A Mighty Heart (2007)

This is a movie I keep adding to the netflix queue, but have been afraid to actually see because I remember the outcome from the news and didn't want to watch a reenactment played out on screen.  It turned out the "F-bomb" was the reason for the rating and that the powers that be chose to follow Marianne Pearls tenant that a terrorists aim is to terrorize and, though they murdered her husband in a terrible way, they had not succeeded in changing her as a person or her world view.
      I can only imagine myself in this situation knowing I would be the sobbing woman on the floor from the beginning, but Marianne was a journalist.  She knew how to hunt down a story, keep the communication lines open between the policing authorities (in this case, Pakistan and CIA), she knew what the terrorists wanted and wouldn't give it to them (her fear).  Her response was so intriguing, I had to watch it through.  Was this her cultural heritage, her professional training, or her religious beliefs shining through?  Some said they felt it was fake and mechanical.  I found it inspiring.  She would not let go until there was no hope left and she didn't take out her own stress on the people who were helping her find her husband (there were a few moments of tension).  The people who knew her best understood her response.
     I cried when they told her Danny "didnt' make it".  When they told her how they knew for sure, I was sick inside with how she would ever get over that.  When she did her next interview and reminded the news reporter that 10 people had been kidnapped and killed that month in Pakistan and that 9 of them were Pakistani...that terrorists thrived in places where hope is lost, I was in awe.  Marianne knew how to seperate individuals from the masses instead of blaming everyone with a similar trait.  How different the world would be if we could all do that.
    In the end, I don't know who the title is truly for.  Daniel Pearl had a mighty heart of his own and showed it in his escape attempts, in his unapologetic declaration of his Jewish heritage and the pride in knowing there is a street in Jerusalem named for his grandfather...There is an interview where Marianne says that "forgiveness is not enough for me."  This doesn't seem to be because she wants vengeance, but because she wants a world where terrorist acts don't happen.  I think it's what she and Danny wanted in the first place -- to enable everyone to understand each other's honest perspectives, stripped of politics, so better choices could be made.
    May that day still come.