Horst_In_Translation Review of Lifeboat

Lifeboat (II) (2018)

A contemporary relevant movie, but just one side of the medal

[2/10 · 31 January 2019]

"LIFEBOAT" (what's with the cringeworthy capitalization???) is an American, mostly English-language documentary from 2018 directed by Skye Fitzgerald and this one runs for slightly under 35 minutes. The subject is as current (no pun intended!) as it gets with major focus on the refugee crisis or migrant crisis lets call it. We find out how thousands of people flee from Libya and what the people waiting for them have to do to save them. I wont go into great detail about the film. It is what you could expect. Some information about navigation at sea, some facts about why it is all so difficult and complicated (and it sure is) and some information about migrants dying in the water and shots of hundreds of them on way too tiny boats. Okay, this all I did see coming. The flim clearly tries to be appealing in terms of the emotional impact. But you need to look far further in order to understand the problem here. Let me help you with that. On one occasion, there is talk about people mostly fleeing from a prison at the sea side. And they talk about the inhumane conditions in said prison. Guess what? It. Is. A. Prison. People are there because they are criminals. Is it really the best idea to reward these criminals, really the lowest of the low with probably virtually no sense of how to behave according to the law by helping them make it to the (more) civilized world? I strongly disagree. Sure you could say they are there because they were prosecuted for having different political views than the government wants them to have, but still. I am sure many of them are really just petty thieves or worse. But that is all just speculation. Another aspect I don't like is that refugee means virtually migrant these days and I could not disagree more. People who are in danger of being followed, maybe killed, by the government have every right to leave the country and build an existence elsewhere. However, there is no way these thousands (actually millions) of migrants are all prosecuted. I heard many interviews when they were asked why they left their country and the answer was "I was unemployed". That is not reason enough. Not by any means, especailyl if they refuse to adhere and assimilate in their new home as it sadly has happened so many times. In general I think it is a bad idea to help everybody out because the more you help the more will come and they don't need it. They also don't need to risk their lives for that. If we help them out we basically hand the cat a fish. If we actually use these billions of dollars and euros to make a difference in said countries for the people there to have a better life, then we teach the cat how to fish. This is the only right approach in my opinion. I think this movie was made for all the wrong reasons and only the easily influenced will see it as important or intelligent. But it moves things much further into the wrong direction. Shame Hollywood and the Oscars fell for it. But looking at how liberal it is, I am not surprised at all. I hope it won't win the Oscar. Not that Black Sheep would be a better choice. My hope still goes out to "A Night at the Garden", but somehow it would really surprise me. Yet to see the other 2 nominees. This one here gets a thumbs-down and really 2 stars out of 5 is almost a bit too much honestly. Watch something else instead. Okay yes it is too much. I reduce it to one.