Bad Movies
So, I have a good eye for bad books and bad movies. I generally avoid them. However, sometimes, just to prove you can judge a book by its cover jacket or a movie by the source of its "Fantastic" reviews, I experience these tragic works for myself. Recently, I rented and watched "The Celestine Prophecy." For those unfamiliar, you can find the book and its sequel "The Tenth Insight" in the new age section of most book stores. You can find the movie at Blockbuster on DVD. It provides a thrilling series of coincidental events that bring its protagonist in contact with an assortment of individuals and experiences that guide him through a series of "insights" leading him to a deeper appreciation of a mystical energy force that guides the evolution of man and blah blah blah. It was not so much the contrived series of coincidental events or the crisp clean yet often cryptic dialogue but rather the seriousness with which the film treated its central premise, that there might be some truth to these "insights." That we might actually go home and stare between the space between our fingers and hope to see in LSD-glory a shimmering energy surrounding everyone. That we might begin to worry that others are stealing our energy in a very literal sense. Perhaps I take these movies to seriously myself, but I worry that there are folks out there who allow books such as the Celestine Prophecy or the Da Vinci Code influence there belief systems. I worry someone might believe the great renaissance masters painted halos around Saints not as a stylized way of indicating saint-hood but because they saw auras.
This is not to say that I don't like movies about spirtituality or that I am not into all that spiritual stuff. I just would like to think that a movie inspired by a deep spiritual insight would be more interesting. A lot more interesting. Honestly, the only thing that kept me watching the movie was the director's odd choice to open many a scene with the protagonist putting on his shirt or taking off his shirt or the out of place homosexual tension between the main protagonist and his attractive guide, Will. Heck, I might just watch the "Tenth Insight" to see if it builds on these very important themes.
This is not to say that I don't like movies about spirtituality or that I am not into all that spiritual stuff. I just would like to think that a movie inspired by a deep spiritual insight would be more interesting. A lot more interesting. Honestly, the only thing that kept me watching the movie was the director's odd choice to open many a scene with the protagonist putting on his shirt or taking off his shirt or the out of place homosexual tension between the main protagonist and his attractive guide, Will. Heck, I might just watch the "Tenth Insight" to see if it builds on these very important themes.