Movies
As the clock ticks so too does the countdown of my life. Why waste it watching movies? What do movies contribute to life? Entertainment? Thought-provoking material? An escape from reality? I'm sure there are various reasons to watch movies, but for me, I love stories, good stories. Being a perfectionist, it is hard to find a movie that is completely satisfying. All I can think of is what I would have done differently to improve upon the movie, making it more engaging. For me, watching a movie is a search of the limits of imagination. It is not only the movies that are attractive, but books and more recently books on tape are extremely engaging.
Coming home from Nebraska just over a week ago, I listened to The Hobbit (unabridged) on the way home -- all 5 to 7 hours of it -- and arrived at another conclusion about myself. I am an auditory learner. When I read books, I read them aloud, quietly, so that I can hear the words and better understand passages. When someone explains concepts to me orally, those explanations are what I best remember. For all of the years I spent in college I spent hours reading and re-reading material because it took three times over to understand what a passage was saying -- not because the material was difficult, or badly written. In fact, for a while I thought perhaps I had Attention Deficit Disorder or something because I could not concentrate enough to make sense of passages. My attention was always elsewhere on slaying dragons, casting spells, defeating a foreign army. Perhaps I may still have ADD, but if it is a terrible happening to stray from academic thinking to imaginative adventures then I'm happy to be terrible.
Academia has its limits. After completing college and continuing my education, I realize that a person can get too wrapped up in his studies and forget to live. It is an addiction. One day I find myself telling my wife that I'll talk to her later when she comes to me on the verge of tears to talk to me about something obviously important to her. I'll talk just after I come to a stopping point in my studies. There is no stopping point. And I should have made one right there. What is important in my life? In a random order: My wife, others, my beliefs, being knowledgable. When a person is married he commits to and cuts a covenant with his wife. That should never be taken for granted, ever. Luckily, I have been forgiven countless times for the same mistakes. You'd think I'd learn by now. I have a thick head apparently -- takes a while for info to breach it.
Back to movies...
I finally saw the movie most people are raving about, Napolean Dynamite at my family's house. The movie was very creative, very funny, and very thought-provoking. It just goes to show that a person doesn't need to spend millions of dollars on CGI to make a movie that millions will enjoy.
The Passion of the Christ, which I have only seen (regretfully) once, was a great success for Mel Gibson. His combinination of the three gospels with a Pre-Vatican II twist, for me, was not so much a success of putting on screen the last days of Christ, but was a success apparent in the title. The 'passion' was ever so attractive to the masses. In a time when intellectual Christianity dominates the western world (predominantly the U.S.) passion is that holisitic aspect that Christians lack. Christians are tired of their religion always being at an apologetic stance, ready to defend against or explain away anything science has to introduce. Where has all the passion gone? It is what Christians are hungry for -- a passionate zeal for Christ first experienced as young men and women. When my wife and I waited in line for the movie theater to empty from the showing of the Passion right before our own we witnessed the entire audience exit in a cathartic detail. (We made the mistake of actually buying popcorn.)
Mr. and Mrs. Smith was very enjoyable to see. The script was well-written, funny, and left much room for the actors to impersonate who they thought the characters should be like. There was some truth about the actor and actress playing Mr. and Mrs. Smith that I couldn't quite put my finger on. It seemed satirical, portaying the extreme of marital difficulties and the violent solution presented over time, but then the extreme of marital commitment and its (also violent) conclusion. The couple was not perfect, but still kept the relationship intact by beginning again, this time honestly talking with each other. Couldn't we all learn something from this?
Coming home from Nebraska just over a week ago, I listened to The Hobbit (unabridged) on the way home -- all 5 to 7 hours of it -- and arrived at another conclusion about myself. I am an auditory learner. When I read books, I read them aloud, quietly, so that I can hear the words and better understand passages. When someone explains concepts to me orally, those explanations are what I best remember. For all of the years I spent in college I spent hours reading and re-reading material because it took three times over to understand what a passage was saying -- not because the material was difficult, or badly written. In fact, for a while I thought perhaps I had Attention Deficit Disorder or something because I could not concentrate enough to make sense of passages. My attention was always elsewhere on slaying dragons, casting spells, defeating a foreign army. Perhaps I may still have ADD, but if it is a terrible happening to stray from academic thinking to imaginative adventures then I'm happy to be terrible.
Academia has its limits. After completing college and continuing my education, I realize that a person can get too wrapped up in his studies and forget to live. It is an addiction. One day I find myself telling my wife that I'll talk to her later when she comes to me on the verge of tears to talk to me about something obviously important to her. I'll talk just after I come to a stopping point in my studies. There is no stopping point. And I should have made one right there. What is important in my life? In a random order: My wife, others, my beliefs, being knowledgable. When a person is married he commits to and cuts a covenant with his wife. That should never be taken for granted, ever. Luckily, I have been forgiven countless times for the same mistakes. You'd think I'd learn by now. I have a thick head apparently -- takes a while for info to breach it.
Back to movies...
I finally saw the movie most people are raving about, Napolean Dynamite at my family's house. The movie was very creative, very funny, and very thought-provoking. It just goes to show that a person doesn't need to spend millions of dollars on CGI to make a movie that millions will enjoy.
The Passion of the Christ, which I have only seen (regretfully) once, was a great success for Mel Gibson. His combinination of the three gospels with a Pre-Vatican II twist, for me, was not so much a success of putting on screen the last days of Christ, but was a success apparent in the title. The 'passion' was ever so attractive to the masses. In a time when intellectual Christianity dominates the western world (predominantly the U.S.) passion is that holisitic aspect that Christians lack. Christians are tired of their religion always being at an apologetic stance, ready to defend against or explain away anything science has to introduce. Where has all the passion gone? It is what Christians are hungry for -- a passionate zeal for Christ first experienced as young men and women. When my wife and I waited in line for the movie theater to empty from the showing of the Passion right before our own we witnessed the entire audience exit in a cathartic detail. (We made the mistake of actually buying popcorn.)
Mr. and Mrs. Smith was very enjoyable to see. The script was well-written, funny, and left much room for the actors to impersonate who they thought the characters should be like. There was some truth about the actor and actress playing Mr. and Mrs. Smith that I couldn't quite put my finger on. It seemed satirical, portaying the extreme of marital difficulties and the violent solution presented over time, but then the extreme of marital commitment and its (also violent) conclusion. The couple was not perfect, but still kept the relationship intact by beginning again, this time honestly talking with each other. Couldn't we all learn something from this?
posted by Timcom at 9:06 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home