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trickykittyI saw the actors listed and it's description and decided on a whim to record it last night.
Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich and Robert De Niro
Now that was an interesting movie. De Niro is a parole officer interrogating Norton, who gets his beautiful nympho wife to intervene on his behalf, but this is actually a heavy hitting coming-to-religion movie. Emphasis on the heavy hitting part, so it's not going to be for everyone. It moves horribly slow, but the pacing actually ties in with the plot. It reverberates with my current Tao studies in an off-shoot kind of way, so I had a personal interest in the subject of the movie. I also tend to like off-the-wall movies like this one, even though most others will say it's a waste of your time to watch, again because of the pacing and the religious motif thrust in your face by a 2x4 throughout. Still, and as expected, absolute fine performances from the actors.
I still recommend it, but I'm not going to ignore the obvious that might be a turn-off for some.
Oh, and also, Milla tittays. Just saying - I'm also not going to ignore the obvious turn-on.
The movie revolves around the transformation of De Niro's and Norton's characters. De Niro starts off as an Upstanding Religious Southern Boy about to retire and Norton as an 8-yr Westsider Prison Veteran that believes he's done his time and is ready to be paroled. To sweeten the pot he gets his wife involved.
During the course of the movie you see how De Niro, who's put on your shit list from the word go, makes the 'what the hell' decision to go with the obvious bribe, which soon prompts his already precarious world to begin crumbling with a quickness. It's a "Where's Your God Now" farce made to emphasize his rapid decline into confusion and lostness.
Norton's character is actually seen as real from the beginning. He's still a thug, but ready to get out, not necessarily bad, but not exactly the good seed either. He of course comes to a spiritual epiphany, but it's not a Christian one, and this is my number one reason for recommending this movie based on the plot motif. His change is compared to the changes of other inmates that "found Jesus" while in jail, and it becomes quite obvious that he's found something else, something real, something that brings him an inner peace.
Now take that inner peace and juxtapose it with the turmoil being created in the mind of De Niro and you can see the stark contrast. You can see the clearer (but not perfect) mind of Norton, and through him you can see the lost mind of De Niro, not that the movie doesn't shine a bright light on it or anything.
This was what really hit home for me. It's exactly what I've been reading and what I've been aiming for myself.
Lao-tsu's central figure is a man or woman whose life is in perfect harmony with the way things are. The Master has mastered Nature; not in the sense of conquering it, but of becoming it. In surrendering to the Tao, in giving up all concepts, judgments, and desires, her mind has grown naturally compassionate.
Unencumbered by any concept of sin, the Master doesn't see evil as a force to resist, but simply as an opaqueness, a state of self-absorption, which is in disharmony with the universal process, so that, as with a dirty window, the light can't shine through. This freedom from moral categories allows him his great compassion for the wicked and the selfish.
The part that I like the most was Norton's simple addition after coming to terms with this within himself that he was still probably going to mess up and regret it, but that he would see and understand it unlike how he lived before. He wasn't expecting his grand transformation to suddenly cure him of his old habits.
Those few lines thrown in as almost a side note were more powerful than the whole transformation scenes that came before it, in my book.
Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich and Robert De Niro
Now that was an interesting movie. De Niro is a parole officer interrogating Norton, who gets his beautiful nympho wife to intervene on his behalf, but this is actually a heavy hitting coming-to-religion movie. Emphasis on the heavy hitting part, so it's not going to be for everyone. It moves horribly slow, but the pacing actually ties in with the plot. It reverberates with my current Tao studies in an off-shoot kind of way, so I had a personal interest in the subject of the movie. I also tend to like off-the-wall movies like this one, even though most others will say it's a waste of your time to watch, again because of the pacing and the religious motif thrust in your face by a 2x4 throughout. Still, and as expected, absolute fine performances from the actors.
I still recommend it, but I'm not going to ignore the obvious that might be a turn-off for some.
Oh, and also, Milla tittays. Just saying - I'm also not going to ignore the obvious turn-on.
The movie revolves around the transformation of De Niro's and Norton's characters. De Niro starts off as an Upstanding Religious Southern Boy about to retire and Norton as an 8-yr Westsider Prison Veteran that believes he's done his time and is ready to be paroled. To sweeten the pot he gets his wife involved.
During the course of the movie you see how De Niro, who's put on your shit list from the word go, makes the 'what the hell' decision to go with the obvious bribe, which soon prompts his already precarious world to begin crumbling with a quickness. It's a "Where's Your God Now" farce made to emphasize his rapid decline into confusion and lostness.
Norton's character is actually seen as real from the beginning. He's still a thug, but ready to get out, not necessarily bad, but not exactly the good seed either. He of course comes to a spiritual epiphany, but it's not a Christian one, and this is my number one reason for recommending this movie based on the plot motif. His change is compared to the changes of other inmates that "found Jesus" while in jail, and it becomes quite obvious that he's found something else, something real, something that brings him an inner peace.
Now take that inner peace and juxtapose it with the turmoil being created in the mind of De Niro and you can see the stark contrast. You can see the clearer (but not perfect) mind of Norton, and through him you can see the lost mind of De Niro, not that the movie doesn't shine a bright light on it or anything.
This was what really hit home for me. It's exactly what I've been reading and what I've been aiming for myself.
Lao-tsu's central figure is a man or woman whose life is in perfect harmony with the way things are. The Master has mastered Nature; not in the sense of conquering it, but of becoming it. In surrendering to the Tao, in giving up all concepts, judgments, and desires, her mind has grown naturally compassionate.
Unencumbered by any concept of sin, the Master doesn't see evil as a force to resist, but simply as an opaqueness, a state of self-absorption, which is in disharmony with the universal process, so that, as with a dirty window, the light can't shine through. This freedom from moral categories allows him his great compassion for the wicked and the selfish.
The part that I like the most was Norton's simple addition after coming to terms with this within himself that he was still probably going to mess up and regret it, but that he would see and understand it unlike how he lived before. He wasn't expecting his grand transformation to suddenly cure him of his old habits.
Those few lines thrown in as almost a side note were more powerful than the whole transformation scenes that came before it, in my book.
