My favorite movies

LongDistanceConversations

Last night I was trying to make a list of my favorite movies, and the common thread (thematically) for most of them seemed to be characters finding their humanity (typically their manhood) by fighting the accepted or developing definitions in their culture at large. Two such examples are Fight Club and Good Will Hunting.

In both of these movies there is a degree of frustration with normative manliness that is dealt with violently. But interestingly enough I don't see the acts of violence themselves (whether it's Will lashing out at a former schoolmate who "kicked the shit out of me.." or the brutality of the fight clubs) as carrying any expectation of vicory over the world around theses men. The violence portrayed in Good Will Hunting looks like pent-up anger toward life that gets the best of Will. This despite, maybe even because of, his daunting intelligence. In Fight Club the violence is aimed at a goal, but it is not direcly related to toppling the consumer culture that has de-humanized western culture.

In the end the answer seems to be a letting go. Will needs to realease his guilt and fear of failure. For Jack (Edward Norton in Fight Club), and his entire generation, it's necessary to release the ideal to be perfect. In essence these two movies are very similar thematically. And I think that the themes are best summed up by Tyler (Brad Pitt in Fight Club) "I say, let's evolve. Chips fall where they may."

It's time to move on from the desire to be refined and perfect. Maybe humanity needs to have a few crags and crevaces, lending rough edges to our lives and interaction. The picture painted of intended humanity in the Bible may be care-free, but I think much of that stems from the lack of polish applied to YHWH's image (i.e. humanity).

If this post seems, in any way, disjointed, I apologize sincerely. I was really just brainstorming. But it would be slightly more than ironic were I to polish this particular post too much.

Grace and Peace,
Jared