GENIUS FORUMS

Rory wrote:

millipodium wrote: It's not that I got nothing. It's that what I said was so simple, it needs no explanation. It's pretty obvious I was calling dan grinchy for finding the mundane joy of overcoming illness to be insufficient dramatic content for a feature film.

I didn't really think it was, either. I mean, dozens of people I know, including myself, struggle with mental illness every day, and frankly I thought it was overdone. Small victories are much more significant than becoming "all that"

-Rory

Did you have a bunch of people gather around you and give you a pen yet? Ya ain't lived until ...

millipodium wrote:
Did you have a bunch of people gather around you and give you a pen yet? Ya ain't lived until ...

I don't need a bunch of people to gather around and give me a pen. My life speaks for myself. That's my entire point. It's everyday life.

Another problem I had with the movie was that it lead to the assumption that everyone could accomplish as much as he did when for many small victories are enough.

-Rory

Rory wrote:

millipodium wrote:
Did you have a bunch of people gather around you and give you a pen yet? Ya ain't lived until ...

I don't need a bunch of people to gather around and give me a pen. My life speaks for myself. That's my entire point. It's everyday life.

Another problem I had with the movie was that it lead to the assumption that everyone could accomplish as much as he did when for many small victories are enough.

-Rory

That's not what I got out of it. It was the loftiness of his vision and his determination that carried him through. Everyone is given obstacles, and many people come up to an obstacle and say "Nope, too big. I'm not going any further." Yes there are many times when the obstacle actually is too big, but for the vast majority of people, their obstacles match their gifts. That was the balance for Nash as well. Princeton is one of the top colleges in the US - and he got one of two scholarships to go there. A person has to be the brightest of the brightest to do that. Even at that, schizophrenia knocked him off his feet awhile.

I'd guess that schizophrenia is the hardest mental illness there is for the sufferer to deal with. It's amazing to me when any schizophrenic can intermingle with others, much less hold a job. I hardly think even the average person walked away from that movie thinking schizophrenia is no big deal.

What's inspiring to a lot of people is seeing someone worse off than we are do well, even if it was because he had more gifts as well. Some people go to the movies to see Superman, others go to see A Girl Interrupted. Different people want or need different things, and different people see different things in the same things.

Rory wrote:I believe you did not look at the movie deeply enough. The fascist system, the anarchy, and the deranged terrorist hero character were so surface that the kid down the street could see them. Look at the fear aspect a little harder though.

Thanks Rory, I didn't catch some of those details. However, I don't consider this really deep. Fear seems just one aspect of the bigger picture; the internalizing of the 'system' that needs fear (shadow of punishment) to keep intact. The terror-state vs the terror-ist. The inner or outer revolutions are another control, like a safety valve. But the same theme is kind a standard in many movies, even Star Wars had it. That's why for me the 'fear' factor didn't stand out.

Where this movie differed with many blockbusters is that the heroes and villains were not likable or easy to identify with at all. I thought the kid down the street could see that too and wondered about it.

Matt Gregory wrote:Fast-paced, over-the-top caricatures are what film is best at, so I thought it made perfect sense to go with that and push it to the extreme.

Well, I don't agree that is "what film is best at" but it certainly lends itself for it very well. Nevertheless I found this movie clumsy, in every aspect, stylistic as well as plot-wise, even while I can normally easily digest a fast-paced over-the-top movie. But I don't care too much for comics, paintings and visuals much, that might explain.

The general opinions on this movie are extremely divided in the reviews around the world and that's in itself interesting.