Haven’t blogged in a while now. I could say I’ve been busy but that would definitely be a lie. Anyway I went to a screening of a film called Unity last week, and thought I’d do a little review on it!
I have been on the road to fully becoming a vegan for a while now, and can finally say that I am officially vegan (to the point of annoying restaurant waiters by asking for special menus). As a result of this new lifestyle choice, I joined a local vegan group and went to one of their meet ups on Wednesday of last week.
The group was going to see a special, one time only screening of the film Unity, seven years in the making, written and directed by Shaun Monson, who also directed a film called Earthlings. As I was going with a vegan group I expected the film to largely revolve around animals and the farming industry. Unity however, is a film covering a range of topics from war, slavery, the environment and human health, both physical and mental.
Unity is split into five chapters, Cosmic, Mind, Body, Heart and Soul. It is a documentary style film, showing various images and film clips, with the script being narrated over these images, by 100 different actors, artists, athletes, authors, businessmen, entertainers, filmmakers, military personnel, and musicians.
This is my experience of the film. It is simply my own humble opinion…
The opening scene of the film showed images in space, with the narrator explaining how everything we are has come from a nebula. The world was formed in a nebula in space and we as people therefore have a strong connection with space and the universe. There is a strong emphasis that this connection with space and the individuality of our earth compared to the rest of the milky way, creates a strong bond between us and all other living things on earth. The tagline of the film is “Not the same, but equal” and this becomes the underlying theme for much of the film. Although I really like this tagline and the message behind it, the fact that Monson puts such heavy emphasis on animals, plants and humans being equal, is then slightly contradicted by the fact that plant life is not really incorporated in his ideology.
From this opening chapter of the film, I started to feel as though I wasn’t going to like the film very much, unfortunately the rest of the film only confirmed this suspicion.
The images of space, although sometimes beautiful, seamed to go on forever, with far too much “waffle” about the universe, which made me much less inclined to take the film seriously. The film continued, portraying a heavy emphasis on mankind’s inability to not be at war with each other, however the directors interesting portrayal of history and politics seamed a little too one sided and very much from his point of view. There were a large amount of statistics throughout the film, showing figures such as war casualties and the amount of animals killed each day for the farm industry. These statistics, although powerful at the time, turned out to be very out dated in some cases, when I did some further research.
The whole film was narrated by many famous voices, for example Jennifer Aniston and Adam Levine, however the script seamed hard to follow and far too lengthy, often with seemingly never ending sentences that resulted in no real point. The use of a wide variety of famous people seemed almost to be a ploy in order to get people to watch, however as there were so many of them some spoke for less than a minute in the whole film. I think perhaps less narrators would have made for a more free flowing and easy to understand film.
The images and short film clips that the film consisted of were affective at portraying the overall message, however in many cases Monson simply reappropriates other filmmakers work. I think if a film is going to take seven years to make, there needs to be more original footage and less GCSE level graphics.
Since becoming a vegan, I have learnt more and more about the ways in which veganism is seen by others and how there is a very wrong use of heavy propaganda in order to “force” others to adapt this lifestyle. This has been something I have disliked from the beginning, as it is up to each person to find their beliefs. One of the main reasons I did not like Unity in the end, was due to the fact that there was an overwhelming bombardment of graphic images, statistics, famous quotes that were used completely out of context and even a fish being eaten whilst alive in China. I understand the need sometimes to shock people and show them harsh realities, however when suddenly all health problems seam to be put down to eating meat and when it is suggested that we are soon to evolve into a whole new species called Homo-Spiritus, (both of which are displayed in the film), I think it quickly turns into one man enforcing his views on others, with no real scientific, evolutionary or factual backing and knowledge. There appears to be an underlying tone that those who eat meat are somehow wrong and not elevated, both physically and spiritually as vegans are, which only serves to divide people and the films viewers, a complete contradiction to the films message of unity and harmony among all beings.
I think that I definitely liked the ideas in the film and the message of a higher level of unity and compassion between all beings and I definitely intend to continue with my vegan lifestyle. However the way in which the film was laid out, scripted and narrated were incredibly disappointing and I think ruined the impact the film might have had. The director was far too concerned with force feeding the viewer with his ideologies and opinions and therefore I unfortunately had no option but to disregard many of the things he had to say, even though some were very poignant and valid.
I wouldn’t recommend this film as a good representation of veganism and compassion, and would suggest finding out information for yourself and coming to your own conclusion as to how you wish to live your life. Thank you for reading and good luck 🙂
For a good review of the film Unity, click on this link….
The Art of Happiness. 