“”This movie is entirely about the cause and effect of interactions among totally different cultures. It all starts when a Coke bottle is dropped from an airplane into a village of an African tribe that has never seen one before. This Coke bottle causes curiosity among the tribe but eventually leads to turmoil and conflicts that have never happened with these people. So, the mission of one man is to rid the tribe of the “evil thing” that caused this by throwing it off the side of the earth.
Meanwhile, two different plots are taking place in the African outback; a group of terrorists is running from the local police and a scientist is making the trip to bring a new teacher to the area. All three of these groups come together in the end of the movie; the scientist, the teacher and the tribesman all work together to overthrow the terrorists. In the end, the teacher and scientist live happily ever after, the tribesman gets rid of the “evil thing” and the terrorists are taken in. The three different cultures that are represented in this movie are the tribesman’s which is one of simplicity and cooperation; the terrorists which is one of selfishness and power; and the teacher and scientist’s which is one of modernity and complexity. How strongly one type of culture affects another is greatly illustrated in the movie.
The tribesman lives completely in seclusion, away from all the hussle and bussle that the other two cultures face daily in different ways. The tribe knows nothing about Coke or glass or why it’s used. They took the bottle to be a gift from the gods and accepted it as such, not knowing it’s true origin. They used it as a tool, in practical ways to better their lives.
The irony of the situation is that it only complicated their lives and made it more like the lives of the people who put it there in the first place. So, the tribe did what came naturally, they elected to get rid of the “evil thing” that’s causing the problems since the gods won’t take it away. Among all of the cultures in the movie, the tribe was the most heavily effected by outside cultures. The tribesman was exposed to two totally different cultures during his travels and took something away from each of them. He also affected each of the tribes, the scientist’s and the teacher’s most of all. They all learned something from each other.
The teacher learned the value of power from the terrorists; the terrorists learned the value of compassion from the teacher. The scientist learned more about the land and how to use it to your advantage from the tribesman as well as courage. He also learned how complex things are when you try to communicate with someone who is totally unlike yourself. The tribesman learned that there are other things outside of his village, like cars and society. I believe that he will look at the way he lives differently from now on and that he will share his exciting experiences with his tribe. In turn, they might then look at how they live differently and it will have a domino effect on their lives and the lives of the future tribe to come.
Many people in the world are ethnocentric and don’t believe in much outside of their culture or society. This movie shows what an impact one culture can have on another. I don’t believe that there has ever been a time in history when an interaction has taken place where the two cultures didn’t get something out of it, either for the good or bad. I believe it should always be this way, and it will until we have nothing else to learn from each other.
