Wow. According to this post, the last movie I saw was Cinderella Man. I don't even remember how that one went. Oh well. Continuation of the first part!
Last time I saw a movie was Cinderella Man, in the Northwood performing arts building. It's a movie about a washed-up has-been boxer that struggles to feed his family during the Great Depression, and is given another chance to get back into boxing. Miraculously, he manages to win enough matches to make his way to the championship match, and wins that too. 80% on rotten tomatoes, nominated for a couple academy awards. By all means, a decent movie.
It's strange though, because all throughout the movie, I tried my very hardest not to get sucked in. To not get caught up in the story, music, and scenery. I tried to keep to my senses, by constantly reminding myself where I was and what I was doing. Which, respectively, was in a crowded performing arts room and trying to get some APUSH extra credit.
Why? Well, there isn't really any direct, straightforward answer to that. I think it was the conspiracy theorist inside me that was positive that movies, television, and everything pop culture was just a front for consumer democracy propaganda. That part of me wanted to see firsthand what messages and images the movie was trying to hammer into my head, without any distractions.
What I saw wasn't anything revolutionary, to Mr. Conspiracy Theorist's infinite dismay. The usual: the deliberate stereotyping of good guys and bad guys, the emotional dependency on the underdog story, and the overindulgence of the glories of competition and fame.
And I wonder, is it bad that we don't notice these things when we watch movies, that they all hide just under the surface? Imagine asking your best friend, "What'd you think of the movie?"
"Dude, it was really good!"
"Oh, what'd you like about it?"
"Well, I don't know. It felt good when I watched it."
I'm not saying everyone should pull a movie critic, and be able to write paragraphs of analysis showing how movies succeed and fail. All I think is that we should maybe think about why we do things more. Understand the reasons for our actions, and what that makes us. Continue to work out what we're doing with our lives, and what direction we're going for. And maybe put all of that in words, no matter how jumbled and nonsensical it turns out to be.
It turns out that you can't do any of that if you're always trying to detach yourself from reality. How are you supposed to change your situation if you spend all your time trying to get away from it? I know the feeling, where you try to examine your life and make it better, only to find out that you haven't been living it.
That being said, your life may suck. I have no idea what kind of crap swamp you may be wading through right now, so I can't blame you for trying to get away from it for a bit. But... try and get your hands dirty a little bit. You won't have to do it alone. Tell a friend. Someone. Anyone. It might help, and isn't that worth it?
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