|
|||||
|
|
|
|
||
|
By Stephen
Simon In The Spiritual Cinema Circle we have discovered many hidden treasures that remind me of one of the greatest Spiritual Cinema classics of all time... 1. FIELD OF DREAMS Even if Field of Dreams wasn't a wonderful movie on many different levels, its core message would deserve its place in the pantheon of the 5 Spiritual Cinema Classics that everyone should see simply for its phrase: "If you build it, they (or he) will come." Kevin Costner
plays Ray Kinsella, an Iowa farmer who begins to hear a voice telling
him to build a baseball field right in the middle of his farm. Despite
the fact that the building of the field seems nonsensical to both Ray
and his wife Anni (Amy Madigan), he feels compelled to build the field.
When he builds it, Ray gets the delight of watching famous ball players
emerge from the cornfields to play on the field. These are men he has
idolized and idealized through the years and gets to watch them play the
game he so dearly loves. He provides a space for them to live out their
dreams and, in so doing, Ray vicariously gets to play out his fantasy
life as a player. Despite all the obstacles he faces from his wife and
other factors such as the financial burden of putting his meager resources
into the unlikely enterprise of building a ball field in the corn fields
of Iowa, he follows that "voice." Is it the voice of God? The voice of a guardian angel? The voice of his father? I don't think so. It is his voice. His internal voice. That voice we all have in the depths of our souls that speaks truth to us in our most important moments. That voice which is our connection to the divine, however we might individually interpret that word. The voice that often we confuse with all those other little voices we hear like that of our ego or our inner child. This connection to that divine voice within us is to me the crux of the power of "Field of Dreams." Field of Dreams was released in 1989 just as we entered the decade of the nineties where so much of the literature pertaining to our evolving awareness of spirituality was focused on connecting with the divine with us. My dear friend Neale Donald Walsch got to a place of such pain and desperation in his life that only his awakening to that voice held him back from toppling into the abyss. His visionary "Conversations with God" books all pertain in some way to connecting to that unique voice within each one of us which is our individual connection to the divine. Ray listens to the most sacred place within himself and that's why, without any so-called rational reason, he sets in motion the actions of the building of the field. He can't really explain it. He just knows. One of the hallmarks of wisdom is the ability and courage to look beyond logic and reason without losing sight of it. Costner's character succeeds in doing just that. Even more importantly, he trusts that inner voice, even in the face of mounting opposition and the fact that he himself cannot justify his actions in any rational way. He is in fact following his heart and his destiny. Movies that connect on such a deep level as Field of Dreams have powerful messages †inside of them or we would not resonate so deeply to them. This film not only illuminates our connection to that voice within us, it also parts the veil between life and death with love and forgiveness at its core. †In discovering what transpires at the end of the film, we understand the real reason that Ray's inner voice has compelled him to build the field: reconnection and forgiveness with his own deceased father. This theme resonates for us, I believe, on the obvious level of our desire for resolution with our parents but it also connects to the deeper issue of forgiveness. The power of forgiveness is at once an immense power and also a formidable weapon. When we choose to forgive, we release both ourselves and the person that we are forgiving. Once the power to forgive is exercised, the energy shifts. When we withhold forgiveness, we keep ourselves and the one seeking forgiveness in the places we have maintained as victim and perpetrator. We can, of course, hold grudges forever and keep ourselves in that place of the wronged party or we can forgive and move on. Choosing to forgive and being forgiven is at the core of the climax of Field of Dreams. Ray forgives his father and thus allows them both to heal. For everyone, that is a powerful and resonant message. For many more, it is a critical life lesson that we have chosen to play out in this lifetime. 2. GROUNDHOG DAY GROUNDHOG DAY is a wonderful human comedy about being given the rare opportunity to live several lifetimes all in the same day. It's along the same lines as LIGHTHOUSE HILL, which we discovered for the members of The Spiritual Cinema Circle. Of course, that's not how FIELD OF DREAMS was marketed but, for our purposes, I believe that concept is at the soul of the story and why I believe that it is one of the 5 Spiritual Cinema Classics that everyone should see.. Bill Murray plays cynical weatherman Phil Conner, who gets sent to Punxatawney, Pa. for what has become his annual covering of Groundhog Day, an event he dreads and loathes. Phil is an equal opportunity punisher of all around him, most particularly Rita (Andie McDowell), the segment producer on the shoot. After the event, the crew is stranded by a snowstorm and forced to stay another day. Waking up the next morning (to the sounds of Sonny and Cher singing "I Got You Babe" on the radio), he discovers that it's Groundhog Day all over again. Every one and everything is the same except for him. And it keeps happening. Day after day after day. At first, he sees it as the perfect way to hone his seductive designs on Rita. Every day he learns more about her and then uses it the next day to try to impress her. For her, everything is new each day. Ultimately, he realizes that nothing is going to get her into bed in just one day. He gets depressed, so much so that he actually tries to commit suicide. Several times. Several ways. The problem is that he still wakes up the next morning at 6:00 a.m. to Sonny and Cher. At first, he goes through, in precise order, the five stages of dealing with death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. After a while, he decides that he should probably do something better in his life and he actually starts to help people. By now, he knows absolutely everything that is going to happen in that town on that day so he can, for instance, always be under the right tree to catch a boy who falls out of it - or perform the Heimlich maneuver on a choking diner, etc. Finally, he has really changed and Rita does fall in love with him for who he is actually is on that particular day. That night, she does fall asleep with him and, when he awakes the next day, Groundhog Day is finally over and he can move on with Rita, a changed man. The film is very funny in the beginning but, as it progresses, you see that there is more at work here than just a wonderful premise. It is obvious that this experience is happening over hundreds of days to Phil, maybe even thousands, and we see him evolve. Each day, he learns something new about himself and the world around him and he uses it the next day. In the beginning of his experience, Phil uses these new insights for ego-centered reasons but he gradually begins to realize that he has a greater purpose for being alive and begins to utilize those insights to grow and interact more positively with the people around him. Groundhog Day thus provides a perfect metaphor for the lessons we seek from lifetime to lifetime. We learn and grow in each one as we evolve. If time has no meaning (and for Phil, it doesn't), then who is to say what one day signifies? In Inherit The Wind, Henry Drummond, the character based on Clarence Darrow, asks Matthew Brady, the character based on William Jennings Bryan, about the definition of a "day" in the Bible. Confirming that even the Bible did not determine how long "a day" is, Drummond presents a theory that, without the measures we have now for a day (the sun), †that it could be of indeterminate length. "Could be 24 hours, could be a week, could be a month, could be a year, could be ten thousand years!" Groundhog Day is a metaphor for that growth process and has become a common term now in modern life for a day that seems to go on forever. When a phrase from a movie takes on that kind of life ("Trust the force, Luke"), there is something going on in our hearts and minds that extends well outside the confines of a strip of film. 3. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE This masterpiece is one of the 5 Spiritual Cinema Classics that everyone should see because it revolves around the intriguing question of what would the world around us look like if we had never been born? We've all wondered that in our darkest hours and this film plays it out. Life also looks at our priorities as human beings and delivers a powerful message about the primacy of love. George Bailey (and James Stewart who played him) is a perfect reflection of an idealistic young man. He does the right thing because it is the right thing. No angles, no self-serving schemes. He falls in love and, try as he might, he knows that he would be a fool to walk away from that love, and so he gives up his dream of travel and stays home. What's critical here is that he does it with no sense of martyr - he just sees what he needs to do and does it. When things sour for him, he descends into such shame and anger that he contemplates suicide. All Tom Hanks had in Cast Away to dissuade him from ending his life was a volleyball named Wilson - at least Jimmy Stewart had Clarence! When things got darkest in the outer world around him, he let himself forget what was truly important in his life - his wife, his family, his friends That's when Clarence steps in and shows him what life would look like without him and the experience reminds him of how important his life really is. (The character of Clarence was also a reminder of the "unseen friends" that we have around us during those dark nights of the soul that we all encounter. It is said that our souls never put us in situations which we cannot handle and Clarence is a classic example of the help that is available to us when we need it most). The primary message was about the power of love. George may have given up his ideas of travel and adventure but he gained a loving wife, children and friends who would steadfastly stand by him in his darkest hour. As the old saying goes--on our deathbeds, we never wish we had spent more time at the office! In the last scene, a bell rings on the Christmas tree with George's daughter telling him that every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings. The last image is of George saying "Way to go, Clarence!" The love that surrounds George Bailey reminds us †that "no man (or woman) is a failure who has friends". And family. And the power of love. 4. WHALE RIDER When an old paradigm dies, a void in time is created and that twilight space becomes a magical opportunity for all those who have been born into it. The new paradigm is still but a ray of sun on a distant horizon and it is that light that sustains us in the unknown of that suspended moment in time. Just as the power of paradox lies in the space in between solution and resolution, powerful transcendence awaits all those who feel their hearts pulled to the call of the that "swing between worlds." Pai, the thirteen-year old heroine of Whale Rider, one of the 5 Spiritual Cinema Classics that everyone should see, guides us through her own experience of that moment of transformation. She hears the call of ancient whales that draw her and us into a film that is haunting, prophetic, and groundbreaking. Set in New Zealand, the film revolves around the conflict that arises in a Maori tribe when the wife of the male heir to the Leader of the tribe dies while birthing both a boy and a girl. The boy dies, too, and in grief, the male heir disappears, breaking the traditional line of succession--and leaving his daughter to be raised by her grandparents. Pako, the grandfather and Tribal leader, loves little Pai but harbors a deep sadness and sense of loss because of the absence of both his son and deceased grandson. Even though little Pai has been given the name of one of the ancient founders of the tribe, he can't for a moment even consider that perhaps she is the one destined to lead the tribe. She is, after all, "just a girl," and the culture of the tribe very clearly requires a first-born, male heir. Undaunted, Pai lives in that magnificent loneliness of vision that enfolds those who have chosen to be mapmakers and have only their inner guidance to comfort them as they move inexorably toward their destiny. Pai loves and deeply respects her grandfather but she also knows that she is called by the whales who brought her ancestors to her tribal village to challenge the very core of the belief systems of her tribe. With no sense of anger or true "rebellion," she nonetheless follows her heart as it leads her to learn both the physical and metaphysical traditions of her tribe, bringing her into a confrontation with her grandfather that she does not seek but cannot escape. Ultimately, Pai's moment of grace and opportunity arrives in a moment of crisis and she is challenged by her own heart and destiny to transcend and transform her world. As Spiritual Cinema, and as powerfully as any film in recent memory in this genre, Whale Rider is a metaphor for the majesty of this epoch into which we have all chosen to be born. As the early days of this new millennium unfold, old traditions are changing and outdated belief systems are being challenged and dismantled. Engrained ways of thinking and responding to each other and the world around us are being confronted by courageous souls such as Pai and, as a result, our world is evolving and reaching up its arms to the approaching dawn of that new paradigm whose light bathes our faces in the reflection of the wisdom of such films as Whale Rider. 5. THE MATRIX THE MATRIX is one of the 5 Spiritual Cinema Classics that I believe everyone should see because, underneath its surface, it contains a breathtaking metaphysical message that is almost unprecedented in Hollywood big-budget movie making. Here is a film that asks its viewers to accept the conceit that the life they are living may not be "real." That there is no objective reality. This kind of thinking is at the very dew line of metaphysics. The fact that it got expressed in The Matrix with fantastic critical and commercial success says a lot about where we are as a humanity at the turn of the century. The entire spine of the story is the mystery surrounding what the matrix really is and, as such, it is a wonderful metaphor for daring adventurer/mapmakers everywhere who seek out the mysteries of life without regard to the attendant personal risks. We find that the Matrix "is all around us. You can't be told what the Matrix is. You must see it for yourself." YES!! You must see it for yourself!....Not the film---the illusion itself The Matrix questions the very nature of reality. Ignore the reasons they create to justify it and the concept itself is achingly beautiful and radical: What is real? The critical
message of the film is that we simply have no way of knowing. Questioning
the very nature of what we call reality is both a powerful message and
a dazzling leap forward in the movies...and our world. Click here to learn more about the Spiritual Cinema Circle
|
