: : : meet in the lobby : : :

this movie could be considered to be a lesson to kids: if you’re going off somewhere… leave a note!

it can also be considered as a lesson to us all. let me extrapolate somewhat.

i watched 127 hours a while back [and raved about it on facebook] but never got round to writing a full review for it – so here goes.

danny boyle should be a national treasure. from stolen money to zombies and astronauts to slumdogs - the man is a genius in whatever he does. even ‘the beach’, while not his best work, still shows better craftsmanship and understanding of what makes a great movie than the majority of stuff other directors have produced in the last decade.

his last movie continues that success. everyone and his dog knows the story behind this movie. rock climber falls, rock climber’s arm gets trapped by boulder, rock climber must escape or die, rock climber lops arm off, rock climber learns life lesson. it could be a grim tale and with a lesser director it may well have ended up an absolute snorefest. but it didn’t… and it isn’t.

now, the problem with this ‘true story’ is that we already know how it turns out so the main dramatic elements will not come as a surprise. because we know this, and director knows we know this, he has to pad out his tale somewhat! this is where it could have got really tedious. but boyle mixes the flashbacks, hallucinations, and his use of cameras and extreme close-ups to tell a gripping story [sorry].

i love the fact that it’s only when he becomes trapped that we are presented with the movie’s title: 127 hours- the period of time aron finds himself in this horrifying situation. now he’s beginning to panic, and so do we. he tries everything to free his arm and finally comes to the realisation that there really is only one way he is going to survive. I cannot talk about this movie without mentioning “the bit with the arm”. this is handled in a very clever way and is completely realistic, while being in no way gratuitous. be warned, the intricate severing of his arm is brutal, and even though i had prepared myself for this act, it turns out i wasn’t that prepared at all!

now, what begins as a tragic story is ultimately an uplifting movie of the fight to survive. A fight that we all have within us, that we act out every day. We go to work to earn money to survive, we eat and drink to survive, we spend time alone to survive the noise, we spend time with friends and loved ones to survive the loneliness.  

it’s a brilliant film, and i heartily recommend you see it.

we can sometimes [unknowingly] get trapped in our own canyon – staring at the walls with no way of escape. but we aren’t as trapped as we think we are. if we release ourselves from this existence from time to time – to experience the wonder of god’s creation in the open air, or the company of a close friend who we’ve been too busy to see, it can make all the difference to our existence.

we were not created to work, we were created to be.

so maybe it’s time to look up and stop working… and start being.

as one of boyle’s famous characters once said, “choose life!”.

Deut 30:19

for me, when it comes to sci-fi movies i like them cooked a certain way. much of the sci-fi movies that get released are aimed at people with adhd, they are big and shiny but rather empty within. you don’t have to look far to see what i mean, watch transformers for 20 minutes and it’s enough to send anyone into a twitchy fit!..

my introduction to the genre included classics such as star wars, mad max, close encounters, back to the future, the black hole, planet of the apes, westworld, invasion of the body snatchers, the fly and the like. I tended to veer towards sci-fi tv too with shows like doctor who, buck rogers, battlestar galactica, logan’s run, otherworld, the twilight zone, and of course the prisoner all moulding me and filling my mind with tales of wonder, danger, and adventure.

these days, in a world where there is rarely a movie made that doesn’t have cgi and 3d, the sci-fi genre has for the most part been swallowed up by whizz bang effects and audio and big greedy companies out to bleed as much money as possible from the unsuspecting public for utter twaddle. but there’s hope… occasionally you get a slice of fiction that really makes you think. 2001, moon, solaris, and even minority report fit into this drawer – as does ‘the man from earth’.

this movie is about a guy called john oldman who is getting ready to leave his town to start a new life. while packing his truck he is descended upon by a handful of work colleagues who plan to give him a little celebratory send off, and more urgently to figure out why he is suddenly leaving. he tells them that
he moves every 10 years or so when people begin to suspect him of not aging - he is in fact 14,000 years old.

so begins one of the best sci-fi movies i’ve seen in recent years. but this isn’t sci-fi of the inception or avatar kind. this is a slice of science fiction set in one room with no cgi or strange creatures or moving walls… just a roaring open fire, comfy chairs, wine, and 6 friends trying to work all this out.

this is psychological sci-fi. it’s a “what if…?” movie, and we get to see what these friends think of and ask mr oldman [love the choice of name]. they are all experts in their fields, biology, archaeology, religion, physchology, etc and all the questions they ask are the kind we would ask, and all the answers they get back, make complete sense. there’s no techno-babble, just real reasons as to how this caveman could actually be sharing the same air. they cover history and our perception and understanding of it, religion, and nature and how it works. everything about what we know and why we believe it is called into question.

this really is a true gem to watch.

it’s easy to miss a quiet diamond of a film like this in the shouty-ness [it’s a real word] of blockbuster movies, and it’s a big shame that most people will never have heard of ‘the man from earth’, but i for one owe a big thank you to a friend of mine for bringing this one to my attention.

let me just say right off the bat that i’m not a particularly huge fan of boxing movies, or movies centred around sport generally. i believe we can all, to some degree, relate to the protagonist who rises beyond all expectation and belief to stand toe to toe with his biggest obstacle, slug it out, and win. this is why i think boxing movies get one over on most other sports movies – the fight!

for me a ‘boxing’ movie works best when the story being told is putting more of the emphasis on the characters than on the sport itself. million dollar baby, crying fist and raging bull do this tremendously.

which brings me to ‘the fighter’. this is a movie based on a true story. now from what i’ve read it’s pretty accurate – so far as the action in the ring and the background of the characters and the setting are concerned. that’s a good start, as most movies ‘based on a true story’ generally bear little semblance to the ‘true story’ from which they originate.

the big names in this movie are bale and wahlberg, as dicky and micky [i kid you not!].

there are certain actors who i really enjoy watching on screen, and among them is christian bale. the guy’s a marvel to watch, and here we have another incredible, memorable role from him. at first i thought he was being really ott as micky’s twitchy crack addicted trainer, but having seen footage of the real dicky, he’s actually pretty spot on. unfortunately i’m not a huge fan of wahlberg, i think he’s ok(ish) as an actor and this movie does nothing to change my opinion of his talents. he seems unable to muster up an expression that doesn’t involve frowning, which this role [fortunately] requires him to do a lot.

the movie is basically a biopic of micky’s struggle to become a successful boxer and to win the welterweight championship bout. but it’s actually more about his struggle to break free of the shackles of his overbearing mother/manager, his genius but very destructive brother/trainer, and the lack of self-belief in his own boxing ability.

alas, it can also be viewed with bale’s character as the main protagonist, with the fight being his road to a life worth living. a realisation that he is destroying himself, and that this is not the life he really wants to live. ultimately he wants to be the best mentor his brother could have but has demons of his own to defeat. dicky knows that unless he’s in micky’s corner - he will struggle against his opponents.

for me bale’s story arc was far more interesting than wahlberg’s, but both worked well together. the supporting roles are also wonderfully realised – girlfriend amy adams, playing a take-no-messing barmaid called charlene, wants for a better life, but is living with the results of some bad decisions. the boys’ mother, alice, has their best interests at heart, but lives by the statement “don’t trust no-one who ain’t family.”, and the 7 big-haired bitchy sisters!

the boxing aspect is pretty standard – the rise from underdog to champion, etc etc. the gloved up fights are good but not amazing. but this movie revolves more around the dramatic encounters of the family than it does the fights. the people here who should be loving and supporting each other are doing nothing of the sort, and it’s this that gives the movie it’s real strength – its heart, especially when things begin to go right… when they begin to forgive each other. this is when it becomes truly powerful.

we have all and probably will in our own lives find obstacles that we feel we cannot [and in many ways do not] want to acknowledge and tackle. there are fights that we feel we cannot win, that will destroy us. the reality is that sometimes in order to move forward we need to find ourselves at rock bottom.

now, we can choose to just lie there – defeated and broken, or we can look to our corner, and with the help of god, our family, and our friends… we can overcome the worst that life can throw at us.

as a christian if find it painfully ironic that we have just celebrated the death and resurrection of jesus christ – who died *for us all* - that many of those same people are celebrating the death of osama bin laden.

are we not called to be imitators of christ - do people think that jesus would have been standing here throwing a fist in the air with a resounding “yea!”? would  he be giving his disciples a celebratory slap on the back for such a result? would he be heard saying “thank you god.”

i personally doubt it!

jesus loved the world so much that he died for *all* of us, wiping away *all* our sins. the blood of jesus was no more shed for me than it was bin laden. as painful as that statement is for people to hear [and i struggle with it myself to some degree] it’s the truth. but isn’t that what’s so amazing about god’s love – that it is for everyone. he’s not prejudice and exclusive, there’s no bar been set for us to attain greatness with him. he wants *all* people to turn to him. he gave us jesus, “the way", so that we would have unity with him.

in ezekiel 33v11 god states "...as surely as i live, declares the sovereign lord, i take no pleasure in the death of the wicked....". jesus commands us to love our enemies, and i’m pretty sure that doesn’t translate as rejoice in their death. but wait…

proverbs 11v10 states “when the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.” alright – where does this leave us.

well i believe it tells us that if we feel anything over bin laden’s death it should be these two things:

1) joy that injustice has taken a knock and that bin laden will no longer be able to preach and instigate death, and

2) sadness that this man lived a life so misguided and unaware of the love that christ had for him.