It’s funny, because my primary
activity this past month has been watching television shows and movies, neither
of which will I be able to do during my Mission Year, and now I'm blogging about it. Part of this is because I'm going through AFI's 100 Years 100 Movies list, and part is because this happens to be the activity my family and I like to do together. Any of you who know me,
however, know that I am frequently inspired thought-provoked (is that a thing?)
by visual media. I would like to share with you some of my most recent
thoughts, inspired by The Fault in Our Stars,
Lawrence of Arabia, and Orange is the New Black.
It all started while I was watching The Fault in Our Stars, having already
read the book. Overall, I enjoyed the film, noting some artistic choices I
would have made differently than the film’s creators. My interest in this story
of two teenagers with cancer falling in love stemmed in part from my love of
high school movies. I am truly moved by cinema that is set in a high school and
treats its characters with respect and nuance, and recognizes that they are not
all simple stereotypes. The Spectacular
Now, Perks of Being A Wallflower,
and Donnie Darko come to mind as
other films with these types of three dimensional characters. The stories I am
interested in are those in which the characters are not just stereotypes, as
two high school teens with cancer could be, but ones that truly respect all
aspects of their characters’ beings.
This idea was only reinforced by
watching Lawrence of Arabia, a
classic that I thought would just be boring desert scenes where some handsomely
heroic man would save a bunch of foreigners. Instead, the film began with the title
character dying by veering off the road on a motorcycle, only to cut to the funeral
where people were speaking to his heroism as well as his vanity and recklessness.
Throughout the film, the audience sees the actual story of how his vanity and fearlessness
combined to send him to Arabia to help people, only to descend into a madness
of sorts. Each of these qualities represents a specific part of Lawrence’s being.
The film could have labeled him a “hero,” “madman,” or several other
technically accurate adjectives. Instead, the filmmakers chose to portray him as
a multidimensional human being, as every person is.
And now for Orange is the New Black. While I understand many people’s
hesitation to watch the show due to its graphic sexual content and pervasive
language (seriously though, it’s not for the easily offended), this show has
created some of the most captivatingly complex characters (alliteration alert!)
I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. No true heroes or villains are
established, because each person is both in some way. Every inmate, guard,
family member, and friend represented has the potential to exemplify many
different parts of who they are. Even some of the primary villains have reasons
for acting how they do, which makes them people the audience can more fully
understand and even root for. Plus, most of the characters in the show are
women in prison, so each of them has been caught for doing something illegal.
But each of them has a story as to why they did what they did.
Don’t each of us have more than one
story that speaks to why we do the things we do? I wonder if we oftentimes
choose to label people as one thing (e.g. She’s such a whore. He’s just a liar.
They’re so lazy.), when they are actually made up of a plethora of stories and
influences that contribute to many aspects their being. Perhaps our goal as
humans should not be to label people, but instead to discover more about who
they truly are (especially the good stuff). After all, even when we give people
the same labels they give themselves, our own truths are not always as reliable
as we think.
During my time in the inner city, I
hope to constantly remember that those I live with, my neighbors, and even my
enemies have reasons for their actions. Good reasons. And that every person’s
reasons seem valid to them, even if I don’t understand them. It’s been my goal
for a while to learn to ask better questions. Many of the people in my life are
great at modeling this attribute. I think that question-asking is one of the
keys to understanding people’s motives and perspectives. And guess what. They
may have more than one motive or perspective for the things they do! It’s our
job to try to understand others, and realize that EVERY (all caps shouting
provided for emphasis) person is multidimensional and valuable, even when we want
to label them otherwise.
