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• 1 media/Jiro.jpg 2017-10-31T10:31:14-07:00 An Entreaty for Peace 1 Pacifist underpinnings of a stunning celebration of the best in humanity image_header 2017-10-31T10:31:14-07:00 One of Miyazaki’s talents is the skillful and unobtrusive yet prescient and thought-provoking intersection of activism in what are otherwise incredibly beautiful, poignant, and intensely human celebrations in the storytelling tradition. The film glistens with ardor and expertise, making incredibly detailed and painstaking animation seem to be effortless and natural. The movie ebbs and flows like a tide with the breath of life, lifting the wings of Horikoshi’s planes into a landscape whose beauty is stifling in its immensity. It is easy to forget in such a setting that the evils of war loom close at hand. Yet nevertheless, this shadow pervades every aspect of the film, moving and changing Jiro’s life and understanding of reality in small but important ways, culminating in a loss of life that touches Jiro at his very soul. This is what becomes the film’s true relevance, as a statement of vociferous approbation of war that illustrates the pain and degradation that international violence perpetrates on all of those involved, directly or otherwise. When Miyazaki wrote and directed what even he thought would be his final film, he pulled out all the stops and channeled his ardent pacifism into what is one of his most astonishingly well-wrought commentaries on the atrocities of war, all while still creating an incredibly enjoyable and beautiful film. In the current geopolitical climate, a movie with such a solid meditation on the effects of war is necessarily relevant in sparking discourse and thought on what such a state may mean to the lives of every American and world citizen should we allow it to once again poison the Earth’s soil. There is seldom so appropriate and effective a vehicle for such a task as a movie by this master storyteller.