This past weekend, Rosewater opened to a quiet but respectable $1 million in less than 400 theaters. You may know of this movie by its primary familiarity, “the movie that The Daily Show host Jon Stewart wrote and directed.” It’s clear that this film would have amounted to much less without Stewart’s name and legion of cult fans behind it. I watch The Daily Show regularly, and leading up to the film’s release, Stewart certainly promoted it, with various bits that were at times funny and at others wrenchingly serious. But this was more than shameless plugging; Stewart uses his platform and celebrity status not to highlight his film but rather to highlight the film’s overall message about truth-telling and the power of story.
The Daily Show from its early days as a silly spoof of the news has evolved into a beast of political satire that has noticeable influence on the political world today. It has launched other shows like Colbert’s powerful parody of Republican personalities, The Colbert Report, and gave rise to John Oliver, who now helms a similar show on HBO, Last Week Tonight, unbridled by advertisements and the scary but real corporate censorship of news outlets. Over the years these shows have demonstrated the immense power of comedy and satire to reveal truths, uncover hypocrisy, and mobilize people. Many people who would otherwise not watch a news segment or care much about international politics are exposed to stories that truly matter, and see them from a comedic angle. And comedic angles, by nature, tend to be very political, as they are most often pointed in the direction of the oppressor rather than the oppressed; satire at its best can have a leveling effect as it brings the high and mighty down to scrutiny and the low are able to look them in the face and laugh.
Rosewater tells the story of an Iranian-American journalist who was imprisoned for 118 days for simply filming injustice. The film refers to this as “the crime of bearing witness.” Gael Garcia Bernal plays the journalist, Maziar Bahari, who suffers psychological and physical torture at the hands of his “specialist.” The interrogator in this film is infused with more depth than would normally be expected. You see humanity in this character, blurring the lines of good and evil like so many movies fail to do and making this film a thoughtful depiction of events rather than a emotional exploitation of film-goers.
Bahari is accused of being a spy, but his real crime is nothing more than speaking truth to power. For much of his imprisonment, Bahari is in constant fear, but the film asks the question, “Who is really afraid? The prisoner, or those who unjustly imprison?” The power is slowly shifting in Iran and in the prison. The government pawns only have one weapon, violence, which instills fear; but Bahari has a more powerful weapon, that brings the high and mighty low just like Stewart’s comedy: the truth. The final shot of the film captures an ironic redistribution of power in Iran, and leaves the viewer with the idea that injustice may have already lost and now simply fights on its last leg.
Truth exposes corruption and can even bring down the powerful. On The Daily Show, Stewart uses satire and irony to do this to great effect. In this medium, though, he has chosen to use his name to simply tell a true story. While it is sometimes humorous, the film is not funny, and may leave some fans of Stewart wanting in that area. But the message of Rosewater is that truth-telling, exposing, and broadcasting can shift power away from oppressors back to those who are being oppressed, and Rosewater is itself an example of that. Thousands of people, who likely knew little to nothing of Iranian politics or Maziar Bahari, saw Rosewater because of Jon Stewart and have a new perspective they otherwise never would have had. His name carries enough weight to draw this audience; even if it is his first film and shows lots of room for growth, Stewart is decidedly a veteran of story telling and international politics.
For Christians who are called to love the world, this should be a welcome exposure, but for many it may not be. I have been studying the book of Isaiah this quarter, and I find it amazing much of the Bible is actually about international geo-politics and how the people of God interact with it. The people of God do not have the luxury of being apolitical or even disinterested in these matters, especially in a world that is becoming smaller and smaller by the day due to technology. Rosewater reminds us that being exposed to more stories and more truth is the first step toward redemptive engagement.
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