The Professor Lifestyle:
"Shadowlands" (1993)
This
Richard Attenborough production called "Shadowlands", starring
Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger as the main characters, is a biopic based on the life story of the British
professor and writer C.S. Lewis and his relationship with his younger American
wife Joy Davidman, as narrated in his book `A Grief Observed´.
In
the 1950s, a single middle-aged British professor follows his habits,
timetables and routine infatuations and fixations. He is an acclaimed lecturer
at the University of Oxford and a very well-known writer. That´s what we could call
`his comfortable boring lifestyle´.
His
unimaginative life is shocked by the unexpected arrival of a divorced North
American poetess and her son, who appear to be devoted readers of his works.
Two
very different minds, cultures, backgrounds and beliefs suddenly meet, so that
the peaceful traditional life of the professor and his doctor brother, as well
as housemate, becomes deeply disturbed.
It
is memorable the way the movie shows the contrasts between two different
English-speaking nationals: an American woman, English man.
Their
relationship allows them to share and face new ways of contemplating life and the
world, of admiring traditions and cultural fates, of giving each other a
narrative perspective of their biographies. The cultural nuisances and
disagreements don´t prevent their slow mutual process of falling in love.
But
suddenly she is diagnosed with cancer, and the professor´s point of view about
marriage, about respectful traditions, about the meaning of life, about his admiring
American woman friend and her son, about his own feelings, is dramatically lowered
from his professorial perspective.
His
true love for these two he has recently met shakes him greatly, and a humble
change of his lifestyle is needed. It is a very moving love that makes him
behave a little bit like a child. Also very moving is his faith in an almighty
providing God.
Can a stuck-up professor, surrounded
by sarcastic colleagues, become a poor simple suffering man in love?
The Soldier Lifestyle:
"Paths of Glory" (1957)
There
have been many movies about war and about the lifestyle of soldiers. Many of
them sugar-coat their real lives or elude the tough part of them. This one I
especially like because it takes us directly to the horror of war and to the
nonsense of some battle attempts. Directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk
Douglas, the film presents Colonel Dax -this is Douglas ´character- as an
officer who tries to understand and defend his soldiers against charges of
cowardice because they have refused to continue a suicidal attack.
The
action is set in France during the First World War. The plot is based on real
historical facts: both the capital punishment given to some soldiers for
theoretical cowardice and sometimes in a random decimation, and also the orders
given by artillery officials about opening fire against their own trenches so
that the soldiers would be forced rightly to combat onto the battlefield.
Of
course, the film´s showing was anything but peaceful, especially in France. It
couldn´t be completely watched uncut over there until 1975. Nowadays, it is
considered an iconic anti-war film, and when it was released many French and
Belgian ex-combatants protested because of the image of them it projected.
In
my opinion -and although it shows only the very dark face of some soldiers´
lifestyles- it is definitely a masterpiece. First, because of the great performance
by Kirk Douglas and the rest of the cast. Secondly, for the beauty of the black
and white photography. And, last but not least, because of how the film deals
with different moral dilemmas: the ambitions of some officials, the patriotic
duties of the soldiers, blind martial obedience imposed even when senseless orders
are given. And not to mention the harsh lifestyles of soldiers in cruel wars
that some heroic army members try to ease.
The Cowboy Lifestyle:
"The Man Who Shot Liberty
Valance" (1962)
This
magnificent movie by John Ford, starring the actors John Wayne and James
Stewart, among others, offers not only a panoramic view of cowboys and the western
lifestyle, but a deep reflection on different ways of confronting violence,
injustice and wrongdoing.
To
add more to the plot, we have two men trying to overcome the evil of the bandit
Liberty Valance in different ways: the non-violent idealistic principle of
attorney Stoddard -played by Stewart- and the practical tough eye-for-an-eye
behavior of cowboy Doniphon -played by Wayne; and both men fighting for the
same woman´s love: Hallie -played by Vera Milles-.
Stoddard
is already a Washington Senator and makes a long, surprising train journey to
attend the funeral of local rancher Doniphon. The story then is narrated in a
long flashback: how he arrived there twenty-five years earlier, how he was
robbed and battered by the Liberty Valance gang, how he still preached for
justice but not for brute force, how he was challenged to a gunfight by Valance
after his efforts to improve infrastructures, safety and education were
sabotaged, and how everything ended later because of Valance´s unexpected death
in a shootout.
Things
in the West seemed to be one way but they were another, not only because of how
Valance´s death happens in the movie but also because of how Stoddard was
chosen by Hallie.
Ford
was said to be old-fashioned because he filmed this movie in black and white.
But the virtues he wanted to project from rough cowboy Doniphon and from the
fair, honorable attorney Stoddard seem to be old-fashioned, too: the aim of
justice, grateful behavior, romantic surrender and the regrets of a triumphant politician.
For me, many of these virtues
should be reconsidered, not just remembered as important to the lifestyles of some
old American settlers, farmers and cowboys. Don´t miss this provocative classic
movie!
The Monk Lifestyle:
"Of Gods and Men" (2010)
This
French movie by Xavier Beauvois tells the story of eight real Trappist monks
living in the Algerian mountains during the Civil War. It narrates their slow ordinary
lifestyle, living in harmony with the Muslim population from 1993 to 1996, until
seven of them were kidnapped and beheaded.
The
movie was filmed in an abandoned monastery in the Moroccan Atlas, giving great realism
to the plot. The title is a reference to a verse from the book of Psalms: `I
have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye
shall die like men´.
The risk
was clear from the beginning of the film, because in addition to their lives of
prayer and their work giving medical assistance to local population, they
receive the news that some Croatian workers have been murdered by
fundamentalist Islamic soldiers not too far away.
The main
question they ask themselves is whether they must flee or stay there. At the
beginning, the monks are divided about what they should do. But one of the most
interesting approaches to the movie is to observe how they make an
introspective evolution to get to the same point from different individualities:
the moral importance of maintaining their committed lives together with the local
population in spite of facing violence.
The
movie breathes authenticity, and this is why it is a beautiful film. It is also
historically faithful; the inner daily life of the monks is very well
reflected, and their traditions and liturgies are portrayed perfectly. But
what impressed me most was how every
monk had his own personality, his own doubts, his own fears and his own tasks
in the community, and how they reached a common decision hand in hand with each
other. And how all this is so well shown in the film.
The only
survivor, frère Jean Pierre, now in
his 90s, is still living in an isolated monastery in the Moroccan Atlas, with
another five monks, the same lifestyle that he used to follow. He recently said:
`Forgiveness is like a fragile butterfly that when flapping its wings can
provoke a reaction in another far place of the world´.
The Thanksgiving Turkey
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