The Good Life Film Analysis

In the late 1980’s, the African country of Sudan was involved in a brutal civil war that left over 20,000 children orphaned with no families to protect them or homes to live in. Many of these young children walked over a thousand miles through jungle and dessert terrain searching for refuge from the war. Many did not survive. Thousands of these children wondered for years in search of safety, eventually finding refuge in a camp in Kenya miles from their homes. They became known as the lost boys and the lost girls. The film The Good Life is based on the lives of these children and tells the story of their experience, strength, and hope. The movie is based on actual stories told by lost boys in interviews. I thought the movie was well written and did a great job of showing what these children experienced during this tragic time, not just during the war but their journey that followed the war.
The movie begins with a scene depicting an ordinary day in the life of the children in the Sudan village. The young boys are playing a game in which they each have to name a grandfather in order going back through their ancestry. One child places a hand on the dirt and names a grandfather, the other boy lays his hand on top of the first boy and names the next one. This goes on until they have names as many as they can. This is how the tribe teaches its history. While the boys are playing and fighting with one another a helicopter flies overhead and men with guns appear and begin to shoot everyone in the village. Only six children, who were able to hide, out of the whole village survive the attack. Five boys and one girls are left. The children tell the oldest boy, Theo, that he is now the chief of them. Theo takes this responsibly very seriously as is the tradition of his people. This part of the movie is very sad to watch as these young children try to come to terms with losing everything in a matter of minutes and realize they are alone in the world and must care for themselves now. They decide they must walk to Ethiopia because they have been taught by their fathers’ to follow the sun to Ethiopia for safety. They began the long walk as refugees in search of safety and a home. During their journey they must find food, in …show more content…
The kids spent the next thirteen years in the camp. There was a waiting list for the refugees to immigrate to the United States, and after thirteen years their names were finally pulled. The next part of the movie details the trails they face as they adjust to live in America. One of the brothers takes a job at a grocery store stocking shelves and one of his duties is to throw away the out dated food. This is hard for him because he watched his brother starve to death on the journey to the camp. The movie is full of scenes in which the brothers are at odds with their background and with American culture, how they struggle to fit in and find their place in this new world. This part of the movie made me appreciate my life here and made me think of all the things I take for