Stander (Cinema Essay & Fan-Fiction!)

A cinema essay about a true story about a lawman-turned-criminal and a fan-fiction inspired by this symbolic modern story about politics-gone-drunk!

This is a cinema essay and fan-fiction included below inspired by the recent political drama Stander (Thomas Jane), which presents the dramatize historical tale of a white South African lawman named Andre Stander who unwittingly shoots a peaceful Apartheid protester and becomes too emotionally fragile to continue a life of service to the South African police. Stander becomes a bank robber instead, and his life becomes a strange but very fascinating symbol of civilization contours regarding the balance between civics and anarchy. How can we judge a man like Andre Stander? I hope you find this last piece of mine, which is rather ambitious, entertaining. Thanks so much (signing off),

====

++++

André Charles Stander (22 November 1946 �" 13 February 1984) was a South African criminal and policeman. One of the most infamous bank robbers in South Africa's history, Stander was notorious for the audacious manner with which he carried out his crimes: he sometimes carried out the crime on his lunch break, often returning to the scene as an investigating officer (source of information: Wikipedia).

Stander started out as a young captain of the South African police force and recently married. He and his cop-partner in South Africa were charged with the odious duty of riot control during the anti-Apartheid Soweto uprising. During this unfortunate riot, Stander unwittingly shot and killed a peaceful protester. This protester was unarmed, and the killing drove Stander somewhat mad and made him disillusioned with life as a South African lawman. Stander then turned to a life of rebellious and ingenious crime and bank-robbery, becoming quite an audacious and successful thief. Why'd he do it?

The 2003 film adaptation of Stander's life stars Thomas Jane as Andre Stander and features an impressive supporting cast in a modernized film about old world values shattered by revolutionary sentiments emerging amidst the unpredictable changes of a media-driven human civilization demanding new forms of free-speech and democratic dialogue. Jane nicely captures the mentally eccentric but audacious Andre Stander who seems to feel and think that rebellion as a lawman is the best way to 'protest' the start contradictions of serving police forces in a modernizing world beset by the problems of civil unhappiness!

The movie art and posters for this Stander-spotlight film are rather engaging and invite audiences to consider the imaginative ways in which civics and governance in our new era can be leveraged and balanced with more human and social considerations about undesirable political and legal policy that make life in society seem somewhat cold and unfeeling. Stander is like an unconscious prophet of modernism and therefore becomes a nice subject of a bold and experimental new age movie.

Thomas Jane impressed audiences with his performance as the Marvel Comics anti-hero Punisher after making a splash with a rather engaging cameo in the Paul Thomas Anderson film Boogie Nights (Mark Wahlberg). Jane as Stander in this 2003 movie reminds us why media likes to cover stories about complex if eccentric individuals caught in the ideological crossfire between civics and dementia.

The supporting cast in this movie does a terrific job in providing some of the contextual texture that makes Stander's story quite representative of modernism and civilization angst. There's a nice blend of intrigue, romance, humor, and fear. This is solid film-making about an important if entertaining subject.

We all root for Stander of course and end up wondering why and then end up wondering why we're conflicted about such a question. That's the point of a good story though, right? Of course it is!

The modern world of globalized commerce and anti-capitalism terrorism might remind us why figures like Andre Stander and Clyde Barrow seem to just 'pop up' in the general population on Earth to offer us very unusual images and stories of symbolic defiance of mainstream nationalism.

If you're a fan of Stander, consider why this cinema essay and fan-fiction included below might intrige your sensibilities about new age intrigue regarding the contours between civics and dystopia!

++++

----

So, with that said, this movie based fan-fiction is a story about a random Algerian-American named Isaac Satan who finds himself drawn to the P-IRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) cause for greater civil rights for the Irish Catholic minority in Belfast (Northern Ireland) after witnessing some ugly politics and ends up becoming a master thief for the P-IRA. How should we feel about a modern man like Isaac Satan? Thanks again for reading,

----

++++

Isaac Satan was an Algerian-American liberal graduate of the Ivy League who traveled to Dublin (Ireland) after college to find himself. He met a beautiful Irish-American woman named Eva Collins who turned out to be an IRA-sympathizer. Eva told Isaac about the complications faced by the Irish Catholic minority in Belfast (Northern Ireland) and why centuries of strife created violence, terrorism, and angst between the IRA factions and Parliament. Isaac fell in love with Eva and realized he was being swept away by her obvious political passion and decided to join the P-IRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) alongside her to help the Irish Catholic minority achieve attention in the modern media.

Eva was such a radical that Isaac couldn't help but become a passionate member of the modern IRA. He was given the IRA field-alias Green Shadow. Eva had the alias Siren in the IRA. They were both introduced to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams who told them to foster both love and revolution. Green Shadow and Siren became a duo symbolic of new age activism and radicalism. They wanted to listen to Sinn Fein and find more peaceful ways to democratic achievements for Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland. Eva/Siren knew that currently, armed terrorism was the best way to engage a very dominating British government. This was the ugly and evil truth!

Green Shadow (Isaac Satan) meanwhile began blogging on the Internet about the opportunities media-figures in the modern world has in espousing democratic change in the social pulpit. He argued that various modern issues such as eco-consciounsess could be tied to political revolution sentiments in Northern Ireland, since Protestant-Catholic religious strife in Belfast spelled a certain brand of social pollution. Green Shadow made blogs that appealed to both radicals and celebrities reading the blogs of new age liberals on the Internet in the 21st Century.

Green Shadow also spent time networking with black market and underworld networks obtaining resources and munitions for P-IRA operations in Northern Ireland. He was soon respected as a key operative from the world for the IRA. He was Algerian-American and had relatives after all who were part of the FLN revolution against French colonial rule in Algeria! Green Shadow (Isaac Satan) became a sentinel for the P-IRA and was known for his contributions to field operations, barracks targeting and marking, and resource allocation in the underground. He was also still in love with Eva/Siren.

There was nothing fancy or glamorous about being part of the modern IRA. You dealt with the ugly reality of terrorism and constantly wondered why religious conflict was a part of reality. We all knew of this reality in Israel-Palestine, but in Northern Ireland, Protestant-Catholic strife brought special attention to this rift between the two dominant denominations of Christianity in the modern world. The IRA and P-IRA sentinels such as Green Shadow were environmental responders desperate for a solution which is why Sinn Fein always tried to find alternatives to violence for all the people of Ireland.

Green Shadow witnessed some key parades about Irish Catholic rights in Belfast and funerals for the loss of key members of the modern IRA. Green Shadow accompanied his girlfriend Eva/Siren on some of her missions and wondered when the hell all this hell would finalle subside in the name of democracy and peace.

Things came to a limit during a street riot in Belfast between Irish Catholics and British Protestant police and military. Many Irish Catholics were killed during this protest which had turned into a terrible and undesirable riot. Green Shadow (Isaac Satan) found himself traumatized by the event, despite the ongoing encouragement by his girlfriend Eva/Siren.

Isaac no longer saw his clear away ahead of all this British governance mess and the Irish failure to find democracy and peace with Protestants. Everything seemed like a stale government TV advertisement. He didn't even know what to tell his dear Eva/Siren about all this civilization bureaucracy and darkness!

Eva realized she was losing the soul of her man Isaac. She didn't know anymore how to reach out to him or what to say. She could clearly see he was visibly trying to escape all the madness of modern Ireland.

Isaac Satan decided to leave his life as a normal P-IRA operative named Green Shadow and instead became a masked London bank-robber named Vandal. As Vandal, Isaac was able to become a real media clown and cherished the newfound spotlight he'd obtained as a defiant thief who claimed he was stealing money in the name of reform and Utopia. He was considered a real lunatic by most police and citizens of London who thought he wasn't a terrorist but rather an elusive and mysterious mad genius. Vandal (Isaac Satan) had robbed 5 London banks and 3 banks outside London in England in just 1 year and evaded the law altogether! However, he'd lost touch with his IRA girlfriend Eva/Siren. Isaac ('Vandal') was now a real bandit.

After his 10th successful English bank robbery, Vandal (Isaac) created an anonymous online comic book art blog about a fictional female comic book anti-heroine named Siren who robbed banks for the IRA in England. In this art blog stories, Isaac/Vandal wrote about his recent robbery, modeling it for an IRA-deed performed by the fictional anti-heroine Siren. Vandal wrote, "Siren managed to walk into the London bank posing as a media journalist interested in bank security and pretending to create a robbery simulation for TV audiences with her camera but instead walked out of the bank with stolen diamonds she lifted after substituting them with fake diamonds she carried on her person; and she gave the diamonds she stole to the IRA!" Was this comic book art...or dangerous insanity?

ISAAC/VANDAL: If I get back together with my Irish love Eva Collins, it will be because I can clearly see the real daylight past the real world darkness and evil of terrorism and tourism gone awry. I will keep praying for this miracle.

++++

====

"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)