Insome cases the films are poorly crafted but do such a good job revealing a particular character type, soul age or life lesson that we recommend watching it just for that reason. In other instances we emphasize when a film has great talent, interesting cinematography and a fantastic musical score, but the screenplay violates all the rules of character consistency.
Five Stages of Perception Characterizing a Person
Infant: survival-oriented
Toddler: baby soul; rule-oriented
Child: young soul; success-oriented
Mature: adolescent; relationship-oriented
Old: adult; philosophically-oriented
Seven Main Types of People
Artisan: the artist—creative, inventive
Sage: the storyteller—humorous, talkative, dramatic
Server: the servant—nurturing, helpful
Priest: the missionary—preacher type person
Warrior: the soldier—active, productive, secures and guards
King: the chief—natural born leader with big vision and impact
Scholar: the scientist—studious, neutral, diplomatic, great curiosity
Karmic Lesson
This is an archetypal experience where a person learns the consequences of their actions over the long term. One can’t escape from it—otherwise known as “learning the hard way”.
Agreement
A powerful contract that people make with each other in order to have life experiences where they help each other out.
Internal Monad
There are seven of these and they refer to the main life transition points where the greatest lessons are learned. The fourth one is theone most commonly depicted in films and refers to midlife crisis.
Essence Twin
A special long term relationship between two people that brings them together over and over.
Task Companion
A relationship between people who are dedicated to supporting the life work of the other.
Life Task
Each person’s life mission or contribution that they have talent for and that they feel compelled to do even at considerable sacrifice.
Movie Reviews 2009
Avatar
This is a break through film for the times, directed by James Cameron, and twelve years in the making. Not only is it a breakthrough in filmmaking technology, explained to me in great detail by my son Carlos, who is an art director for a moving image art company, but it is a breakthrough in story line as well. James Cameron, Artisan in Dominance, freely admits that he borrowed heavily from Dances With Wolves and from Fern Gulley, but he throws the story into the future, onto another world and makes it deeply shamanic. Here are the major symbolic themes. 1. The story subtly implies that we are not are bodies but our essence can use other genetically engineered bodies to get our life task work done. 2. The Mayans suggest that the future will be based on a coming together of ancient indigenous wisdom and modern technology. This is exactly the theme of the film. The Hero (hero’s journey) joins indigenous wisdom with the technology that allows him to transfer himself to their body type. 3. The power of the future belongs to the feminine. A strong female heads up the science and a strong female teaches him the ways of the indigenous people. Their society honors the great feminine. 4. The left brained commercially oriented humans cannot overcome the indigenous natives even with all their force of technology. A powerful shamanic woman finally stops the maniacal general with arrows to the heart. This suggests something about our future on this planet. Perhaps this is symbolic of how the feminine will teach us how to leave behind the forces of patriarchal dominance. 5. The indigenous people cooperatively team up with power animals to save themselves and they demonstrate powerful respect for all life forms who they are intimately connected to.
Already I have heard that middle America loves the new technology of the film but hates the storyline. No wonder. But even so, this is the way ground will be gradually be broken for the concepts of the future. They will just have to get used to this kind of tale. It is here to stay and it will slowly transform the hearts and minds of people everywhere. Such is the power of film in today’s world.
Yes, the movie has some flaws not the least of which is the movie going public’s addiction to violence. Does there always have to be mayhem and destruction, explosions and death? This is an old worn out theme that needs to go. A sequel is clearly in the future. Will it devolve into another carnage of violence or will it evolve to the next level of shamanic power and technique. Time will tell.
Invictus
This is a truly wonderful film depicting the early days of Nelson Mandela’s presidency and his inspired leadership that supported South Africa to win the World Cup in Rugby. The film clearly shows the power of his understanding about what would unite a deeply divided people. He knew that emotionally charged sports could override the insanity of prejudice and separation between Blacks and Whites. Nelson Mandela is a rare old soul server who assumed the mantle of the presidency after his long political imprisonment. Morgan Freeman, Old soul scholar, does an outstanding job playing Mandela and Matt Damon plays a warrior, the captain of the almost all white and hated rugby team that rises to victory. In fact, these two were task companions who united their efforts to then unite the country. It was imperative that one be black and one be white in order to accomplish this great challenge.
A Christmas Carol and 2012
This may seem like a strange pairing but in fact they are united by their opposite themes, one of redemption and one of world destruction. The animated 3D Christmas Carol is Dickens age old tale of the ego in the form of Scrooge who, when given a chance to re-choose the ways of essence by seeing his deadly future, changes his life for the better. Clearly he makes the right choice. Although fun in 3D with Jim Carrey playing Scrooge, the theatre was almost empty. On the other hand 2012, loaded with special effects of the world being destroyed, was packed. In this film the die has been cast and the world has no opportunity to re-choose its fate. In fact, the destruction is presented as unavoidable and plays havoc with the actual Mayan prophecies that do not predict the end of the world at all. Seeing these movies back to back made the themes obvious. While neither one is outstanding, they both make passable entertainment.
Red Cliff
Although a depiction of great battles in Southern China during the Han dynasty in the third century, this is a masterpiece of storytelling and filmmaking. John Woo is at his best in this tale of how two smaller South China war lords outmaneuver a much larger force led by the arrogant and corrupt prime minister of the empire. The film depicts ancient Chinese philosophy, battle strategies, chess like moves, and the team work of a variety of individuals who had to pull together to beat the odds. Based on historical events, it portrays the high regard for scholars in ancient China. Without their vast knowledge of the elements, the weather, and battle formations, all would have been lost.
The film demonstrates how arrogance and force are no match for cooperation and strategy. A brilliant film well worth seeing on a big screen.
Area 51
A faux docudrama about apartheid in south Africa, thinly disguised as a visit by aliens who are then relegated to a ghetto and treated horrendously by the humans. It is an interesting concept and the aliens are well portrayed but it is filled with violence and the usual young soul mayhem. I am not sure it breaks any new ground and I found it a bit tedious after awhile.
Inglourious Basterds
This is classic bizarre Quentin Tarantino, an eccentric late level young artisan on top of his game but obsessed with violence. There are aspects to the story that are very creative as he remakes the history of World War II Germany. The story is so bizarre that it contains the classic Tarantino gallows humor. Brad Pitt does an excellent job as a sadistic young soul American officer who leads a group of Jews on a revenge laden mission to wipe out SS troops and terrorize the third Reich. When all was said and done I found it troubling and wondered why I spent my precious time watching it.
Movie Reviews 2008
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
All the Harry Potter movies have been excellent and the experiment of making a series of films with young actors growing up in them over time has been highly successful. By this time you have probably heard that this Harry Potter film is darker and more foreboding and now that the actors are young adults they are dealing with their sexuality in the story line, all of which is well done and highly entertaining. However there are a couple of gems in the film based on the book I would like to point out. One is the potion for good luck that Harry Potter experiments with. Without giving too much away, let us say that being an excellent psychologist, Harry fools a friend into thinking that he has given him the potion and his friend believing it, acts as if he is blessed with good fortune. When Harry Potter actually consumes the potion to give himself good luck there is a bit of a surprise. Rather than his luck being obvious he must completely let go and allow his intuition and inner knowing to take over. He must follow this inner guidance unquestioningly and not simply do the obvious. Even his friends are fooled and think he is going down the wrong path. But as good fortune would have it, not doing the obvious and following his heart actually produce the best fortune of all.
The other gem has to do with tampered memories. Harry must extract a crucial memory from one of his professors and he discovers through Dumbledore that the memory has been tampered with. He must somehow find the original memory to know certain facts. We have all tampered with our memories because of shame and guilt and have altered our own memories to suit us. The problem is that the original memories lie deep within us and bring about no end of suffering. Thus it is only by dealing with the truth of what happened that we can be set free of the prison we have made for ourselves.
Angels and Demons
Critics have panned this film for all kinds of reasons including that it is too faithful to the poorly written book by Dan Brown, too much like the first movie (Da Vinci Code), too implausible, or too boring with too much dialogue. So with this in mind I went to see it and actually enjoyed it. Clearly this is a scholar movie with lots of information about Rome, the Vatican, and ancient symbols. Sure it is implausible in places but aren’t most movies these days. With that said, the film is mostly fiction, with outrageous science and a wild Illuminati plot. Yet anyone with a Catholic background will find it somewhat interesting for the behind the scenes corruption and intrigue that everyone knows goes on. Popes have been murdered, there have been secret societies, and there has always been plotting and politics behind the scenes. There have been attempts to suppress science and lies have been told to the faithful. This is just a fictional representation of business as usual for the Catholic Church over the years. That is why I think it works.
Star Trek
In this prequel to the TV series, and all the earlier films, the original characters are reprised but clearly the main two characters are Kirk and Spock, sage and scholar respectively. While not a great film, with the typical mediocre acting, Zachary Quinto stands out for his excellent portrayal of the young Spock. He manages to perfectly capture the half-Vulcan, half-Earthling scholar torn between his emotions and his logic. This is in fact the dilemma for most scholars who find their comfort in the neutrality of logic but likewise find this approach to life a little dull. Scholars have a secret life of passion and feeling, especially for ideas, that they tend to hide from public display. If Spock had been entirely human he would have felt deep shame at the sudden eruption of anger that caused him to lose the command of the Starship Enterprise. Being Vulcan of course, and an old soul to boot, he took complete responsibility and logically moved on. It is hard to imagine this film being anything without this great story line.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I liked this slow moving and strange story of a man living his life backward from an old man at birth to a child at death. Sometimes it is good to turn everything upside down to look at our lives in a different way. The film clearly depicts his agreements along the way and his essence twin played by Cate Blanchett. The personalities depicted are clearly mature souls although it is a bit difficult to say what the roles and overleaves of the characters are since this is a fictitious story.
Valkyrie
A good story based on a true story of a failed attempt to assassinate Adolph Hitler near the end of World War II. It reveals the agonizing life and death decisions made when all the information is not available at critical moments and actions must be taken that can be catastrophic or heroic. Although Tom Cruise is not a favorite of mine, he does a reasonable job as Count Claus von Stauffenberg, a high-ranking officer who, along with a cadre of disillusioned officers, stages several attempts on Hitler’s life. Claus von Stauffenberg was a young warrior in dominance, with a mode of perseverance and chief obstacles of arrogance and stubbornness. Of course it was this very arrogance and stubbornness that brought him and his colleagues down in the end.
Frost/Nixon
Not only is this a surprisingly riveting film but it also reveals some interesting and behind the scenes details about these two men. Frost and Nixon clearly had a hidden-disclosed monad, one of the required 80 monads that human beings complete on their way to self-realization. In the hidden-disclosed monad one person has the obligation of disclosing or unveiling that which the other is trying to hide. Both individuals are required to do both sides of the monad for it to be complete so that everyone may learn from the experience. In this case it was Frost who was the discloser and Nixon who was the hider. This is why Frost went to such lengths to produce the show even though he had to finance much of it himself. The agreement almost cost him his successful reputation as a television personality. This also accounts for why Nixon was willing to do the series. Granted he wanted money but there was more to it than that. He kept challenging Frost to make it a no holds barred interview. There was a reason he was known as Tricky Dick and he almost was able to defeat Frost, but in the end the monad was kept and Nixon revealed more than he had planned.
Nixon of course was a seventh level rule oriented (baby soul) Scholar, in way over his head as president. Rule oriented people always arrange to get caught just as small children do. He was sophisticated enough to have feelings for his close family but not sophisticated enough to have compassion for people on the other side of the world. This was not his fault. He was just too young for the job. On the other hand he was well acquainted with the Chinese culture having had a number of lifetimes there and this made him quite a good diplomat with all things Chinese.
David Frost is a mature or relationship oriented sage, an idealist with a goal of growth, intellectually centered, with a mode of perseverance, and an obstacle of arrogance.
Iron Man
Good mindless entertainment and special effects. Essentially this is a young soul presentation of a mature soul idea. After being kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan Robert Downey Jr. who plays megabrainiac Tony Stark of Stark enterprises has a change of heart and decides that there are better things to do than making highly effective weapons. So he creates an ironman that can battle evil by effectively killing everyone around. That is where the philosophy just doesn’t add up to mature values. He is supposed to be a mature soul but clearly is not. He is still basically still a young soul killer according to the script. Also of interest is his task companion relationship with Gwenyth Paltrow’s character playing his assistant. However what is also interesting and noteworthy is the focus on the heart in this film. Essentially Tony Stark has this high tech lit up battery for a heart that can also power his ironman gear. The bad guys including Jeff Bridges are all comic book evil and get their’s in the end.
Frozen River
This superbly acted independent film is both riveting and extraordinarily realistic. Mellissa Chessington Leo and Misty Upham are extraordinary as two impoverished warrior women with a karmic agreement, one white and one Native American, who partner up to smuggle illegal immigrants. Karma guides their actions as they get deeper into edgy territory while trying to escape from destitution. Both are young souls but old enough to recognize right action when they are confronted with the worst-case scenario. Both have the opportunity to wake up a little bit as a result of their situation.
Happy Go Lucky
Based on the first fifteen minutes of this film I thought it would be a bore but then it unfolded into a very insightful and fascinating story about an idealistic Sage in acceptance, a relationship oriented and emotionally centered woman becoming educated through various experiences bringing her face to face with more difficult aspects of life. Most critics don’t actually understand what is going on in this film and think it is a comedy about an optimist but this actually isn’t it. The film is not afraid to go deep into wounded characters, social misfits struggling to adjust to urban life. Yet it does manage to deal with heavy subjects with surprising humor. Sally Hawkins was nominated for an academy award for her performance.
Vitus
I liked this rather slow moving foreign film for its quirky theme about a child genius, an artisan struggling with a success oriented mother, overly identified with his musical talent. Sub-themes are his desire to help his artisan (relationship oriented) inventor father, his romantic fixation on his babysitter, and his old soul grandfather who understands him and imprints him to think freely, broadly, and creatively. The film itself is a bit long but is creative, unpredictable, and has a fun inspired ending.
Rachel Getting Married
This film is superbly acted, phenomenally edited, and manages to capture the million nuances of a dysfunctional but creative family around the wedding of one of two daughters. So natural is the acting and so spot on is Anne Hathaway’s performance as drug addict in rehab trying to use the wedding to heal from her past, that the film will probably be used for training counselors much as Ordinary People was used to teach family therapists.
Anne Hathaway plays a furloughed, narcissistic, wounded and angry drug addict, a relationship oriented warrior who competes with her sister for her overwhelmed and enabling father’s attention. Rosemarie DeWitt plays Rachel, marrying a stable solid older soul to get away from the instability of her family. Both girls struggle to connect with their mom, superbly played by Debra Winger, a remote, uninvolved success oriented woman who is unable to connect with either one of them. The heaviness of the story is lightened by the many real characters and the unusual and excellently captured wedding sequence. At the end it’s hard to know if you’ve been slimed or healed, probably both.
Slumdog Millionaire
This is truly an outstanding brilliant film, weaving an intense tale of three urchins growing up in the slums of Mumbai and one of those urchins who has grown up and managed to get on the Indian version of “Who wants to be a Millionaire.” The film creatively tells the tale of how the boy from the slums came upon the answers to the game show. While the story line is pure Bollywood, it is extraordinary in that it entertains, educates, and deals effectively with some very graphic and serious themes at the same time.
Jamal is the caring, relationship oriented, younger server brother who survives the streets with his success oriented warrior brother. They are accompanied by an artisan girl who becomes the object of Jamal’s affection. His brother follows the path of greed and vengeance but when pressed fulfills his karmic agreements with his brother. Clearly they are a karmic trio who have agreements to help each other out in some very difficult circumstances while staying true to their personality structures.
Australia
This is not what I would call a great movie but I liked it for its shamanic background theme. The aboriginal elder sings the songlines of the land to help the main characters find water in the desert and get out of trouble in other ways throughout the story. He stresses the importance of having a personal song and teaches this to his grandson who in his own way collects and applies songs to his own toolbox of power. This is accurate shamanism. Mostly the film is just entertaining, a bit silly in some places, with a sweeping story and magnificent vistas of Australia.
The Other Boleyn Girl
Although it did not get great reviews, I enjoyed this film about Henry VIII and the little known events involving the whole Boleyn family. Anne, played very well by Natalie Portman, is clearly depicted as an ambitious young success oriented soul from a young soul family and her sister played by Scarlett Johansson is depicted as a mature relationship oriented soul who ends up with the better deal in the end. Henry clearly met his match in dealing with the highly manipulative Anne but in the end he had the power to destroy her, which he did. It is interesting to watch Anne begin to lose her composure as her plot to reach the heights slowly unravels in the face of uncontrollable events. Her anxiety is palpable and there were no antidepressants or tranquilizers at that time to handle the problem. Anne represents the negative aspects of the light feminine and her sister represents the positive aspect of it while Henry portrays the negative pole of the light masculine. When they are unaccompanied by the wise dark masculine or dark feminine all hell breaks loose.
Religulous
Bill Maher risks life and limb to take on various religious teachers, mostly in the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions. His documentary mocks the obvious lunacy of these different traditions and uncovers hypocrisy and irrationality right and left making for a humorous expose of some of the most apparent contradictions. He takes a legitimate stance as an agnostic who does not know what the truth is. However, like many irreverent comics throughout history, he is as unreasonable as the people he is interviewing. He is too concrete in his approach revealing an almost child like quality of trying to understand but not getting it. For example he makes no distinction between mysticism and fundamentalism, or spirituality and hard-core religion, and he does not touch the Buddhists or the Hindus, two of the biggest world religions. If he did he would have to take on the common findings of quantum physics and the Hindu Vedas and more. So he plays it safe by poking fun at the worst offenders and the effect is quite funny at times. His use of subtitles to paraphrase what people are really saying is funny but in fact is unfair because they were placed after the interviews, not giving a chance for the interviewees to defend themselves from looking like fools. Some of them are fools who deserve this treatment and some do not.
Love in the Time of Cholera
This film, based on Gabriel Marquez famous book, received rather poor reviews from American critics but in many ways it is because they failed to understand the symbolism of the story. Javier Bardem (old artisan) is superb as usual in the role of Florentino, an old soul young artisan living in Columbia. He falls in love with Fermina, a beautiful mature soul whose father arranges for her to marry a successful doctor. Florentino carries a torch for her his whole life but in the meantime beds hundreds of women to distract himself from his obsession with her. This is a classic case of a man who falls in love with his projected anima, the eternal feminine principal that he is trying to integrate and come to terms with. His object of interest, Fermina, serves his purpose by being just out of reach. She is also an important past life friend who has agreed to play his muse while meeting her karmic obligations to her husband. The story has all the humor and grief of real life in a larger than life portrayal.
Charlie Wilson’s War
This is the true story of how a mature soul sage congressman, a young soul warrior CIA agent, and a young soul warrior socialite, acted together to spearhead the most successful and disturbing covert operation in United States history. They joined forces to fund the Afghans efforts to overthrow the Russians during their occupation of Afghanistan during the cold war. The three of them all had past lives in Afghanistan and had an agreement with one another to work together to help the Afghans fight for their freedom. While this is an entertaining and well-acted film with Tom Hanks (mature sage), Julia Roberts (mature artisan) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (mature artisan) the story is has deeply disturbing aspects. It demonstrates the ability of a few individuals to legally use huge amounts of taxpayers’ money for their own agenda without the permission and approval of the American people. While the film seems to be a feel good righteous story it actually shows the idiocy of lack of diplomacy, the hidden agendas that kept the cold war going, and the avarice of arms dealers on the world stage. This entire sorry and destructive event need not have happened at all if real leadership had been displayed by the administrations of all countries involved. Also disturbing are the easy going remarks about killing Russians as if they were non-humans. As long as any nation talks blithely about killing people as a solution to problems, there will be more wars, perhaps more Charlie Wilson’s Wars.
The Duchess
For those who like a lot of action you will find this film slow. If you like character development in a period piece then this film is for you. Keira Knightly, a mature artisan, shines as the Duchess of Devonshire, a young upwardly mobile artisan, emotionally centered, who marries for position and suffers the consequences. As a young woman she enters an arranged marriage with the Duke of Devonshire, excellently played by Ralph Fiennes, also a mature artisan. The Duke is a young soul in discrimination who simply is unable to relate, has no compassion and has no communication skills whatever. The relationship is obviously karmic and quickly devolves into a triangulation with another woman. This is complicated further when the Duchess seeks a love affair with John Grey, who eventually became the prime minister of England. There is manipulation, passion, hatred, jealousy, betrayal, resignation and almost everything you can imagine in this challenging drama of people trapped by their positions and their needs. The false personality again reigns supreme in creating such agony but lessons are learned and despite everything love shines through.
Beowolf
There is a reason that this powerful Nordic saga has stood the test of time and remains an archetypal gritty epic of heroism, arrogance, seduction and tragedy. The story really involves the relationship between the light masculine hero and the dark feminine demon that seduces him, turning him from the positive pole of the idealistic hero to the negative one, which is greed and arrogance. No matter how powerful the hero, he is no match for the negative dark feminine, who when unleashed on the world leaves utter destruction. This is a warning tale, highly disguised by symbolism. It says, develop your own dark feminine power in a healthy way or it will destroy you in the end. The ultra masculine will not prevail unless it becomes balanced by the feminine as represented by the queen. Not only is this a powerful tale but its film execution is magnificent. Warning: It is very violent but then that is the nature of the negative dark feminine and it is presented in realistic cartoon form. Think Kali here, the destructive Hindu goddess.
Lars and the Real Girl
Some people may not like this strange film about a delusional young man who has a relationship with a life size plastic doll. However if you have an interest in psychology, this is an insightful, well-acted and well-written screenplay revealing several themes. First it is the story of a mature scholar who has been traumatized by his mother’s death during his birth. He has become extremely withdrawn until he develops a fantasy relationship with full size doll originally manufactured for sexual gratification. Through his very public relationship with the doll he learns to love, to reach out to others, to interact socially and to play out his original trauma, eventually reproducing and reliving his mothers death through the doll and freeing himself from the trauma. The second theme is the way his family and the entire town conspire to help him heal by going along with his fantasy. I thought the film was heartfelt and revealed the best about human beings.
Burn After Reading
This Cohen brother’s film is a well-deserved spoof on young soul American society. Everyone is dysfunctional, cheating on everyone else, suspicious, lacking in integrity and greedy in some way. The result, of course, is naturally self-destruction. Internet dating, the CIA, cosmetic surgery, the obsession with gyms and working out are all up for ridicule. On the other hand the cast is great and the script hilarious but a little too violent at times for my taste. John Malkovich, goal of discrimination with cynic attitude, steals the show with his performance as a dysfunctional angry intellectually centered CIA agent in discrimination with a cynic attitude. Brad Pitt is amazing as a moving centered young soul airhead. Frances McDormand is excellent as a young warrior in dominance and greed and George Clooney plays a young sage who never shuts up. Tilda Swinton plays an uptight conniver in discrimination. What a good ensemble cast.
The Dark Knight
No wonder the Dark Knight is such a phenomenon at the box office. It is a perfect tale for the turbulent times we are living in. The story is of course archetypal and symbolic so it appeals to the subconscious. The Dragon for these times is Self Destruction, a result of the inability to find meaning in life. The joker is a natural to represent the self-destructiveness of false personality (translates to destructive to others as well). As a child his father brutalized him senselessly and this resulted in doing to others what was done to him. Truly nothing has meaning for him, which is why he can burn a giant pile of money that the greedy ones so highly valued. He values nothing and so he is extremely dangerous and that terrifies people. As a representative of the destructive aspects of the ego he goes to work on the DA, a man trying to follow the righteous path, and he succeeds in seducing him to the dark side. The DA becomes self-destructive himself. Of course there is Batman trying to right the wrongs but basically Batman becomes a thug breaking necks and dispatching people right and left. He is truly a flawed hero like we all are in our lives. So here are all the main ingredients of our lives. Our Essence wants to follow the path of spirit but the ego seduces us away and tries to get us to despair and become negative and isolated. When this happens we attack instead of having compassion.
Vicky Christina Barcelona
This Woody Allen film is great and I would highly recommend it. It is based on the old classic Jules and Jim and stars Javier Bardem. Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, and Rebecca Hall (all mature artisans). Rebecca Hall plays a mature soul, intellectually centered scholar, straight, studious, and up tight about to be married to a dull young soul American. Scarlett plays an emotionally centered, mature artisan, sexually adventurous and clear about what she does not want but unclear on what she does want. Javier plays an old soul artisan who doesn’t believe in beating around the bush. He is married to Penelope Cruz character who is an aggression mode, mid-cycle mature artisan, angry and crazy. Both American women get involved with Javier’s character and reveal their character structures through their adventures. Although highly entertaining, the film is brilliant in its depiction of the various characters and how they unfold. There is a wonderful scene where we see the emotionally centered Scarlett get stuck in her intellectual trap. We also see various sides of karma, agreements, and monads being played out.
In Mama Mia there are the classic themes that people can relate to: Loss of love, the memory of romance, rejection, fear of being hurt, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for clearing up a mystery, finding truth in self and in others, struggle to make a living, the fantasy of a sugar daddy coming along to set things right, mother daughter relationship, father daughter relationship, young love, resistance to marriage, desire for freedom and so on. There’s something for everyone here. Basically this is a movie full of sages having fun making a movie and the audience has fun with them as they play out the classic themes mentioned above. I recommend it.
Mama Mia
Ok, so Pierce Brosnan can’t sing worth a damn and the story is unbelievable. So what? Most people I have talked to loved this movie and I enjoyed it too. It is silly, fun, mostly lighthearted and funny, and it leaves people happy. Everyone in the theatre I went to applauded at the end and people left laughing and smiling. I didn’t see anyone doing that after “No Country for Old Men.” So what is going on here? People used to love musicals and then they fell out of favor in the States and were replaced by more grim fare because mature souls thought movies should deal with heavy issues and young souls liked violence and crime themes to excite them. But think about it, musicals didn’t go away, they just got short and were called music videos and young people watched them by the millions. Then something else happened. Bollywood surpassed Hollywood as the movie making capital of the world and Bollywood makes musicals. So reluctantly Hollywood looked at that and said, hmmm. They are making money with this corny stuff. Maybe it’s time to revisit the musical? Look for more musicals in the future.
In Mama Mia there are the classic themes that people can relate to: Loss of love, the memory of romance, rejection, fear of being hurt, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for clearing up a mystery, finding truth in self and in others, struggle to make a living, the fantasy of a sugar daddy coming along to set things right, mother daughter relationship, father daughter relationship, young love, resistance to marriage, desire for freedom and so on. There’s something for everyone here. Basically this is a movie full of sages having fun making a movie and the audience has fun with them as they play out the classic themes mentioned above. I recommend it.
Akeelah and the Bee
I thought this film would be just another spelling Bee movie, a theme that has been popular in the last couple of years, but this film is so heartfelt that it made me cry in several places. Yes, it is formulaic and predictable but the way it is done and presented makes it stand out and it is truly worth watching. Not only is it entertaining but it is inspirational as well. The film successfully gets across some very powerful ideas without being preachy, one being that what we are truly afraid of is not failure but being powerful.
The film also does an excellent job of portraying an older soul scholar (played fabulously by Keke Palmer) contending with a younger warrior mother and brother. Through her accomplishment she manages to bring together and heal an entire community. She is also instrumental in healing her tutor, a suffering mature sage played by Lawrence Fishbourne, with whom she has a task companion agreement to study with.
No Country for Old Men
A fabulously well made film, excellent acting, horrifying content. Cormac McCarthy, author of the book, is a scholar with a cynic attitude and thus he is able to portray exceptionally dark storylines in a brutally realistic way. The film, totally faithful to the book, offers no relief, no saving grace, no redemption. It is the story of a drug deal gone bad, a young warrior, played by Josh Brolin, who finds money amid the carnage, and whose life is ruined by his decision to take it. He is relentlessly pursued by an infant soul, played by Javier Bardem (mature artisan), a man without a conscience, who appears insane but is actually acting logically according to his own value system. It is an academy award winning portrayal of an infant soul. In a way Cormac and the Coen brothers have shown us where we have ended up as a society run entirely by the false personality, and perhaps that is a warning. On the other hand who needs to be brutalized by this horrific storyline? It will give you PTSD and disturb your dreams. Only see it if you are a film aficionado.
Michael Clayton
There Will Be Blood
While the film is outstanding as an American epic it is certainly depressing as it follows to its inevitable conclusion. The feel in the theatre at the end was like a funeral and it did not sit well with me. Here is an example of an outstanding film whose subject is so dark that it is leaves the audience in an equally dark place. I can’t say I recommend it for entertainment unless you are a true movie buff and want to see a well-crafted movie.
Juno
This is the third part in a 3-part series by Indian director Deepa Mehta about Mature soul themes in India. Water deals with the traditional plight of widows in India focusing specifically on a child bride of eight who is relegated to a corrupt ashram to spend the rest of her life among other cast off widows. The problem actually represents the much bigger phenomenon of the subjugation of women during the young soul reign of the planet these last several thousand years. Because a shift is now taking place the unacceptability of women’s status in many parts of the world will be coming to the fore.
The Golden Compass
This is the first movie in a 3-part series based on the books by Philip Pullman, a highly creative tale of the hero’s journey, a girl looking for freedom from the tyranny of organized mind control.
One could make a case for the warrior polar bears representing the struggle between the false personality and essence and essence being restored to the throne after having been exiled for a long time. Mrs. Coulter, excellently played by Nicole Kidman, also represents the false personality working with the forces of control. The Daemons represent shamanic allies. What is of particular interest is the young actress Dakota Richards who plays Lyra, the heroine. She is a king and therefore commands the screen, the perfect role for 2008, a king year. She is a powerhouse and practically carries the film by herself. Given the disappointing ticket sales, there is a question whether the two other films will be made. Unfortunately people have come to expect too much of films and the critics have been overly harsh with this thoroughly entertaining epic. Just a couple of years ago this film would have been considered fabulous.
Stardust
The film is an entertaining rendition of a fairytale about a young man Tristan, played by artisan Charlie
Cox, who must undertake the hero’s journey to a nearby land of magic in order to prove his value to the woman he is infatuated with. He starts out as the negative light masculine. On the way he matures, weans himself from the false personality, discovers true love and in the end his essence reigns supreme as the positive dark masculine. He is helped by a fallen star, played by Claire Danes (mature artisan), actually his own anima or feminine side, who shows him the way to truth. She is the light feminine, filled with star light just as our own essences are filled with light if we just raise our frequency enough. In the end she succeeds in assisting Tristan to do just that. The wicked king and his seven sons vying for the throne represent the various distractions of the ego and the witches are of course false personality itself. Michelle Pfieffer plays an absolutely fabulous wicked witch, the negative dark feminine. In the end the fallen star becomes the positive dark feminine. There are many interesting side characters and subplots to flesh out the story. I would recommend this film for sheer entertainment value.
Sweeny Todd
If you can get past the extreme gore and the Gothic theme of a serial killer, Sweeny Todd is an excellent film with a powerhouse performance by Johnny Depp, mature artisan with an attitude of stocism. It should be noted here that stoic actors are often great because of their mysterious held back quality. Marlon Brando and Alec Guiness were both stoics.
The theme of Sweeny Todd has to do with revenge and the inevitable karma it brings to the table. Sweeny Todd is overtaken by false personality and its total focus on self-destruction. Clearly he is insane in a strangely focused way and attracts to himself a totally self-deceptive but oddly maternal woman who joins with him in his twisted obsession. The female lead is played by Helena Bonham Carter, a mature artisan who is great at playing the dark and the light sides of the female artisan.
The Namesake
The Namesake is a powerful film by East Indian director Mira Nair. It tells many stories but the main one is about a young man, a mature artisan of East Indian origins, born in New York City and trying to come to terms with his biculturalism and his name. Like so many of us, he comes to value his heritage only when he has tragically lost that which he has ignored and rebelled against. It is a story about family, alienation, reconnection, betrayal, and mostly unconditional love.
After the Wedding
This is an outstanding Danish film with a truly excellent screenplay and strong character development. Without giving away the secrets here is the basic storyline. A Danish man is helping to run an orphanage in India. They are in financial trouble and he is sent back to Denmark to follow a good prospect for raising a great deal of money. He meets a philanthropist who is considering funding him with millions of dollars and while he is there he is invited to the philanthropist’s daughters wedding. By attending this wedding the man’s entire life is turned upside down and he must make some very difficult decisions about his life. The philanthropist’s wife turns out to be an old flame and their daughter, well. I’ve told you just enough. After the Wedding is well worth seeing with fabulous acting and a great plot. It includes unfinished karma, agreements, betrayal, and redemption. There is nothing corny here.
Kadahk
A Mongolian film with much promise with a plot involving a shaman helping a young man to heal from epilepsy. This effort started out strong and then deteriorated to gobbledeegook. No matter. It will probably never show up in your neighborhood anyway. If it does, save your money.
However, as long as we are on the topic it should be noted that throughout history epileptics have often been chosen to become shamans. The reason for this is that people with epilepsy have a tremendous amount of power and energy at their disposal. Deep in their subconscious they are afraid of this energy and try to put a lid on it. The result is a seizure or fit. When they learn through shamanic training to allow their power to find a productive outlet they cease being epileptic and become powerful healers instead. This should put a new light on how you see epilepsy.
The Kite Runner
Based on the book by the same name, this film is an outstanding portrayal of a number of themes. It exposes the underbelly of the modern Afghan culture, expresses the plight of their civilization, and illustrates in an exceptionally powerful way the manipulative machinations of the false personality at work in relationships. Although much of its content is not pretty, the film manages to express the power of love and atonement for misdeeds done. There is great beauty and redemption in the midst of tragedy and ugliness. To get the full impact one must read the book because only so much could be included in the film.
Amir, a mature scholar, grows up in a privileged household in Kabul but does not feel accepted by his warrior father, a successful businessman. Like many scholars he withdraws in the face of conflict and is bullied. Hassan, his friend and son of the family servant, is an old soul server who would do anything for Amir. This attitude and tragic events cause Amir to feel so guilty that he projects his self loathing onto Hassan and their friendship is destroyed. Amir carries his guilt and shame to America where with his father he escapes the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Although he becomes a successful writer he is unable to shake the pain of his betrayal. Eventually he has the opportunity to atone for his karma, something he does at quite a price. I highly recommend this film.
Movie Reviews 2007
The Lives of Others
This is an outstanding film about the oppressive and intrusive communist regime in East Germany just before the dismantling of the Berlin wall. The story focuses on the life of a mature sage, a play write and his community of fellow artists who are being spied upon by the authorities because of suspicions they are disloyal to the government. A zealous early level mature soul scholar working for the government and attempting to climb the ladder of influence is assigned to spy on the play write and his girlfriend, a young soul artisan actress. The spy is awakened to the power of relationship by listening in on the play write’s relationships and he consequently he develops his own private relationship with the actress, causing him to take steps to protect her and him from higher authorities threatening to destroy their careers. In the end he loses his own career but his hugely generous act is acknowledged in the end. As in many European films the character development is excellent and there is enough humanity here to keep the film from being oppressive.
Ratatouille
Possibly the best film of the year, Ratatouille has all the essentials for an outstanding story. First of all it is a food movie which people seem to love, with a great storyline in the background. Food is grounding and comforting and makes people feel that everything will be OK in the long run, something very important in these troubled times. The food theme is highlighted by the contrast between Remy the Rat’s gourmet food and the garbage the majority of rats tend to eat. Remy, an artisan, clearly has a goal of growth and is a mature soul whose primary relationship study is food. Then of course there is the greedy and vain villainous chef Skinner, and the hot passion mode French chef Collette, the love interest for the hapless Linguine, secret heir to the restaurant. Then there is the saintly Gusteau the old sage, who acts as spirit guide to Remy the rat and a threatening Anton Ego, the food critic in discrimination from hell. All these ingredients go together in a highly entertaining way to create a wonderful meal, Ratatouille, a celebration of cooperation and striving for excellence.
Knocked up
Although quite funny in places the characters of Knocked UP were simply not believable. Although clearly all the players were characterized as young souls, and rather well too, we are supposed to believe they suddenly act like responsible mature souls. If they were true to character the female lead Katherine would have had an abortion instantly and Seth the male lead would never have stepped up to the plate to become a good husband and dad. Also the highly narcissistic Katherine would never have hung out with the loser Seth. But then with a couple of crazy sages you never know. We could make up that they had karma with each other that demanded they be together and raise a kid. What was really interesting and true to form was the advice Katherine’s sister gives her that to make someone better you criticize them until they behave like you want them to behave. This is truly a young soul philosophy and her character was faithful to this from beginning to end.
Thin
This is an excellent documentary of young women in a treatment program for Bulemia, Anorexia, and eating disorders. The film takes a neutral stance and shows all sides, staff, patients, family members, and program processes. You can easily see the dragons at play here including self destruction, greed, self deprecation and so on. Patients include various roles like warriors, artisans, scholars and shows the clear differences among them. It is also possible to see here how poor this treatment program is in that it does not address the source of these women’s behavior. There is no spiritual understanding nor understanding of the dragons and this causes the treatment to fail to address the women’s most critical needs. The staff is clearly asleep or simply following formula.
Grizzly Man
Although grim and tragic, this is a most fascinating study of Timothy Treadwell’s life with grizzly bears in Alaska. Directed by Werner Herzog, he uses the film to try to analyze Timothy’s motivations but he never gets to the source of this man’s behavior. Clearly Treadwell is a fifth level (eccentric) mature artisan, a passion mode idealist, emotionally centered, with a goal of growth and dragons of self destruction, self deprecation, and arrogance. With this understanding you can readily see his motivations, his demons, and what eventually led to his self created death at the claws of a grizzly. Here was an artisan who flirted with Hollywood, changed his name, hung out with destructive people, and had a severe addiction to alcohol. He transferred his addiction to the adrenaline rush of hanging around extremely dangerous bears and then felt exhilarated that he survived each time. He told himself the story that he was protecting the bears from the bad people but clearly he identified with what he saw as persecuted bears and was actually desiring protection for himself. Being an artisan and having a high degree of feminine energy he felt he had to prove his masculinity and toughness. On the other hand he used his artisan skills very successfully and productively as a film maker so he did find a way to express himself and redirect himself away from alcoholism. He did also manage to do his life task work and teach children about bears and the wild.
So obsessed was he with the danger of working with the bears that on film he constantly recounted his concern with death and destruction until he made his obsession real. He made his own reality. The young woman who died with him was a scholar who was interested in the study of it all. His ex-girlfriend who is interviewed is a mature sage with a dragon of greed. I highly recommend this film not only for its cinematic beauty but because it is such a good revelation of how self deceptive and symbolic human lives can be, especially the life of an artisan who is confused.
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter has grown to be an adolescent in this fifth segment of the Harry Potter series and he continues to struggle with his family icon, the expectations that go along with his family history and identity. Clearly he meets head on with his dragon of self deprecation and its slide over into the dragon of arrogance, making him push his friends away and feel alone and angry. Yet he finds a way to connect after all by sharing and teaching his fellow students in the face of the nasty Dolores Umbridge, a baby priest who zealously carries out the wishes of the repressive Ministry of Magic. Some of the themes dealt with here are fear, denial, projection, control, resistance, attack, trauma, and freedom. All in all this is an excellent film, both entertaining and engrossing.
The Last Mimzy
Although a film primarily directed toward children, I found this movie to have some interesting concepts embedded in it. Never mind the slipshod science, the formula script, and gaping holes in the plot, the film managed to communicate to children and whoever watches, that sacred geometry is powerful, the brain can do way more than we think, and that there may be something to the Tibetan Buddhist concept about Tulku’s, extraordinary beings who incarnate to be of service to humanity. It manages to slip these ideas across without preaching, an effective message indeed.
Volver
This is an outstanding quirky film by the ever better Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, starring Penelope Cruz (Artisan) in her best role to date. The film has superb character development, a hint of the supernatural, an intricate plot line, outstanding acting all around, and a fabulous script by Almodavar. Cruz plays Raimunda, an artisan with arrogance who has karma with her mother, reported dead in a fire. Raimunda has a daughter Paula whom she must protect from sudden tragedy, a husband who is murdered, an aunt who dies suddenly, a cousin who is making demands of her, and a sister, Sole, who is trying to hide important information from her. As the plot thickens Raimunda must not only make ends meet but engage in a huge cover up in order to hide a huge skeleton in the closet. This skeleton turns out to be nothing compared to what is revealed in the end. This is a tale of the resolution of karma, keeping agreements, and overcoming profound emotional pain in favor of communication and forgiveness. Men are side characters with women in all the leading roles, a welcome relief from the usual fare. Not only does the film deal with intense archetypal themes but it is done in a context that is very humorous. The only challenge is that the dialogue is fast and the subtitles are hard to keep up with.
Notes on a Scandal
This outstanding film stars the incomparable Cate Blanchett (relationship oriented king with artisan casting) and Judy Dench (old warrior with sage casting). Cate Blanchett had to draw on her artisan casting to play a scattered mature soul art teacher who uses terrible judgment and draws harsh lessons to herself. It is easy to forget that she is actually a king. Judy Dench plays a manipulative young soul scholar/warrior combination preying on young women’s vulnerability.
The film handles a very uncomfortable topic, sexual predation from a number of angles. There is karma creation galore as lonely dysfunctional people try to take advantage of each other’s weaknesses. Sheba, played by Cate Blanchett, is a self-deprecating dependant artisan, emotionally centered with no boundaries and Barbara played by Dench is a scholar/warrior with a goal of discrimination, a deep cynical attitude, intellectually centered, and major arrogance covering self deprecation. While the camera shows her loneliness, vulnerability, and pathetic lack of self- esteem, her voiceover displays her delusional arrogance and scathing evaluation of others. This is a most effective technique for showing the difference between the false personalities perspective and what is actually taking place. Everyone can learn something here. Highly recommended for its quality.
The Holiday
This is a light film that would be classified by most people as a chick flick, highly improbable romantic comedy, but still fun. Cameron Diaz (mature sage) plays Amanda, a successful young soul, creator of movie trailers and living in luxury in L.A. She is so involved in her work she fails at relationships. Kate Winslet (mature artisan) plays Iris, a relationship oriented server with intense self deprecation, hopelessly in love with an unavailable man. Both at the end of their ropes, the women meet on the internet and decide to trade houses hoping to get away from men problems. Instead they each find healing in the form of new relationships, Iris with an old screenwriter and a movie music scorer, Jack Black (mature sage) and Amanda with Graham (Jude Law, mature artisan) a widower with two children. Of the two of them, Iris is clearly much better at forming relationships. The primary lessons of the film involve never knowing where you are going to find agreements and new experiences and the importance of letting go of personal agendas and caring for others.
Eragon
Eragon is unfortunately a poorly executed fantasy film based on a much better book. If we ignore the terrible quality of the acting and the equally poor screenplay we can at least focus on the mythological theme that is of some interest. Ed Speleers (young artisan) plays the light masculine hero character who uses poor judgement in his haste to rescue the damsel in distress, Sienna Guillory who plays a combo of the dark and light feminine. She is young and in distress but also magical and powerful. John Malkovich (mature artisan in discrimination) in one of the poorest performances of his career, plays the negative dark masculine, a king with power gone bad. Jeremy Irons (mature artisan) does a good job of playing the positive dark masculine character, a trustworthy wise elder who sacrifices himself for the cause. The dragon is perhaps the best character and also plays the positive dark feminine figure, magical and powerful, willing to sacrifice herself for something bigger.
Casino Royale
Like all Bond films, this one carries a young soul theme to entertain mostly young souls. Nevertheless it is a surprisingly well-executed film and if you don’t mind all the usual violence it has some good action and is entertaining. The original Bond was Sean Connery, a mature king, and that was what made the early Bond films work. Since then, all the Bonds have been played by artisans and that for the most part has not worked. Now, OO7 is being played by Daniel Craig, a young warrior, carrying the right amount of action for the role. He is not a king, suave like Sean Connery, but he is the closest to the real thing since Connery. Bond is a ruthless killer agent who has closed off his heart so that he can carry out assassinations. Eva Green, artisan, successfully plays his love interest and the chemistry between them works. The story line is true to life in that young warriors are heavily armored and guarded around their hearts but sometimes someone can get through to them. In this case, after he becomes vulnerable he feels betrayed and chooses to harden up again. That’s a young warrior for you.
Flags of Our Fathers
Clint Eastwood, old warrior, hands in another outstanding film, this time focused on the Flag raising event on Iwo Jima during one of the pivotal battles in the Pacific during World War II. In his unflinching style, he lays bare the hypocrisy around the Flag Raising event that led to ruthlessly hyping it around the nation to raise war bonds. The film points to a paradox about the United States, a country that does not validate people’s emotions, yet on the other hand is a nation based entirely on emotionality. At the end of the film Eastwood nails the psychology around hero worship by showing how the men and women who fought in the war not only did not feel like heroes but in most cases were not. They were simply people who tried to stay alive and help their buddies at the same time. They were performing very locally. On the other hand the people at home were so sentimentally in need of heroes for their own bankrupt lives that they would ignore any reality and entertain any fiction to have them. They were even willing to take advantage of psychologically wounded young soldiers to have their fantasy. Nothing has changed for younger souls. Today they are as desperate for heroes as ever. Families of killed and wounded soldiers who proudly sent them off to Iraq to fight desperately need to see them as heroes. It is of course intolerable for many of them to accept that their children were taken advantage of by a corrupt and ruthless government with a hidden agenda. What if these soldiers were simply sacrificed on the altar of corporate profits and political gamesmanship. So the country plays a strange game of trying to support the troops and calling them heroes for protecting their country while at the same time trying to decide what to do with a dubious war led by incompetents that may have nothing to do with protecting the country but has everything to do with money, oil, and power.
Children of Men
This is an apocalyptic fantasy based on a book about the future where everyone is sterile and the human race is doomed to extinction while fighting destructive wars around the globe. The setting is England where all refugees from elsewhere in the world are ruthlessly rooted out and imprisoned. Clive Owen (mature artisan) plays Theo, a scholar and a reluctant hero figure who finds himself trying to protect a refugee woman who has shown up pregnant. Early in the film he runs into his ex lover played by Julianne Moore, Mature artisan in growth with reserve mode. She plays a warrior who gone underground to carry out acts of terrorism. They have an agreement to complete involving the young pregnant woman. Although I tried to like this film I gave up and found it mostly depressing even though it has a light at the end of the tunnel. Although the world could head in this direction I personally don’t think it will because unlike the film’s account, there are spiritual forces at work in our evolution that will make a huge difference.
The Last King of Scotland
Based on a novel, the mostly true story of the last king of Scotland tells the tale of Idi Amin, the dictator under whom 300,000 Ugandans were slaughtered during his reign during the 1970’s. Idi Amin was a 7th level infant or survival oriented king with a goal of dominance, mode of aggression, attitude of idealism sliding to extreme skepticism, and an obstacle of greed, with the moving center. These are the overleaves one would expect to find in a gang leader or drug lord, so it is not surprising that his self selected administration turned out the way it did. Forest Whitaker, a mature sage with a goal of growth, does an outstanding job depicting the scary, unpredictable but strangely childlike Idi Amin. This is exactly the way infant souls are. They may be very intelligent, wily, and childlike and asking for guidance, but with absolutely no conscience or compassion whatsoever. They are simply not able to put themselves in anyone else shoes.
The story is told thru the eyes of a fictional character, a Scottish doctor who is befriended by Amin and whom is drafted as his personal doctor. A naïve mature soul, he then becomes witness to the atrocities of amin, even witlessly participating in some of them indirectly. His character is a classic example of someone in the difficult monad of a mature soul finding himself forced to serve an evil master. This is tough monad in which a mature soul must confront the most difficult decisions possible while serving under a younger soul dictator of master who makes impossible ethically compromising demands upon his servant. There were mature souls serving under Hitler also experiencing this monad. They are most often murdered because of their inability to carry out all commands.
While disturbing the film does portray an infant soul leader extraordinarily accurately and the acting by Forest Whitaker in this role is superb.
The Prestige
Like The Illusionist, this film looks at the world of the magician in the earlier 1900’s and like that other better film, it is a mystery. The film stars Hugh Jackman, Mature artisan, who plays an accomplished magician obsessed with the tricks and secrets of his primary rival played by Christian Bale, another mature artisan. However both of them play rival young souls (success oriented) who are locked into intense karma with one another based on arrogance and greed. Their conflict, like most karma, leads to loss and catastrophe for them both and for the people closest to them. Despite its minor flaws, it is still an entertaining and interesting film worth watching. Michael Caine and David Bowie have lesser roles.
The Good Shepherd
Some people say this is the finest spy movie ever made. Perhaps it is,technically, but the film lacks heart and that may be because of thesubject matter. Matt Damon impeccably plays Edward, a late level young(success oriented) scholar, intellectually centered, with a stoicattitude, observation mode, a man who sees himself as self sacrificingand good, but who is caught up in the deadly and brutal karmicrealities of the developing CIA during the forties, fifties, andsixties. Much of the action centers upon the Cuban Missile Crisis andthe Bay of Pigs debacle.
Edward is trapped into an unhappy marriage with Margaret Russell,Angelina Jolie’s character, a flawed success oriented artisan whosemachinations backfire on her. They have a son who is emotionallywounded and whose need to be loved ultimately brings him to grief. Eventually Edward is presented with a choice that appears to compromisehis most cherished values, a classic human dilemma also known as themonad in which one must make impossible choices working for a corruptmaster. Interestingly, the community of spies and CIA agents can nevertrust one another, but on the other hand they are like a family anddepend on each other for intimacy and connection.
While Matt Damon is excellent and does live the role, his character isdifficult to like and there is no one else to identify with because allthe characters are compromised in some way. While that is reality, thefilm left me a little depressed and uninspired in the end, but that maybe because of my own spy lifetimes and the karma accrued.
All in all the film functions as a kind of unabashed history of theorigins of the CIA and strips it of its mystique and romance. It is thestory of how people lose their soul connection and descend into theself-deception of protecting their country while actually becomingparanoid and ruthless.
Happy Feet
While Happy Feet is typical animation formula, it is hardnot to be seduced by it and thoroughly enjoy it. It is basically ananimated musical with much song and dance with the major theme beingthe hero’s journey. It also has the theme of the outcast, the penguinwho is so different he comes into conflict with the cultural standardsand the elders upholding the old ways that cannot be altered. The filmshows what happens when someone successfully challenges his culture toadapt and change for the better. One of the film’s objectives is not sosubtly to call attention to the plight of real penguins in theAntarctic whose survival is in question. The animation and technicalachievements of this film are superb. Robin Williams voice of course steals the show.
The Illusionist
This is a most enjoyable film about a character named Eisenheim, arelationship oriented, dominant artisan, played excellently by EdwardNorton (mature stoical artisan) who is gifted with special psychicabilities and a great flair for hypnotizing crowds. He carrys alifelong torch for his essence twin, Du chess Sophie von Teschen, alsoa relationship oriented soul played by Jessica Biel (mature artisan), awoman from nobility who is way above him in class and station but whonevertheless loves him. They are separated for years but rediscovereach other as she is about to be married off to Crown Prince Leopold, acorrupt, insecure and ill tempered success oriented soul played byRufus Sewell, a dominant artisan. Eisenheim is dogged by chiefinspector Uhl, excellently played by Paul Giamanti (another matureartisan), an upwardly mobile police chief who is directed to put himout of business. Yet, he is fascinated by the illusionist and isreluctant to arrest him, preferring to learn from him instead. ChiefInspector Uhl actually has a teacher-student monad with Eisenheim (Uhlis the student) and he is also playing out another monad with Leopold,serving a corrupt master. In the end he is rescued from that monad byEisenheim’s master plan of escape that leads Leopold to commitsuicide.
The Painted Veil
This is a visually stunning film based on the 1925 Somerset Maughamnovel about a British doctor and his wife helping to fight a choleraepidemic in rural China. It is a tale of karma and agreements among themain characters, Dr. Fane, a late level relationship oriented stoicalscholar played by Edward Norton, Kitty, an aging socialite who marriesDr. Fane as a ticket out of town, played by Naomi Watts (matureartisan), and Dr. Townsend, a success oriented soul with whom she has acatalytic affair. Upon discovery of the affair, Dr Fane strong-armsKitty into going to the heart of a cholera epidemic. He appearshard-hearted and brutal but he actually has an agreement with Kitty tocrush her imprinting as a young soul and push her into her 4th internalmonad (mid thirties) where she must mature and be the relationship soulshe actually is. The agreement is successful and in the process hefinds his heart again. Kitty is helped to complete her monad by aphilosophically oriented nun played by Diana Rigg. The tale is apowerful one augmented by the setting in China.
The film also manages to show the rule oriented policies of the localswhose ignorance is contributing to the epidemic, the shenanigans of thesuccess oriented Europeans taking advantage of China, and attempts tomake a difference by the relationship oriented souls.
The Curse of the Golden Flower
Three Thousand years ago during the Tang Dynasty in China the emperor’sfamily lived in unimaginable wealth, opulence, and power. Theirknowledge of plants was extraordinarily advanced as well as theirunderstanding of sacred geometry, martial arts, and the use of preciousmetals, colors, and ceremonial form. Yet no matter how advanced theknowledge, the film shows clearly that in the hands of highly karmicsuccess oriented (young) souls bent on winning at all costs, thatknowledge was twisted and failed to provide the harmony, peace, andtranquility it was calculated to support. The most bitter karmicenemies all incarnated into the same family to play out their worstbetrayals. The film is a curious cross between incredibly beautifulfilm making and a horrific story of corruption, plotting, lies,violence, and intrigue that is quite brutal. The beauty is only matchedin the amount of tears and blood spilled. The film ends abruptly andthere is no redemption other than it seems everyone gets their justdeserts. If you love color and visual beauty coupled with precisionmartial arts and massive surreal battle scenes and ritual formationsthen you will enjoy the film regardless of its harsh tale.
Little Children
Although billed as a comedy, at its heart this film is not really funny at all. The film examines dysfunctional relationships, infidelity, and dysfunctional sexual expression in various forms. Kate Winslett (relationship oriented artisan) plays a narcissistic mother and dissatisfied wife who desperately desires the intensity of a romance. She has an affair with another somewhat narcisisstic, alienated house husband whose wife is more successful and who is distracted with her job. Interwoven through this story is the dysfunction of a failed policeman and his torment of a sexual offender recently released from jail. These dysfunctions reach a disturbing tragic crescendo in the end with the result that everyone learns something valuable about themselves. In the end it is obvious that everyone has been acting like a child, more so than the children themselves. Although uncomfortable in places I would recommend this film.
Babel
Babel is an extraordinary film, powerful, impactful and highly recommended, yet it does have deeply disturbing sequences. The film revolves around three distinct stories involving people in totally different parts of the world who by film’s end prove to be completely interrelated. The film examines a number of themes including trauma, culture clash, marital conflict, love, sexuality, dedication, selfishness, fear, immigration, and mental illness. Cate Blanchett (old King) and Brad Pitt (mature Artisan) deliver outstanding performances as a couple in conflict, deeply traumatized during their journey through Morocco. However, their performances are equally matched by the outstanding cast of Mexican, Moroccan, and Japanese actors who round out the story. If you can handle the tension, this is a movie not to miss.
The Queen
“The Queen” is a poignant look at the current queen of England, a rule oriented server in reserve mode who had to navigate the difficult terrain of Princess Diana’s death a few years ago. Princess Diana was a relationship oriented priest with artisan casting whose death impacted the whole world. The Queen (played impeccably by Helen Mirren) and Prince Phillip, in their antipathy to Diana and their attachment to traditional rules, failed to grasp the gravity of the situation and failed to respond in a way that satisfied an older soul public. England is populated by mostly mature and older souls.
The film examines the relationship between the royals and their subjects and explores the difference between personal preferences and what is owed the public at large. The film also examines the relationship between Tony Blair, an early level relationship oriented soul and the queen. Their interplay is both humorous and painful. In the end the queen chides him in a particularly chilling prophetic statement suggesting that he too may arrive at the day when the public suddenly turns against him. I found this film very interesting and enjoyable.
There is an interesting shamanic and symbolic sequence involving the hunting of a stag by the royals during the funeral week. Animals are powerful mediums for the recently departed. The entire sequence is deeply symbolic of Diana’s plight.
Wordplay
This is a surprisingly interesting documentary about the whole world of cross word puzzles with some famous individuals who are addicted to them revealing interesting aspects of their personalities. The film ends with an annual competition that is both suspenseful and revealing. Many of the best contestants are scholars and artisans who might be considered nerds by other people but who are obviously geniuses in their ability to move through extremely tough puzzles exceptionally rapidly. It is simply fun watching them perform. Also revealing and interesting is the character who comes out third in the competition and watching how he ends up there. Throughout the whole film he announces that he always gets third and that he can never win. In the end you see an amazing performance in which he makes this come true, a great example of “How you say it is, is how it will be.”
Fountain
This is a science fiction/mythopoetic film that has proven very controversial for several reasons; 1.It is a metaphysical film dealing with a subject matter that only older souls understand 2. A major theme is death 2. The content and imagery is beyond most peoples comprehension. Hugh Jackman (relationship oriented artisan) plays a warrior character who has three lives that interweave in three different time frames. In one he is a conquistador who is committed to protecting the Queen of Spain (Rachel Weisz-also relationship oriented artisan), ending the influence of a deadly inquisitor who is threatening the queen, and based on Mayan information, discovering the tree of life in the New World so that he can bring back its gifts for the Queen. In a time frame that is the near future he is a fanatical brain surgeon committed to finding a cure for his wife’s (Rachel Weisz again) brain tumor before she dies. In the far future he is a space traveler who has discovered the tree of life in a dying star system referred to by the Mayans. In each time frame he resists death and yet fails to be able to prevent it. In his failure he discovers the greatest truths in the universe. There are deep Tibetan Buddhist, ancient Mayan, and Shamanic themes referred to in the imagery of the film. There is the theme of the interplay between the masculine and the feminine as in each life the feminine trys to wake him up and get him to let go of his stubborn resistance to what is. There are also the themes of the tree of life, immortality, impermanence, transcendence, and transformation all packed into this film. The film is rather ambitious at trying tackle so much and in some ways does an admirable job and in other ways fails to handle it adequately because the topic is so huge. I liked it but not everyone will.