The "Romantic" movement has helped develop our sensibility in order to get a response and also to stir up our feelings. Our feelings can be personal, what we feel as biological individuals, and public, what we are told to feel as a cultural subject by representation. But one could argue that by structuring a feeling all of us as cultural subjects should feel the same thing. A disconnect happens in that each biological individual has the choice to let that representation move them or not.
As a biological individual, a cultural subject, and a Marine I am going to have a hard time being objective to how this video attempts to make me feel. I have tried, and failed, to stay outside and look in at the possible effects the video could have on others who are not in any way connected to the Marine Corps. Having said that, to whomever reads this I am very curious as to how this video makes you feel.
Working backwards, it was amazing to hear at the end of the selection how the two policemen who were stuck beneath the rubble had ended up with such a sense of peace just by hearing that the Marines were present. All of the Marine Corps ideologies were summed up by that. Honor your fellow servicemen, be courageous in the face of danger, and commit to accomplishing your task at hand. That pretty much sums up the position the video is taking.
Having said that, I have goose bumps throughout the entire video and have an extreme sense of pride at being apart of that institution. Specifically, at 7 minutes and 15 seconds into the Birthday Message a retired Marine begins recalling the events on 9/11 and his actions in trying to rescue people trapped by the decimation caused by the planes flying into the World Trade Center. The music in the background is mostly string instruments and percussion instruments. The strings are playing long beautiful notes that seem to represent a melancholy or even sad feeling for the destruction and loss that just took place. The percussion instruments are playing very rhythmic beats that seem to be building to something. They have a sense of feeling that keeps you on edge, asking the question "what happens next?" but at the same time conveying tenaciousness. This tenaciousness gives off an air courage, that no matter what fear will not win out. As you listen to the Marine speak about the events, he is able to convey a sense of intensity, vulnerability, and despair. Even during all those intense feelings, he is still overcome by his commitment to duty and accomplishing the task of pulling people out of the wreckage. He is trying to reproduce those intense feelings, which are aided by the music, so that we can experience those feelings and be sympathetic to the events he witnessed on that day. By having him recollect his memory of the events orally he is able to add feelings that someone else would not have been able to replicate if they were reading his story to the camera. How do you honor someone who has died? With a recollection: a eulogy. The Marine is able to honor everyone that perished by telling his story.
All of these elements are conditioning us to feel pride in the United States Marine Corps for being brave and courageous when it would be easier to be ignore a sense of duty. This display of anguish was not lost on me. Personally, I sympathize with him and want to join him. Not to be a hero, but to relive that sense of camaraderie that in a tight spot I would risk my well-being to save my brothers in arms. The infantile narcissism within me wills me to regain that feeling of safety only Marines can provide each other. The video is able to represent such a strong sensibility in me that I have a spontaneous overflow of such powerful feelings that it moves me to tears.
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