No review today, partly as I have not read much but secondly the films I have watched this week have been old favourites I am sure you will have all seen.
Yesterday I watched The Fifth Element with the monster and watching him get excited over the flying cars and aliens started me thinking about how we all read or watch things taking different parts to heart.
Now don’t get me wrong I understand this film is not designed to be deep and philosophical and I watch it laughing away at Gary Oldman’s fabulous bad guy as much as the next person but something in my head is wired so I watch and read everything looking at deeper questions and meanings.
So you may ask what questions and thoughts a film such as this can evoke? Basically the failings of humanity, the first is our heroines treatment at the hands of authority.
What we do not understand and cannot identify must be prodded, poked, tested, tested upon and finally dissected. I think it is inherent in humans to do this without thought to the subject of our study, think of small children discovering the world no one tells them to pick up a stick to poke at whatever they have found laying on the ground it is something they do automatically. Our quest for knowledge and understanding outweighs compassion and in some cases self-preservation and to believe it goes away because we grow up would be naive. We may learn from books, allow others to do the gory parts of exploration for us but we still have the same instinct to prod away until we know all there is to know. Should and alien life force land tomorrow and be able to communicate with us would we be satisfied to simply hear what they have to say, I think while we would say of course the reality would be most would not be happy until it had been dissected and analysed at a molecular level.
Which brings me to the second though which is actually done pretty well in the film when as the fifth element learns about humanity and cannot find a reason to save it, the horrors of life so often outweigh the beauty of the world and the real elements of life which have true value. We take so much around us for granted, things that should horrify us become common place scarcely causing the raising of an eyebrow unless personally involved. Occasionally something so horrific happens that everyone does stop to comment but quickly normal life is resumed. I do appreciate that should the world stop for ever horror it would never move again but as an individual I worry how immune I am becoming to the evil in the world. It is not something one can combat by falling apart or fighting every battle but I believe my way of contributing to balancing the world is for every negative to teach my children a positive.
I take time to literally smell the roses, to listen to the bird song and marvel in the world around me, I take a minute out of everyday to give thanks for what I have and another to send my thoughts to those who struggle or are in pain, in the might scheme of things it may not make a difference but for me as a person it keeps me grounded and reminds me life may be hard but it is always worth living.
Paula Acton 