Joshua Milton Blahyi, aka General Butt Naked, murdered thousands during Liberia’s horrific 14-year civil war. Today this once-brutal warlord has renounced his sadistic past and reinvented himself as evangelist Joshua Milton Blahyi. In a riveting cinema vérité journey that unfolds over the course of five years, filmmakers Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion follow Blahyi’s unrelenting crusade to redeem his life. Facing those he once terrorized, preaching where he once murdered, Blahyi is on a quest to save his soul.
Can a man really change? Should we be judged by what we have done, or by who we are now? Whatever you make of him—liar or madman, charlatan or genuine repentant— General Butt Naked is certainly a mesmerizing character. Challenging our preconceived notions of evil, justice, and faith, this shocking story of one man’s remarkable journey will resonate with anyone who has ever questioned his or her capacity to forgive. —Sundance Film Festival
if you are expecting answers of this film, you will have a hard time watching it. as the film continues, more and more questions about justice, forgiveness and the nature of the human being itself are being evoqued. the protagonist chose the way of christianity, which, if you are an aetheist, can redner the whole theme even more complex. is blahyi using christianity as a tool to manipulate his former victims?
Not really explicitly stated, except by one interviewee who finally calls "bullshit" on the "redemption", but watching the film you slowly come to realize that the warrior turned evangelist is still a bully who re-victimizes people by intimidating them into offering their forgiveness of his earlier atrocities and who cannot allow anything or anyone to be uncontrolled by himself.
The facts that the film omits, particularly the fact that the General would partake in the ritualistic cannibalization of children, make it hard to appreciate this film.
from Milwaukee Film Festival 2011 Documentaries
Former Sith Lord Joshua Blahyi is one mess… read review
