The Afternoon Matinee

Thunk-thunk, thunk-thunk, thunk-thunk, thunk-thunk
bang babangbang bang... babababang bang
pow tchiiii-thunk

Blood pulses quickly from the gunshot wound, and I keep jogging, my feet padding along the path, thunk-thunking. Somehow I keep running, neither towards nor away from the violent scene. The CIA operatives were attempting to disarm some Muslim extremists, and they started shooting right in front of me during my daily run -- on a treadmill at the posh Jogja Plaza hotel.

A major perk of working out in the hotel's gym is the projection screen in the cardio room.  Everyday, as I jog, I'm anesthetized by premium American television: HBO, Cinemax, and E -- except when the remote is wrested away and the channel is changed to the local news, which, mimicking Jerry Springer, seems to focus on weird outbreaks of girl-fights in high schools. The American shows and movies are a welcoming respite from Indonesia's slapstick humor, though the quality oscillates, and only on lucky days am I delivered engaging cinema.

I've been fortunate to catch some intense movies, which have provided surprisingly great running-entertainment. Yet, the movies I appreciate aren't universally enjoyed in the gym. It was difficult to watch the violent shooting scenes of No Country For Old Men amongst my fellow cardio-fanatics. I couldn't watch without wondering how the film might be accepted as a representation of life in America, and, thus, if any of the story accurately portrays the experiences of real people. The relatively slow, intense tempo, which for me is oddly similar to certain gamelan music, doesn't seem to be a natural workout stimulant, but I maintained my tight, anxious, neocolonial grasp on the remote control.

Similarly, earlier today, I watched The Kingdom as I jogged. I wasn't familiar with the movie prior to my workout, and was a bit surprised to find an action/drama dealing with terrorism in the Middle East. Indonesia has an active film censorship board, and some strange things get cut out of the viewer's consciousness. I wasn't sure how the portrayal of Islamic fundamentalism-related terrorism would be received in Indonesia. Although the government takes a staunch anti-terrorist stance, usually siding with the US government and military in the "War on Terror", I imagined that an Islamic-majority nation might be concerned with vilifying Islamic conservatism.

Indonesia experiences its own rare expressions of irrational violence, which is quickly rationalized as religious-fundamentalist terrorism. While there are factions of extremist, conservative Muslims in Indonesia, and some may resort to violence, the government -- with its odd, long history of friendly relations with the US -- is often quick to categorize violence as a terrorist act, and to further classify it with the "enemies in the War on Terror".

Now I'm just a kid from the suburbs, so I'm not privy to the same documents as the FBI, CIA and Indonesian Military. I must bow to their exclusive knowledge, and hope that they are portraying things as accurately as possible. In a way, I need to keep the representations created by the government separate from those crafted by Hollywood. As I run on my treadmill watching anonymous Islamic fanatics shoot and bomb Americans -- harbingers of Democracy or Neocolonial-Totalitarian Militia? -- I can focus on the quality of entertainment and stop thinking about the complexities of the society in which I find myself daily.