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Posts from the ‘Movie Quote Monday’ Category

Feb 4

4 Comments

Movie Quote Monday – Total Recall

Matthias:  The past is a construct of the mind.

This is a MQM first, but I haven’t actually seen Total Recall; what I saw was a couple of Faithgeeks videos discussing the movie and the questions it made them ask. Like last week’s Blade Runner, it was based on a story by Philip K. Dick and takes on some similar themes about humanity. Pretty interesting stuff! Of course, you guys know I think everything is interesting.

Here’s Clay:

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So, questions:

What does it mean to be human? At essence, what are we?

Does the past really matter to who we are today?

Can we even trust our memories of the past?

Clay: “Who we are is not dictated by who we’ve been. We should be careful to not let the past rob us of our present.”

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Here’s Karl’s response to Clay:

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Questions:

If given the chance, would I add false memories or alter existing ones?

Have I moved on from my past mistakes?

Am I too focused on the future?

Karl: “I’m not defined by my past. I’m not defined by my character defects.”

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We have discussed many of these questions and thoughts already over the last almost two years here at the blog, and pretty much always come to those same conclusions: that the past informs who we are but does not confine us to a specific destiny.

What I don’t remember talking about very much is how accurate our memories are. I consider conversations my sister and I have had about our childhood and how much our memories can differ. Certainly some of that is due simply to our individual perspectives. But I know that many of my memories have either magnified or mellowed with time. Or flat out changed. If my views of myself, other people and the experiences we shared are based on memories that I have “constructed” in a way that best suits me, then what does that mean for my present? 

I think it boils down to what Clay and Karl are basically saying: we shouldn’t let our memories of the past completely define who we are today. Further, I would say that we need to cut other people some slack as well and not judge them solely by our memories of their past. I know I continue to see some people in terms of who they were, refusing to take into consideration who they may be now or give them credit for who they are trying to be for the future. But then, I do the same thing to myself.

I do believe that “the past is a construct of the mind,” because it’s power lies in how we choose to view it. 

What are your thoughts on all this?

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You’ve met Clay before, here and here. He blogs at Claywrites.com and that’s his book over there on the sidebar. I don’t know anything about Karl, but I already like him. Faithgeeks is basically those guys talking to each other, but they do it on video and strangers get to comment. Hmm. Anyway, you can like Faithgeeks on their Facebook page and subscribe to them on their YouTube channel. I think it’s going to be an interesting ride with these two at the wheel, but then I like goofy people who make me think.

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Items of Interest:

How Our Brains Make Memories

Study Finds Memories Can Change With Each Recall

Peer Pressure Can Change Your Memories

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Jan 28

15 Comments

Movie Quote Monday – Blade Runner

I recently saw Blade Runner for the first time:

In the future (2019, haha) a company has “advanced Robot evolution” to the point of being virtually indistinguishable from humans. These robots have super strength, naturally, and “at least equal” intelligence to their creators. And so of course they are used as slaves off-planet to do probably crappy and definitely dangerous work that humans don’t want to do.

In a big surprise to everyone, six of these “Replicants” mutiny, kill 23 humans and jump a shuttle back to Earth. Replicants “were designed to copy human beings in every way except their emotions.” It was estimated that after a few years they would start developing their own emotional responses, and so they were built with a four-year life span. These six Replicants have come back to Earth in search of a way to extend their lives.

It was pretty thought-provoking, and the first thing I considered was how many books and movies include robots or computers that have jumped the gap from being purely machine to having self-awareness. Some humans (at least in the fictional world) have a burning need to create sentient life by non-biological means, and I find that interesting. Why is this theme so pervasive in fiction? Why are we so fascinated with that idea?

Why, if this is a wide-spread fantasy and we can write stories in any way we want, does it almost always turn out to be humanity’s doom? Or at the least rather deadly.

Of course if a robot has self-awareness, but not compassion or empathy – you know, the kinds of things you develop when you have a childhood – then that would maybe not be a great thing.

Beyond that, it seems rather cruel to purposely create a being to have human emotions and then discount that being’s “humanity”, abusing it as though it were merely a machine.

At the end of the movie, the main Replicant antagonist laments his own death:

Roy:  I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those…moments will be lost…in time…like…tears…in rain.

That seems pretty human to me – not wanting to lose your thoughts and memories, not wanting to let go of your experiences. Those are the things that build upon one another and help make you who you are, but once we’re gone, our own personal involvement in the world melts into a collective memory. Our uniqueness is lost in the downpour of human history.

So my question is, is it wrong for a conscious being to do whatever it has to do to protect its own existence?

Exactly what constitutes “life” for these artificial humans?  And then to what extent is society responsible for protecting that life?

Who was really the monster: Frankenstein or the creature he brought into being?

♦

Dec 17

20 Comments

Movie Quote Monday – The Hunger Games

I’ve been on a Hunger Games kick here recently, so I’ve seen it several times in the past few weeks. This scene jumps out at me each time:

President Snow : Hope.
—Seneca : Hope?
President Snow : Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear.

I have strong feelings about hope, a strong belief in the power of hope, and so that small exchange made an impression on me from the first time I saw it in the theater.

If you look at The Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss is considered a representation of hope by both sides. Rebellion leadership uses her as a propaganda tool, a beacon of hope for the masses, an incitement to war.  Snow continues to see her as the embodiment of a hope that needs to be crushed.

But when I look at Katniss, I don’t see hope outright.  I see defiance and will, compassion and love. Determination. I guess what I mean is Katniss doesn’t feel like a particularly hopeful character to me, and she doesn’t seem specifically motivated by hope. In fact, she sometimes operates from a place of despair – the opposite of hope.

And yet her actions incite hope.

Her acts of will unleash something stronger than fear in the hearts of others: the realization that things can change, that there is hope.  If Katniss Everdeen can stand up against the capital, maybe I can too.  

It’s interesting.

So, what do you think? Is hope the only thing stronger than fear?

♦

Items of Interest:

Hope Springs Eternal

Is Hope Important?

Oct 8

13 Comments

Movie Quote Monday – Lars and the Real Girl

Today’s movie quote is sponsored by Clay Morgan.  And by sponsored, I mean he knows nothing about this post. That’s Clay’s new book, Undead, on the side bar – give the cover a click to see what it’s all about!  (It’s zombie non-fiction, so chew on that a minute.  Chew on that, haha.  I did zombie humor, ya’ll!)

Lars and the Real Girl is about a young man who buys a life-sized doll to be his girlfriend.  Before you click away!, this isn’t a creepy movie, I promise.  It’s actually – oh my gosh, this movie – it’s sweet and funny and sad and touching and it’s just so many things.  It’s quirky and unusual, which I love, love, love.  And I cry every single time, no matter how many times I’ve seen it.  I won’t tell you when I cry, because it would be too much of a spoiler, and also it kind of makes me feel super foolish.  But I guess that’s the thing, is this movie makes me cry (every single time), even though what I’m crying about is kind of ridiculous.  The emotions they’ve built up behind this crazy scenario are just so deep that I can’t help myself.

(Fine, I sob.  But let’s just keep that between us, okay?)

Family, community and relationships are at the heart of this movie, as well as loss and fear.  Lars doesn’t know how to have relationships with people.  I think he fears the thing he wants the most, which is so relatable.  I have struggled with that, certainly not in the same magnitude, in such a life-defining way, but I know what that feels like.  And so Lars buys this doll as a kind of emotional bridge: his interactions with this fake human are the first steps in enabling him to interact with real people.

In Undead, there’s a section about how we offer food to people when they need to be comforted.  Clay talks about something I never paid attention to before, how Jesus would bring someone back to life and then tell the family to feed that person.  “Jesus just brought you back from the dead…  Let’s eat!”

That passage immediately brought to mind a scene from Lars that left a big impression on me.  It’s one of those quiet and simple and wonderful scenes that speak so much, at least to me.  I’ve written before about not knowing how to handle grief situations, especially not knowing what to say. It’s so difficult to know how to console someone , and that’s what this scene is about.

Ladies from the community have come over to sit with Lars while he’s hurting.  And that’s it.  They quietly do their needlepoint and knitting, just being there with him.  And they feed him.

Lars:  I feel terrible that all this is happening so close to the baby coming.
—Mrs. Petersen:  That’s how life is, Lars.  Everything at once.
Mrs. Schindler:  We brought casseroles.
—Lars:  Thank you.  Um, is there something I should be doing right now?
Mrs. Bruner:  No, dear.  You eat.
—Mrs. Schindler:  We came over to sit.
Mrs. Petersen:  That’s what people do when tragedy strikes.
—Mrs. Schindler:  They come over and sit.
Lars:   Okay.

These women give Lars physical and emotional nourishment, food and companionship.  They don’t offer up platitudes or condolences.  They don’t give advice or talk about their own experiences of loss or heartache.

They come over and sit.

I feel like that’s a good lesson for me, in situations where another is suffering, to open my heart instead of my mouth.

What do you think?

♦

Items of Interest:

Why can’t I say the right things? (in which I don’t just come over and sit)

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