bad

conscience

agrarian

in

the

societies.

Our

violent animal instincts ceased to be useful in a cooperative

society, and we suppressed them by turning them inward. By
struggling within ourselves, we carved out an inner life, bad
conscience, a sense of beauty, and a sense of indebtedness to
our ancestors, which is the origin of religion. At present, we
direct

our

bad

conscience

primarily

toward

our

animal

instincts, but Nietzsche urges us instead to direct our bad

conscience against the life-denying forces that suppress our
instincts.
The narrative of Bunohan centers on a feuding familyPak Eng
(an
22

emasculated

and

pusillanimous

father),

Ilham

(the

estranged eldest son and a contract killer), Bakar (a school

teacher

cum

businessman)

and

Adil

(a

Tomoi

fighter

whose

blood relation offers a criticism of the failure of the father

as the head of the family. Such central conceit allows Dain
Said to introduce a veritable alphabet of personality traits
related to the characters' monikers. Ilham,
the

first

son

from

closetedmoralist,

who

different
dies

for

mother,
what

he

is

quietindeed

believes

in;

thus

functioning as an embodiment of the archetypal theme of "blood

is

thicker

than

water."

Bakar,

connotes

the

idea

of

the

burning primal desire, of wanting so much that he is willing

to engulf anyone who comes between him and his ambition. Adil
or fairness is the classic arc of cinematic renewal for he
epitomises

his

future

as

father's

family.

dream

Ilham

for

sees

this

better,
sense

i.e.,

of

ideal,

existential

renewal in Adil; hence using his brother as a way of redeeming

his path albeit via death. Pak Eng is constantly evoking his
youngest son's name to contrast with the scheming Bakar. The
exploration of these themes through
intimate examinations of the narrative about fractured father
and

fatherhood

resonates

as

universal

theme

of

the

mythologised sense of redemption

Bunohan is a fascinating insight into the reality of life and
culture of rural communities that are so bound by tradition
and superstition. It's a story of the conflict between three
brothers - who are separated from earlier in their life, who
develops

personality

so

different

from

each

other.

These

brothers then was dragged back home by their destiny, each

with

their

own

agenda

and

thus

became

an

analogy

contradiction between modernity and tradition

life in a rural community.

23

of

the

in the daily

Between blood relations, lust, greed, revenge, heritage and

memories of the past, all of these elements are mixed, giving
rise to the turn of events by the multi-dimensional characters
in this film that leads into the narrative climax.

For conclusion this film has two element good and evil. Good
and evil is important because their will balance the universe.
The Most High said:

" ... and We shall make a trial of you with evil and with good
... " [Al-Qur'an 21:35]

And:

"Alif-Lam-Mim. Do people think that they will be left alone

because they say: 'We have faith', and will not be tested? And
We indeed tested those who were before them. And Allah will
certainly make known, those who are true, and will certainly
make known those who are liars." [Al-Qur'an 29:1-3]

And:

" ... and We tried them with good and evil in order that they
might turn (to Allah's obedience)." [Al-Qur'an 7:168]

Al-'Allamah ibn al-Qayyim may Allah have mercy upon him

said, "It is a must that a man is afflicted with that which
24

harms him, so no one at all is free from that which harms him.
This is why Allah the Most High has mentioned at various
places in His Book that it is a must that He afflicts people.
And the trial happens with goodness and with badness, and it
is a must that a man is afflicted with which makes him happy
and that which hurts him. So he is required to be patient and
thankful (to Allah)."

25

Reference

Chase B., "Naturalistic Epistemology," The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,

ISSN 2161-0002, http://www.iep.utm.edu/.

Johann, E. and Williston, S. (1897). A History of Philosophy. 4th ed. (pp. 543-550).
London: S. Sonnenschein & Co., pp.543-550. Available at:
http://blogs.helsinki.fi/seksuaalietiikka2011/files/2010/10/6-Kant.pdf.

Roger, K. (2002). George Santayana. [online] The New Criterion. Available at:
http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/santayana-kimball-2027

The Journey. (2014). [film] Malaysia: Chiu Keng Guan. Astro Shaw.

Turtles Can Fly. (2004). [film] Iraq: Bahman Ghobadi. IFC Films

Seachris, J., 2011, Meaning of Life: The Analytic Perspective, in Internet

Encyclopedia of Philosophy, J. Fieser and B. Dowden (eds.).

26

27