My Musings, not always daily

Tue AM

Yesterday I came across a movie that won an award for the company Technicolor. I don't know why I decided to look at the promo but it certainly intrigued me. The movie is called "Theif" the promo went on to say something about a goat herder who is approached by Saddam Hussein running for his life, for food. He reveals they have met before when the goat herder was 12yrs old. The promo shows an older man walking through a house in the desert checking it out and is told by the owner they have met before. The scene cuts to a man washed up on shore and a young boy going to help. That is it. The idea pricked my interest so much I went on to see where it was to be shown and it looks like no where close to me.


It was the idea of WHAT IF? As writers isn't that what we are all about? What if as a younger boy Saddam was not the man he grew up to be? What changed him? What if as a young man he was beginning his goal to rule (the world?) and was confronted by a young boy who asked why? Is this really the will of Allah? He then had a choice at that moment. To turn away and follow a more, let's say religious path or one of monetary fulfillment, or the one he took to his ultimate death and the killing of the masses.


I am very anxious to see this movie. Not because of the subjects but the what if's that this young man wove to make this story. I just hope that it isn't some political propaganda, but is truly a story of choices and paths that two men chose to take. A goat herder and a killer.


What if the choices were different? What if the young man was actually the son of a wealthy family and had saved the life of Saddam, then through circumstances the meet, and Saddam again must make a choice to give up the position of a demi-god on the run, or what the man offers?


It is the What if's that make us as authors write and fill pages of carefully crafted stories.


Last night I saw a documentary based on JK Rowings life from writing Harry Potter to its success. She is the epitome of what an author should strive to do. Create the world in which your characters live, craft a story that intrigues and weave it around interesting characters and conflicts. Would that I would be endowed with a concept and mental thought to craft a story as intricate as the Harry Potter series. Or have the knowledge to ask What if two men meet in their past and then later as one infamous and the other a goat herder?