The ribbon of dreams
The worst thing you can do while judging a movie is to judge it by its message. A movie does not have a message. A movie does not judge. You judge. The only thing the movie can do is show light on some things, and even those don't have to be real or true. They can be made up. A movie asks what if, it does not say this is. Do not blame it for showing light on something you did not want to see. A movie stands alone, it is in a vacuum. You need to realize that the movie is not of this universe, it is of another, fictional universe. If a movie shows Saddam Hussein in a good light, don't blame it for that. The movie isn't saying he was good, the movie is giving you something to think about. Blaming the movie is like shooting the messenger, because the movie was only providing you a perspective.
This rant has been brought about by reading reviews of the movie “The Reader”, which shows a Nazi prison guard in a sympathetic light. The chief criticism I find of the movie is that how dare it say that Nazis were good. Well, my answer to that is, the movie doesn’t say that dumbo! The movie shows the fictional case of a Nazi guard who *would* have been sympathetic if she had existed in the first place. What’s wrong with that? Also, for this specific example, the movie itself is an allegory to show that our generation’s understanding of the holocaust is incomplete, but that is really besides the point. Even if the movie’s sole purpose were to show Nazis as angels, it’s not to be condemned. That is a perspective. You don’t need to agree with it.
In fact, if you go to a movie to have life’s messages taught to you, you are pathetic. You should be the one deciding what is good and bad, rather than let a movie or a book (or a person!) dictate to you.
"A film is a ribbon of dreams. The camera is much more than a recording apparatus; it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world that is not ours and that brings us to the heart of a great secret. Here magic begins." -Orson Welles
The worst thing you can do while judging a movie is to judge it by its message. A movie does not have a message. A movie does not judge. You judge. The only thing the movie can do is show light on some things, and even those don't have to be real or true. They can be made up. A movie asks what if, it does not say this is. Do not blame it for showing light on something you did not want to see. A movie stands alone, it is in a vacuum. You need to realize that the movie is not of this universe, it is of another, fictional universe. If a movie shows Saddam Hussein in a good light, don't blame it for that. The movie isn't saying he was good, the movie is giving you something to think about. Blaming the movie is like shooting the messenger, because the movie was only providing you a perspective.
This rant has been brought about by reading reviews of the movie “The Reader”, which shows a Nazi prison guard in a sympathetic light. The chief criticism I find of the movie is that how dare it say that Nazis were good. Well, my answer to that is, the movie doesn’t say that dumbo! The movie shows the fictional case of a Nazi guard who *would* have been sympathetic if she had existed in the first place. What’s wrong with that? Also, for this specific example, the movie itself is an allegory to show that our generation’s understanding of the holocaust is incomplete, but that is really besides the point. Even if the movie’s sole purpose were to show Nazis as angels, it’s not to be condemned. That is a perspective. You don’t need to agree with it.
In fact, if you go to a movie to have life’s messages taught to you, you are pathetic. You should be the one deciding what is good and bad, rather than let a movie or a book (or a person!) dictate to you.
"A film is a ribbon of dreams. The camera is much more than a recording apparatus; it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world that is not ours and that brings us to the heart of a great secret. Here magic begins." -Orson Welles
Labels: Movies
posted by Akshat Jain at 10:16 AM
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