Happy Resurrection Day

Dear friends and visitors,

Here’s wishing all a safe and blessed holiday.

This year is special.  It really tasks us to think about life.  Many of us, worldwide, are ordered to stay at home.  There will be no physical church services.  That brings us to the reality that the “church” is not a building but the people.  We need God in and with us no matter where we are, or where we go.

The following was originally posted in 2016.  It doesn’t seem that long since I first saw the movie Risen.  It is one of my favorite movies.

Happy Resurrection Day

Dear friends and visitors,

Here’s wishing all a safe and blessed holiday.

The following was originally posted in 2016.  It doesn’t seem that long since I first saw the movie Risen.  It is one of my favorite movies.

Risen is about a Roman Tribune named Clavius who is tasked by Pilot to find the body of the crucified Jesus Christ that is no longer in the tomb, and before the three days predicted that he would rise from the dead.

Clavius sets out to find the followers of Yeshua for them to tell him where they have hidden the body. Instead, Clavius finds more than he anticipated — a man who he ordered killed and saw dead, alive again.

Below is a video interview of Cliff Curtis who played Yeshua in the movie.  When asked about his preparations to play the role of Jesus the Christ, Curtis said that he didn’t want to talk about or preach love and peace  —  he wanted to be love and peace.

Following that video is a scene from the movie that I enjoy, and hope that you will too.

 

 

 

 

 

The Blind Cannot Lead The Blind –Blindness, The Movie

Okay.  I admit.  When I first became aware of Mark Ruffalo was in The Avengers.  I fell in love with how he played Dr. Banner/The Hulk character.  That movie was released in 2012, and I suspected that Ruffalo had to have started his career long before then.  Since then, I search for movies On Demand that he appears in.

On my channel line-up is the Indie movie channel.  It is showing a movie titled “Blindness” starring Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore.  It was released in 2008 and is categorized as a mystery, drama, and sci-fi movie.

Imagine a city where everyone goes blind – citizens, emergency response personnel, police, military, doctors, scientists, politicians, criminals, etc., and you are the only person with eyesight.  Because everyone else is blind, they believe that you are too and you don’t tell them otherwise.

This post is going to be longer than I generally write, but I hope it captures your attention and reads fast because the movie Blindness is intensely symbolic.

Wikipedia describes Blindness as;

“Blindness is a 2008 English-language film, an adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by Portuguese author José Saramago about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. The film was written by Don McKellar and directed by Fernando Meirelles with Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo as the main characters. Saramago originally refused to sell the rights for a film adaptation, but the producers were able to acquire it with the condition that the film would be set in an unnamed and unrecognizable city. Blindness premiered as the opening film at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2008, and the film was released in the United States on October 3, 2008.”

Although I have to address portions of the movie, (spoilers) this is not a movie review, per se.  It took me about 2 minutes into the movie to realize that blindness is a metaphor.  “Blindness” is about an ineffectual government. Blindness is about how people relate to each other under crisis – or not. Blindness is about disconnection of social structure.  Blindness is about people driven by what is just and fair – or not.  It’s also about people driven by fear – or not. It’s about placing value on self and others – or not.  It’s about the differences between control and power.  It’s about self-governance during social collapse.

I’ve only read synopsis about the book “Blindness,” but with art imitating life, I get the impression that Saramago’s written creation is intended as actor Danny Glover describes, “The story deals with something we have to confront, which is our own inability to see what’s going on around us.”

By the time the movie ends, the viewer should understand that there is a difference between “sight,” “seeing,” and “vision”.

None of the characters in this movie have names.  The city is unnamed.  The year is unknown.  What causes the blindness is unknown.  How long it lasted is unknown, although we get clues by seeing beards grown, fruit swiveled up, and dead plants, that it lasted over a month.

There are many scenes in this movie that I have not included.  Some give more understanding of the personalities of the characters.   There is symbolism, such as people rejoicing in the rain as a symbol of baptism into new life. The only person who has eyesight shows her overwhelming emotions as she witnesses the filth and chaos that others cannot see.  I was captivated by this film.   

Come Together

“He say, I know you. You know me. One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.”

There are times I feel out of touch; out of touch with new music artists, actors and movies.   There were once neighborhood movie theaters where you could take a walk and see what movies were playing and coming soon.  Now, they are located behind big parking lots.   Some previews are shown during commercial breaks on television, but they cannot be compared to the movie posters of old.

Why am I reminiscing?  Saturday evening, family got together to watch a movie.  It is not the movie that caused me to reminisce but the one song on the soundtrack.

I’m a Marvel Comic movie fan and not much into DC Comic movies.  Superman was once my favorite superhero and remains on the list.  I think I watched the 1978 movie ten times or more; twice at the theater.   I never cared much for Batman.  The movies are dark and dank and without his special gadgets, Bruce Wayne is no superhero. 

Oh What A Night

It’s been tiring and time consuming keeping up with all of the news.  Some comfort I’ve found is putting time aside to watch at least 2 movies a week — movies I’ve not watched previously.  (I’m a stickler for re-watching movies I like.)

When I saw the movie “Jersey Boys” was on, I watched it.  Jersey Boys is a movie released in 2014.   It’s based on a Tony Award winning musical by the same title.  Jersey Boys is a biography about 4 boys leading a life of crime, going in and out of jail, and how they later became the singing group the Four Seasons.  The movie is a bit long at 2 hours, 4 minutes, but I enjoyed the story, the actors, and the music. 

Stranger Fruit – A Must See Documentary That Unravels What Happened To Mike Brown

On August 9th, 2014 an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown was killed by Ferguson, MO Officer Darren Wilson. Michael’s death became viral news and sparked protests for him worldwide.   Mike’s death also sparked a great deal of division and controversy.   Ferguson looked like a police state with the presence of the National Guard.

Sometime ago, I remember seeing on Twitter about the discovery of another video of Mike Brown in the convenience store.  I also remember various criticisms of the video and of the person who released it, even one that said the man who released the video was trying to promote his “book”.

As a blogger who has followed cases, I will tell anyone that it’s very difficult to convey in writing what is on video.  It is more difficult when what the video shows is being disputed.  Videos need to be presented in order for eyes to see.  As a journalism professor once told our class, “Show.  Don’t tell.”

The documentary Stranger Fruit, shows.  That doesn’t only apply to an additional video not released to the public during investigations into Mike’s death.  It also applies throughout the various interviews. It shows what is being discussed.

The Movie “Get Out” – Suspense And Racial Metaphors

The previews promoted the movie Get Out as a horror or comedy movie.  I’m not a big fan of horror movies so didn’t make time to see it in the theater.  When the movie became available On Demand, I watched it.  In fact, I’ve watched it about 5 times.

Get Out was nominated for, and won many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy.   Those selecting movies for nominations just didn’t know what category to use for Get Out.  I categorize it as a suspense movie.  There’s some science fiction stuff in it but overall, the movie is about aversive racism.

If you haven’t seen Get Out, there are spoilers in this post, but I promise you, even the spoilers will help increase your enjoyment and understanding of the movie.

Some Whites reading this might feel uncomfortable.  Some might feel insulted.  Some might see it as an eye-opener to check their own sense of entitlement because truly, people with entitlement characteristics tend to use the same manipulative schemes to try to get what they want from everyone, regardless of race.

Some have accused Get Out of promoting distrust and hatred of Whites.   It doesn’t.   The movie doesn’t have to create distrust.   It is telling Whites what most Blacks already know about aversive racism and its bed partner, White entitlement.

The movie tells the story of a White family whose ideologies include that Whites are superior in intelligence, while Blacks are physically superior.   Even the one character whose brain was newly implanted into a Black body, spoke of his Black experience in terms of spending more time doing chores.  In other words, he’s attempting to validate the idea that Blacks are created for servitude and physical labor.

The grandfather of the Armitage family developed the means to transplant the brains of Whites into the bodies of Blacks, while leaving enough of the victim’s brain so the victim becomes a spectator of how the White recipient is using their body.

The children of the family include a son named Jeremy, who likes to physically challenge Black men’s strength and so, uses sleep holds and physical force to kidnap and restrain them.  The mother, Missy, is a hypnotherapist who has developed a technique to put victims in a “sunken place”.   The dad is a neurosurgeon.  Jeremy’s sister is Rose. More about Rose later.

The Movie “What Happened to Monday” Has Deep Messages

No, Monday does not literally refer to a day of the week in this movie.

I’ve always enjoyed futuristic films about how the powers-that-be seek to control how others live and think.  In What Happened to Monday, there are shades of The Matrix, In Time, and as it concerns the dishonesty of the powers-that- be, Soylent Green.

There are some movies, such as The Matrix and In Time where we are not told how mankind came to the futuristic conditions.  What Happened to Monday does tells us.  There are some spoilers because I’m not a movie reviewer but simply like the symbolism and messages contained in movies and like discussing them.

What Happened To Monday is a Netflix film, titled Seven Sisters in Canada, France, Italy and Slovakia.  It was released in 2017.

Around the year 2043, overpopulation has caused a worldwide crisis in food and water shortages.  Man developed super genetic food to feed the world and as a result, humans started giving birth to litters of children.  I say litters because the movie is about septuplets – 7 identical sisters.  Their mom died during childbirth and Terrence Settman, played by actor Willem Dafoe, keeps the multiple births secretive and raises his granddaughters.  He names each one after a day of the week.

In their apartment, each sister can be herself.  Outside however, each one has to be Karen Settman, and they are only allowed outside on the day that they are named after.  This also means that they have to decide what career they will all share because Monday goes to work on that day; Tuesday goes to the same job on that day, etc. Noomi Rapace plays all seven of the sisters, and she does a great acting job.

In Time – A Must See Movie For Those Interested In Social Issues

Time is money.

Time is power.

Time is life.

I’m not a professional movie reviewer.  I just love movies and because of a class in college, I like getting into the heads of directors.  Is this a movie just for entertainment purposes, or are they showing us something deeper?  Is the focus on the characters or the message?  What about the script?  Does it tell, or does the director expect for the audience to understand deeper messages by showing rather than telling?

The movie In Time is one I just saw and want to watch again.  Released in 2011, I somehow missed it.  It is now being shown on FXM.

The message is deeper than the characters, although we need to watch the characters to understand the impact of the message.

In Time has taken everything about society and turned it into life expectancy that is issued out by unknown powers.  The movie doesn’t tell us how it started, but at the end it gives us a glimpse of how it loses control and the people take control.

The movie takes place in a dystopian future when humans are bioengineered.  They stop physically aging at 25 years.  When they reach age 25, their clocks come on.  They are given 12 months of time.   Those 12 months however, are reduced or increased because time has replaced money.  In other words, it’s not a matter of living for the next 12 months preparing to die because time is also used to pay for basic living expenses; rent, food, utilities.  Because the clock is always ticking down, getting back 12 months of time is impossible for the working class because whatever they earn, they spend on living expenses.  Then too, they have to sleep.  While sleeping, their clocks tick down.

A Science Fiction Love Story Movie That Isn’t

Science fiction movies, especially those that involve space travel, generally allow human logic in their characters.  At least, it is logic that goes with the plot. Most of them that involve hyper-sleep while traveling to other planets, are with a purpose of conducting something scientific or capitalistic.

In the second movie in the Alien franchise, the movie tells us that they sent a group of settlers to a planet that is inhabited by alien creatures whose sole purpose is to use human bodies as hosts to give birth to reproduce more aliens.

In the movie Avatar, we see scientists and mercenaries travel to a moon for a company that is stripping it of natural resources. In Avatar, the people on the ship were in hyper-sleep for 5 years.

What about a movie where Earthlings pay money to be put on a space ship to travel so far away, that they will be in hyper sleep for 120 years?  The only reason that the movie gives to us is that the people want to start over.

The movie I’m talking about is Passengers.  Since first seeing Chris Pratt in the movie Jurassic World, I became a fan.  In fact, I became so much of a fan that I looked up other movies he appeared in before Jurassic World and watched them, such as Guardians of the Galaxy.  I also like science fiction movies, so you might say that with Chris Pratt being in Passengers, I had to see the movie.

Conceal Carry In Florida Can Get You Killed

Still developing story out of Wesley Chapel, Florida.

The Grove 16 Theater,

This morning in Wesley Chapel, Florida, in The Grove 16 Theater, Florida’s conceal carry has caused yet another senseless death.  According to CNN, it happened during previews before the showing of “Lone Survivor.”