Movie Review: "Save Me"

This wonderfully touching story, produced in twenty-oh-seven, is a deep, tender, and honest psychological and psychospiritual study. It concerns a couple, Ted and Gail, who have opened a "half-way house" for male homosexuals. They call their project by the elegant Greek name "Genesis."
Ted and especially Gail are traditional Christians. Therefore, they make the serious but ubiquitous error of mistaking the ancient Hebrew god Jehovah/Yahweh for the Christian God of pure Love. This virtually ruins any chance of real success: They see male-homosexuals as having a "disease," and in need of a "cure."
Ted seems to have, and to express, more Love; but Gail is still too hung up on laws, legalism, and prohibitions found in the Hebrew Scriptures really to allow herself to love. A choice is presented throughout this movie: We all must choose either Love or religion; Gail makes the wrong choice.
Because of this ignorance, she had kicked her own gay son out of her house; and that was the last she saw of him; he died shortly thereafter. But even this death did not penetrate the thick ignorance that caused Gail to continue to judge.
In one tragic scene, the father of one gay man is on his deathbed. His final words were those of Leviticus in the Hebrew Scriptures, condemning homosexuality. He had never managed to "forgive" his gay son, breaking the son's heart. But later, a gay man points out that many of the laws of the Hebrew Scriptures are ignored, including the approved stoning (tortuous murder) of rebellious children.
So, this man ended his life with damnation rather than Love. Sure enough, he quoted the Hebrew Scriptures as the basis for this absence of human feeling. His Biblical legalism had transformed this man into a heartless monster.
Two of the gay men fall deeply in Love. While nongay people might never be able to understand fully gay-psychology, we can at least permit them to love in their own way, without the obstacles and tribulations of added burdens of damnation. As one of the gays points out, Jesus said nothing about gays; and the other main character read the Canticle of Love from First Corinthians 13.
This is a very moving and touching movie, especially for anyone from a traditional "Christian" background. It relentlessly begs for understanding, acceptance, and non-judgment in this matter. It has many valuable lessons to teach our society and our world.
*******

Movie Review: "Premonition"

This movie, made in twenty-oh-seven, is an intuitionbased study of some kind of flaw in spacetime, or in mind, or both. Its rather confusing theme is far from clear, and it bounces between realities in a somewhat baffling way.
In it, the character Jim Hanson apparently dies, and the effect on his wife Linda of the traumatic death-experience is the nucleus of the rest of the movie. For, each time that she sleeps, Linda seems to "shift" universes, perhaps entering a parallel universe in which Jim has not died. Or, it is also possible that she remains in this universe, but time-travels back to the time before his death.
A psychiatrist cannot explain what is happening, nor can a religious leader; it is quite beyond their comprehension.
Linda finally sees this as an opportunity to prevent the death of Jim. So, she goes back to the place and time of the accident, connects with Jim over cellphone, tells him to turn around, and ends up actually causing the accident that killed him.
This is a story about the Power of Love. But it also teaches that you cannot avoid your destiny: At least, there do exist events in the "future" that you cannot change. A subplot is that Jim is planning to have an affair with a lady at work, which would have blasted the marriage between him and Linda into nonexistence. But, at the last minute, he changes his mind, and wants sincerely to repair his marriage with Linda.
The ending might not be "happily ever after," but so few are, in real life.
*******

Movie Review: "Bringing Out the Dead"

This movie (1999) is not as metaphysical or spiritual as are some others. It is really more of a psychological study. Its focus is Frank, an e.m.s driver, and his companion-drivers, who are often eccentric to the point of semisanity.
In fact, "semisanity" might well describe the state of the whole movie. It seems quite surrealistic in places, and it is not at all helped by a soundtrack that can be intrusive, disconcerting, abrasive, and out-of-place.
But if you can follow it, the general story-line is an excellent one. It studies the mind of Frank, as he goes through various stages of speculation about the afterlife, disappointment and guilt about a girl whom he was unable to revive, exhaustion, drug-intoxication (one scene is psychedelic), overstress, anxiety, tenacity, determination, and many other states of mind. This is a "rollercoaster" of a movie-- disjointed, quick-moving, and abrupt. A subtheme of the movie is Patrick Burke--a man who is in the process of dying, and whom Frank finally "lets go," to the relief and gratitude of all-- most of all, Patrick himself and his daughter Mary, with whom Frank has a semipassionate and semiromantic relationship.
This movie is very difficult to place into convenient categories. In this way, it is like real life. It is quite realistic, and so, uses some rather strong language, and that, rather frequently. At one point, Frank is recalling his successes, which make him feel like "God," and his failures, which make him feel like "the god of hellfire." Frank is a very sensitive guy, a specimen of the real but usually unsung heroes who man ambulances, and who keep people alive, including "drunks, whores, and other unworthies."
The film does criticize what people often do to themselves. It takes place in New York, where one must be quite strong to survive. From beginning til the end, Frank is haunted by a young girl named Rose, whom he sees, at times, everywhere.
She appears on the face of Mary, and on several strangers' faces. He explains to her, with deep sincerity, that he was unable to save her, but he did his very best, and seems to find final forgiveness. Despite its absence of many metaphysical or spiritual themes, this film is worth seeing, if for nothing else, then for its revelations of the troubled and stressful minds of ems-drivers.
*******

Movie Review: "Waking the Dead"

This touching film was made way back in the year twenty hundred. It is at once a deep psychophilosophic study and a profound Love-story. The main character, Fielding Pierce, apparently loses his young girlfriend, Sarah Williams, through a rightwing terror attack. But the question that is the nucleus of the entire film is, "Is she really dead?"
The question is never really clearly answered. The film becomes a little "feliniesque" in areas, dodging a direct answer. But her influence upon Fielding is so very strong that he cannot shake memories of her, or her influence. (She was a bit leftwing, and he is struggling to "make it" in American politics.) He wants to be a spokesperson for the common, average American, and does some of his work in Illinois. (The movie might have been a bit precognizant of the success of Barack.)
He does pay attention to, and gets letters from, many average Americans. He is not at all interested in the horrendous nightmare of a "government" that has haunted our country for the past eight years.
A message of this film is that "Love is stronger than even death." The film examines the effect of an honest politician on her/his personal life; in one scene, Fielding "betrays" even his own brother. But his Love for Sarah remains the jewel at the center of his life and heart.
Yes, Love is greater than even politics; she influences him to the end.
This film has a most excellent message; but it is not for children. It contains some very strong language, and some indirect presentations of sex. But, for any adult, the flick is well worth seeing. With its message of undying, inconquerable Love, it is an expression/manifestation of what Love can accomplish in even a world as imperfect as ours. Every political leader should see it.
*******

Movie Review: "City of Angels"

Movie Review: "City of Angels"
*******

This movie, made way back in 1998, contains some timeless and perennial truths. It is based on the very popular fantasy that "angels" are quite humanoid beings who care very much, and deeply, about the activities on earth-- despite the fact that earth is only a tiny dust-mote circling a small spark called "the sun." Still, even if you do not believe in the pleasant mythology of these angels, this movie will probably make you want to believe!
The movie draws much dramatic content from death and its survival, intact, by the Soul; in fact, its main character, Maggie Rice, is a surgeon who often feels both responsible and guilty for the death of surgical patients. She is the kind of doc who is a true healer, who has a heart.
The being that falls in Love with her is male, but is not a deceased Soul from earth; he is an angel, and so, is totally ignorant of the delights and pleasures of the "dreamworld" that is earth. He knows nothing of the "garden of earthly delights." This part is a little difficult to swallow; and the story might have been richer if he were a Soul who had experienced earthly life and senses, rather than an "angel" to whom human experiences seemed alien.
This is a touching and moving Love-story. Those who know me know how easily and readily I can be brought to tears, and this flick did so several times.
This story symbolically portrays what we all must go through and give up to come to earth-- often, for Love. While the ending could have been happier, it reflected life itself in its many uncontrollable, unpredictable changes, and was, overall, a "happily ever after" film.
*******

The Abyss

Movie Review: "The Abyss(1989)

This startling and beautiful movie is like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." It is a deeply spiritual and hyperaquarian vision of humanity's first contact with extraterrestrial life. It is an extremely positive account, interwoven with a Love-story. It is deeply stirring and uplifting, and triggers some rather awesome tears despite the fact that this film is rather old. The aliens are portrayed in beautiful colors and semi-angelic contexts combined with the traditional and archetypal
"grays." In the end, in a hypnotic and mesmerizing climax, they save both themselves and humanity from a terribly destructive nuclear event. This is one of those rare films that can, without reservation, be given an unqualified seal of approval. It stirs both memories and Soul.
*****

Movie Review: "W"

***

This movie is not as funny as it could have been. Indeed, it could well have been something of a semislapstick-nature film, with non-stop laughs, as in a Mel Brooks film.
But, although it had its amusing moments, it was a fairly serious semihistorical study of George W. Bush, the very soon ex-president. It flashes back and forth among the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, and early twenty-first century. It gives only a few minutes to the time when the young George W. Bush was doing drugs, boozing, and breaking the law in his late teens and early twenties. Then, it gives only a few minutes more to the time when he was lying, stealing, robbing, making enemies, fornicating, and failing businesses in his early twenties and thirties. (There is barely a mention of a young girl whom he had got pregnant; she disappeared from the screen faster than she disappeared from history!)
George grew more arrogant as he aged, and a bit stranger. He had various jobs given to him by his rich daddy and his daddy's friends, and he utterly failed at each and every one. His personal psychotic break climaxed in his idea that "God" told him to run for the office of president-- another job given on a silver platter by his daddy.
He found new ways to lie, and people whom he could hire to lie for him, as president. He lied the U.S. into a war that cost about three trillion dollars, a war that murdered four thousand American girls and boys, and nearly a million innocent Middle Eastern men, children, and women. The movie did not, could not, take the time to explore all the massive errors and terrible mistakes made by an administration ruled entirely by greed. The movie does not go into the sad history of the worst president in the history of the world. It just gets a "toe in the
water" as he begins the Iraq war.
This movie is semi-serious, and gives George a chance; it records even one of his nightmares, which must have been abundant. And it exposes how he feels like a "failure" to his father, in sibling rivalry with his brothers. George is human, but this very fact can dilute the true evil, and also can obscure the real ignorance, lack of education, and absence of sophistication that marks this man, consumed with personal greed, and obsessed with the success of the wealthy, including his beloved corporations. The movie does the best it can in its short duration, taking a small "slice" of the complex man's history. It does not have time (who does?) more fully to explore his evil, his incompetence, or his ignorance.
The next president will require at least decades even to begin to undo all the damage done by George. It will take our country centuries completely to recover, especially on an international scale. So, let's make sure that we elect a president who is committed to ending the stupidity, ineptitude, and just plain dumbness that has stained our country for the past eight years.
*******