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 Kris Feenstra on -
In what way did they paint him as a monster? I'm asking as a person who hasn't seen the movie, and probably won't in any short order.
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Permalink Reply by Mrs. Jones on -
I might be able to find some movie quotes somewhere... but the pic I included is the main thing.. the little girl always looks so scared of Dad. They have Dad not spending any time with her, because he's always fixing the house or doing his science. They have Dad trying to push a journal on her. He studies and lives in the world of science, and he got her a gift, a scientific journal. Says she has great potential and should fill it with research, and when he finds her doing fairy research (which in the movie where fairies are real, is real research) he gets totally pissed, asks why she wastes her talents on fairytales. She actually uses the words at one point, "You don't have to prove it, you just have to believe!" He actually uses the words at one point, "If you can't see it/prove it, it's not real!" ... (what scientists thinks there are absolutely no things in the universe we can't see or prove?) so in this sense, fairytales for kids, Dad ends up being wrong. He owes her a huge apology at the end, has a picnic with fairies and makes them tea. I don't know why he had to be a scientist, or pushing science on her, why the plot had to be quite so.. except to extend an ulterior message than just being allowed to use your imagination.
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Permalink Reply by Mrs. Jones on
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OH I almost forgot, they sic Dad on the childrens' hero, Tink! Yes, they victimize the star Disney Character, by way of a mean Dad/scientist character who wants to use her for research when he discovers her, and has apparently no value for her life! wtf? He also entraps a living butterfly to take and be studied, and tells his daughter to explain this, "Yes it's unfortunate for the 'specimen,' but ..." (something along the lines of that's the cost of science or something) ... Every other line was a smack at science or study, in a sense of it being versus the beauty of simple belief.
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Permalink Reply by Lindsey on -
Children's movies do have a habit of portraying science/ skepticism in a bad light. I was watching The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl (worst movie ever) with some kids I was sitting for last night and the skeptic teacher is portrayed as a real jerk.
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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on
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"They have Dad not spending any time with her, because he's always fixing the house or doing his science."
I don't know if this sort of thing is anti-science, or simply perpetuating a stereotype -- a stereotype that didn't necessarily come from nothing. That's not to say I'm fond of the message it sends, but it could be more the product of hackneyed storytelling than anything else.
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Permalink Reply by Mrs. Jones on
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I guess it was moreso that Mr. Bad Dad was made a scientist for this plot, and his science was the main reason for the family divide. Why did they have to do that? Plenty of bankers get little time with their kids and in fact I think that was closer to one of the more famous versions of the Tink chronicles, going into Peter Pan and such...
The leaky roof he was always trying to plug up was just an incident in the movie that took more time from his life, and that he needed extra help with but couldn't find. As you can probably imagine even before I say it, Mr. Genius Scientist Dad could not fix his leaky roof problems on his own -- and one night Ms. Fairytale Princess fixes it for him, kind of like an unseen helping force that, ""You don't have to prove... you just have to believe.." in. I guess I didn't say that before, but yeah, the thing he considers a fairytale fixes a major issue in his life, and then goes on to "fix," his and his daughters relationship by revealing herself to him. It's all a message I think.
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Permalink Reply by Lindsey on
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I grew up watchin 7th Heaven and Degrassi. They pretty much cover every social issue there is. I'm not sure how much they actually shaped my beliefs though. And I watched Scooby-Doo alot too, that might've helped make me a little skeptical of the superntural. Although I did watch plenty of supernatural horror movies too. Meh, who knows.
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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on
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I can't watch 7th Heaven without experiencing intense anger. I'm not even kidding. Very little gets me actually angry, but that show just violates something deep in my core.
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Permalink Reply by Mrs. Jones on
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