Firstly, I’m sorry for the emotions, my childhood turning point evokes. The pic is an example of mine. I wasn’t going to include it, but I feel like it gives a good visceral example of deep messages in movies (of course actual philosophy, and non emotionally devastating examples apply, too). I just watched a clip on a study on some elderly men, taken to a time warp hotel, and asked to pretend it was that time, and it had huge positive effects on their physical capabilities and mental capacity. And it reminded me of the power of hope, it’s not just embedded in the happy ending, where everything works out ok. Or the promise of it. Hope is also the core of resilience, necessary for driving each step that carries you along the yellow brick road.
I’ll share mine here, so you get an idea what I’m asking. I was devastated watching the scene above, as a kid. But also, I saw Atreus ability to keep going, not only not giving up, and therefore not sinking in a place that takes you if you do, but then also carrying the weight of the grief of his life companion. And he was now alone, realising his mortality and facing, what he is told, are impossible odds. He still keeps going. I think, to child me, there was so much power in seeing something is possible. I believed I, too, could survive anything. And even if I were alone, I could still survive anything, because that power came from inside me, no one can take that from you. “Don’t let the darkness take you” the darkness is an external force. It wants to creep in and convince you to buy it’s snake oils.
There is so much power in convincing people the “darkness” is inevitable, there is nothing else. I see it all around me, embedded in the propaganda, convincing us not to resist, that resistance is futile. Half of the battle is in our own heads, and the brainwashing swamps we wade through, now.
What are your tools of resilience, your keys for undoing the fight or flight, all the horrifying videos around us are designed, to evoke, to keep our thinking brains detached, and only our “run hide” brains active, so we can’t think, so we can’t plan, so we just sink in and accept?
What’s helped you get back up, when you have fallen? From whatever sources, I just feel like, maybe now is a time, it’s important to share a shoulder to cope on. Or even just moved you, to an extent it changed your perspective or way of thinking?
If you think that scene was distressing, go watch the original German version, it’s next level.
Edit: The movie version ending of The Mist probably tops my list.
Edit 2: Here’s the YouTube video that made me aware of the German version.
wait. is it the same movie, just different edit?
Yep.
Different editing, music, some voiceover differences, you’ll laugh your arse off at the racing snail guys voice, and some difference in the order and length of the scenes.
For someone who’s only watched the German version, what’s the difference?
They added music and removed the sounds of the horse in distress.
The German had extra dialogue, different music, slight difference in scene order and is better in my opinion.
WHAT… now I know what I want to put on my list for the family movie night.
My kids have been both and we all agreed the original German version is better.
FYI: the original German version is in English, so no subtitles to worry about for kids.
Edit: This was a good watch and the reason we watched the German version. https://youtu.be/kw3q65OxtCQ
Yep, I added it to my list and so many of them were agog at this particular change. We’ll see if they vote for it or not.
Jawul
What’s the difference? I really want to know. That scene in the photo evokes so much sadness and despair!
I see it and raise it to: read the book. The horse speaks.
Threads and The Day After taught me that there are people out there that would rather be right, than alive.
The final scene of Threads really fucked me up, I already had birth trauma and that scene gave me proper wake-up-screaming nightmares for months.
Threads and Where the wind blows taught me that there is no living after a nuclear war. Just a excruciating decline and collapse
For this if we can add TV shows I’d say quite a few scenes from Andor, the excellent speeches, when Keeno Lot wasn’t able to swim, the whole show is filled with scenes like this.
You Got the Touch scene from Transformers (1984) taught me about what it means to be a leader and to sacrifice for your ideals. Optimus Prime was my hero.
It’s about grief and depression. Oh and having a shitty dad. The depression part hit too hard when I was a kid and didn’t understand how bad my depression was.
Two come to mjnd:
Star Trek 2 - The Wrath of Khan.
Spock gives his life to save his friends, willingly and without pause. And his best friend has to say goodbye to him.
Of course, the first time I saw it I didn’t know what was coming next, so to me it was final, and devastating.
It prepared me well for things that happened IRL later on.
Secondly, because I don’t want to be 100% on a downer, the finale of Labyrinth. “You have no power over me” nudged me towards the idea that many people who profess to be in charge of you only have that power because they say they do. And you can take that back for yourself.
CoCo fundamentally changed the way I think about death and the value of memory. I went into it knowing almost nothing about Día de los Muertos, so I wasn’t expecting it to affect me as deeply as it did.
The idea that someone can disappear forever only when they are no longer remembered hit me in a way I wasn’t prepared for. It was such a sad thought, but strangely comforting too. Sad because it means there is a kind of “second loss” that can come with time, but comforting because it suggests that the people we love are never truly gone as long as we carry them with us, speak their names, and keep their stories alive.
That idea stayed with me long after the movie ended. It made death feel less like a hard ending and more like a responsibility of love through memory.
Plus, the music is amazing.
That movie was recommended to me by several Mexicans when I was in Mexico a few days before the holiday. It seems they did an excellent job representing the meaning and the spirit of the celebration. So the cool thing is you do, now, know Dios de Los Meurtos.
Beautiful movie.
Plus it introduced me to the song La Llarona (covered by many people) for a haunting October sound
South Park S3E10, Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery.
The whole episode is a Scooby-Doo parody, and it’s alright. But the joke that got me thinking was this:
Jonathan Davis: All right gang, we have to split up and look for clues!
Stan Marsh: How should we split up?
Jonathan Davis: I know! Let’s have everyone who enjoys having obstacles in their life which they can overcome go this way, and everyone whose insecurity sabotage their potential to overcome those obstacles go that way.
[Everyone says “OK!”, then splits up into two roughly equal groups]
Kyle Broflovski: Wow! That was easy!
They just all knew which group they were in immediately. Got me thinking about which group I was in.
The Groundhog Day taught be a lot about acceptance and trying to make the best of whatever situation I’m in.
The Kara No Kyoukai anthology influenced my imagination and how I view my inner world of art.
The perfect blend between minimalist, simple yet elegant design that is set in an urban setting.
That Japanese one from the Ghibli movies.
So whimsical!
Artax and Atreyu, this scene always made me cry. Luckly enough there is a Falkor
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape gave me a good perspective on caring for my loved ones, especially ones who have a hard time caring for themselves.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” -V for Vendetta
I used to think about governments in terms of the things I had to do for them (pay taxes, jury duty, carry my license while driving) or else what they’d do to me (fines or jail, usually). This quote helped me understand that this transaction is not one-way and that if a government fails its people then the people should hold it accountable.
Whether that’s healthy for a given person, realistically possible, or if there’s enough people who’ve been wronged to hold it accountable are different questions, of course.
Watching how a single person, a single life, could positively impact the lives of so many people got me to be a registered organ donor.
