Ethical Behavior
"Return to Paradise"
Return to Paradise is a movie that explores ethical and human behavior
issues about friendship, responsibility, personal sacrifice, and love.
The film presents five people who are involved in the story in different ways, and
how the actions they take, affect other people, and in this case one person’s life
in particular.
The story in the film is about three friends, who met in Malaysia, and after
partying and having a good time, two of them-Sheriff and Tony- return to New
York, and one-Lewis- stays behind, wanting to help with the rescuing of
orangutans from captivity.
After two years, Beth, who is Lewis’ lawyer, informs Sheriff and Tony that he has
eight more days to live before he will be hung. He was convicted and sentenced
to death for drugs that the police found in the place where all three stayed while
vacationing, but where they only found Lewis after the other two left. Lewis was
willing to take the blame for all three, until the last chance for sparing his life was
the return of Sheriff and Tony back to Malaysia to face justice. In the beginning,
Tony tends to feel that he has to go back, and Sheriff struggles with the idea, as
inside he really does not want to go back. In the meantime, Sheriff and Beth start
having a romantic relationship. It happens that Beth is also Lewis’ sister, a fact
which Sheriff and Tony find out only after they both decided to go back and are
already in Malaysia. This new information makes Tony suspicious of Beth’s true
intentions and returns back home. In the mean time, during the trial hearings the
judge gets mad about an article in an American Magazine, (which a reporter-MJ-
writes and in it bashes the way things are done in Malaysia, including the death
penalty for drug possession charges), and orders Lewis’ death sentence to stand.
In the meantime, Sheriff almost returns home himself, but has a true change of
heart and decides to stay. He ends up being locked up in prison and sees Lewis
being dragged down to be hung. Afterwards, his sentence gets cut down to six
months instead of three years, and Beth promises to come back for him and then
they’ll both go back to the United States and start their lives together.
Throughout the film, one can see the struggle of the characters, each in their
own distinctive way, between trying to do the right thing for them as individuals
and the group as a whole.
Similarly, in our everyday life we may be confronted with different situations
where doing the right thing for us as well as other people involved, might be a
struggle. Specifically in Reuben’s film, Tony seems to fail the test of following
through on his words, and shows that he didn’t really have it in him to sacrifice
part of his future to save a life. When looking at the whole group, Tony is a traitor.
Even though he seemed like he would be more willing to go back and face justice
compared to Sheriff, in the end one development (the fact that Beth kept secret
the fact that she is Lewis’s sister) managed to get him off track. He is a very
irresponsible person, considering the fact that originally he was part of the group.
When it was all about having a good time, he was a very willing participant, but
now he is not ready to face the consequences of the actions in which he also
was involved. He just does not have the character strength to take responsibility
for his part of the problem.
In the same way MJ is a very careless person, looking out just for her own
prestige, and career recognition and possible advancement. To her, it was all
about being the first one to publish the story, even though Beth repeatedly tells
her that her story could affect Lewis in a negative way, and could result in his
death sooner than scheduled. She should have listened to Beth, and Lewis’s life
could have been spared. Someone could probably argue that she didn’t know
that things would turn out the way they did. MJ probably thought that exposing
the story about Lewis might help him, but if she was so anxious to write about an
internationally related story, she should have documented herself on the rules of
other countries and the reasons for those rules, before condemning them, so that
she does not do more harm than good.
Even sadder is the fact that Beth promised MJ the story exclusively, with the
condition that MJ would wait until after the trial to publish it. However, because
MJ takes matters into her own hands, and publishes the story the day of the trial,
her actions cost a man his life. It is inexcusable what she did, and if I was Beth I
would have initiated a civil suit against MJ for wrongful death.
On the contrary, Beth is a person that tried with everything she had to
convince Tony and Sheriff to go back to Malaysia, so that her brother’s life will be
spared. Even though she does not reveal to Tony and Sheriff that Lewis is her
brother until she managed to get them to Malaysia, her true intention remained to
get her brother a chance at life. Even if she had told them this information earlier,
it would not have erased the fact that Tony and Sheriff had a responsibility for
their involvement, which lead to the current situation. I think that Beth shows
what the love for a brother means, by being persistent and persuasive to get
Tony and Sheriff to go back, and by trying to keep MJ from publishing her story.
In the same way, Sheriff is able to put his personal wants and feelings aside
for the greater good of the group. It is true, he is the one that threw away the bike,
which is the thing that started the involvement of the police and then the findings
of the drugs. In a very transparent way, you can see his humanity and the fact
that he was really struggling with the idea of going away to prison for three years.
I think many of us could identify with his struggle if we were put in a situation like
this. It seemed like for him it was a life lesson that he was learning in this process.
It was the lesson of personal sacrifice, responsibility, and restoring his integrity,
as he tells Beth in the end that he wouldn’t have been able to look at her again, if
he just left without doing the right thing.
To illustrate an even more ample example of sacrifice, we have to look at
Lewis. He has what it takes to be a true friend and regrettably has to show it.
Selflessly he does not even want to get Tony and Sheriff involved until his death
became very apparent and imminent, after spending two years in prison. Life is
one of the most precious things in this world, and by trying to get Tony and
Sheriff involved, Lewis just wanted a chance at life if it was at all possible.
He is a grandiose example for us, as he shows friendship, love, and personal
sacrifice, for the greater benefit of the group, and in the end having to give his life.
Even if at one point Lewis tells Sheriff that he doesn’t think he could have come
back if Sheriff was in trouble, Lewis still showed the power of his character by not
involving Tony and Sheriff until it was absolutely necessary in order to save his
own life. We have a lot to learn from Lewis and his character.
There are many instances in our lives when we have to decide between two
or more things. In fact, from this perspective, the sum of the decisions we make
consciously or unconsciously, is what make up our lives. Many times when we
choose something, we do not realize the consequences that come with that
choice. Later we might realize that it affects negatively those around us, and then
it becomes a matter of stepping up and fixing our mistake for the benefit of the
group, or choosing to disregard the problem. If we do not take any action as
there might be financial, material or emotional loss involved, it will most likely
negatively affect the relationships implicated, besides the fact that we show
irresponsibility.
To a certain degree, the society in which we grow up also influences the way
we act. In an individualistic society like that of the American people, we are
encouraged to compete and win as a person, without taking into consideration
the wellbeing or the benefit of our neighbors. While this encourages hard work on
the part of the individual, we have to keep a balance between our individual
benefits and the benefits of the rest of the people in society, or in our close
circles. When within a family, group or a society, every member looks out and
acts for his or her interests only, it becomes a stressful environment because you
never know when you’ll have to pay for someone else’s lack of responsibility.
On the other hand, if a group is composed of individuals that have a lot of
integrity, and who take personal responsibility to a high level of importance in
their lives, it is more likely that the group will survive. If circumstances in life will
require the group members’ loyalty to be tested, because of their integrity, they
will not let each other down. In return for doing the right thing and showing
compassion, their lives will feel much richer. Only by taking into consideration the
benefits of others, we will be truly fulfilled in our lives.
Even if our society in a way contributes to some of us being more
individualistic oriented, we have to be responsible and honest citizens, being
ready to do the right thing, and that is to do the right thing for everyone involved.
Works Cited
Return to Paradise. Dir. Reuben
