Life Lessons from the Movies
What lessons in life were taught to you by movies? Maybe you were taught a lesson but a movie line or premise taught you the moral lesson. The human condition that gay couples faced in Philadelphia may have brought you from acceptance to full on empathy. Maybe it was a fairness lesson. For me, I'm 36, I grew up in white bred NW Washington. When I was kid, if you saw someone with extra melanin, it was because they were Indian, the fishing kind up here. It was a stunning lack of diversity. I come from a family that had generational racism one side. The preceding generation isn't hateful, but sometimes ignorant. Maybe the joke goes too far and the room rolls their eyes. As a result of this, I was 22 before racial equality clicked for me. Sure, I was fair, but 25 seconds of a movie made me say, "I have to change my thinking." A Time to Kill has a scene where Samuel Jackson says to Matthew McConaughey, "You see me as Different". It struck me because McConaughey is trying to help him and be equitable, but there is more to the story. It changed me. Not a great teacher, parent, friend or experience, but a movie. What movie has changed you?
Here's mine 3:35 to 4:00
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Becca on -
Movies and TV shows definitely influenced my thoughts on race and regarding people of other races as 'normal' instead of mysterious. I grew up in eastern Oregon... Bend to be precise and the only people with extra melanin we saw were those from the near by reservation or those building houses (people from somewhere south of the border.)
My mom said that once when I was really little and sitting in the cart we went past a black couple with a baby and I said out loud "look mom it's a chocolate baby!"
Here's a short list of shows/movies what I can come up with off the top of my head that influenced me in some way:
- The Cosby Show
- Sometimes in April
- Hotel Rwanda
- Milk
- The Matthew Shepard Story (made for TV movie)
All of these movies and shows influenced my thinking away from that of my grandparents and from my parents to some extent too. My grandparents always were and still to this day are racist... not violent racist but the "they should keep to themselves/go back to their own country" racist. They certainly are homophobic and think homosexuals are going straight to hell and that the 'gay' can be spread similar to a virus.
My mother isn't racist at all and due to my influence isn't really bothered by gays as far as I can figure my did still harbors a few prejudices mostly in that he talks like he is suspicious of certain so called 'races.' He also is very suspicious of gays and would rather not be around them.
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Permalink Reply by Gaytor on -
I had one of greatest ski trips of my life at Bachelor in 1988. I'm usually down there once a year to inspect a crane that a guy owns. The homes on the west end of town are ridiculous! It would be a great weekend home town if I had a Cessna and more money.
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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on -
Pearl Harbor changed me. I'm convinced that a small part of my brain up and committed suicide about halfway though that awful film.
There are lots of movies that have been inspirational, or insightful, but not so many that I felt really changed me as a person.
I need to watch it again, but there was a Japanese movie in the late 90s called After Life that left a strong impression on me concerning happiness and obligation.
There was a part in the movie Dogville that always stuck out for me. It deals with arrogance. The specific part I'm talking about is around the 3:15 minute mark onwards from this clip.
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Permalink Reply by Gaytor on
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That's interesting. I don't know that I ever saw that movie. I might have to hunt it down and watch it now. The set up of forgiving everyone does come off arrogant and I've never thought of it that way from a human to human.
I might have to do a side by side of Kidman. I never thought of her as being a woman who has had work done, but she looks totally different there.
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Permalink Reply by Aric on -
You would know if you had seen Dogville. It is unlike anything else. It's a wonderful movie, but it's very disturbing.
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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on
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I'd recommend it. The scene I linked works as a stand-alone, but it makes much more sense in the context of the entire film.
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Permalink Reply by Doug Reardon on -
Barbarossa: Willie Nelson plays the red beard, one line from the movie: "What you cannot change, you accept."
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Permalink Reply by willailla on -
Pulp Fiction taught me that compromise is necessary sometimes--
Marsellus: In the fifth, your ass goes down. Say it.
Butch: In the fifth, my ass goes down.
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Permalink Reply by Becca on
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How could I forget American History X? Definitely one to add to my above list.
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Permalink Reply by Bill on -
I've often thought about life lessons from the movies. I can think of thousands of little tidbits I carry around with me from the movies, as well as books. All kinds of fiction, really.
My theory is that the original nomads whom the bible is based on were doing much the same thing with camp-fire stories.
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Permalink Reply by Mrs. Jones on -
Maybe I'm being an ass about this, agnostic hubby thinks so, but I really don't want my kid seeing Tinker Bell 3 again... the Great Fairy Rescue one...anybody know what I'm talkin about? Haven't seen any fussing about it on the internet, but I really freakin hate them painting the kids dad (a scientist who advocates reason and logic) as a fkn monster! The first two weren't preachy, they were awesome kiddo flicks that stretched imaginations and were colorful, pretty music and animation and we thought they were uber cute...but there's an all-to-strong emphasis in the third that I can't help but see as a cracked door into pushing a message against science.
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