World Seen

This is It chronicles the behind-the-scenes efforts, technology, and preparation for Michael Jackson’s final curtain call. This call was going to take the form of 50 completely sold-out concerts in London during the summer of 2009 and into March 2010. However, Jackson’s unexpected death occurred the month before the first concert, and all we’re left with is this documentary of what his last show would have been. The film was taken for Jackson’s personal library to record the progress of the event.

From start to end of the film, it is surreal to watch Michael prepare for a concert he would never perform. At the beginning of the documentary, a dancer being interviewed says that he was looking for something to give his life meaning. And there are countless others that were involved in the planning for this tour that never saw the spotlight.

The film is set up like the concert would have been: we get to hear full songs with specially-made videos to accompany them, we get to see the full choreography, and we get to see all of the musicians and props that adorned the stage. The only thing lacking was the costuming that would have been in place for the live performance. Jackson’s rehearsal of 14 songs from his set list was just as he intended on sharing them with his audience. While a few different views are expressed lyrically throughout Jackson’s wide array of singles from his musical career, and Michael did not delve deeply into his own personal religious beliefs, the main push of the film itself is spiritualistic.

In fact, while the movie is set up to be as close to the London concert experience as it was meant to be, it isn’t just about the music. This whole video is about our relationship to Mother Earth and mankind’s need to love each other. Michael says that his audience needs escapism and that with his concert, “We’re putting love back in the world to remind the world that love is important. Love each other. We’re all one.”

For this concert series, Jackson was going to incorporate many different videos to prelude his songs. One such video showed a scraped up little girl (representing the damaged Mother Earth) bounding through greenery and jungle and rainforest. She falls asleep in a lush, green meadow to wake up to the land being destroyed by bulldozers and fire. She saves the one living plant she can find, a remnant of nature. The song being featured in this video is “Earth Song”, and it ends with Michael standing on stage, throwing himself in front of a full-size looming bulldozer. The lyrics to the chorus are:

“What have we done to the world
Look what we've done
What about all the peace
That you pledge your only son...
What about flowering fields
Is there a time
What about all the dreams
That you said was yours and mine...
Did you ever stop to notice
All the children dead from war
Did you ever stop to notice

Michael opened up this song by saying, “I respect the secrets and magic of nature.” He explains that he is very bothered by the destruction against Mother Earth. “That’s why I write these kinds of songs...It gives some sense of awareness and awakening and hope to people. I love the planet!” Jackson’s conviction to care for nature was pushed so strongly because he believed that the condition of the earth would be irreversible in just four years.

This film shows Michael Jackson as a portrait of love for others. At the very end, we are left with two things: there is a picture of Michael with the caption, “Love lives forever” and after the credits, the little scraped-up girl from the video accompanying “Earth Song” picks up the world and hugs it.

My Sassy Girl

Waiting at the train station, type-A personality Charlie Bellow encounters the very drunk, but lovely Jordan Roark who, little to his knowledge, is going to turn his world inside out. Despite the obvious personality differences and dysfunctional interactions between the two, they continue to meet. Though Charlie is disgusted with Jordan’s seemingly sporadic drunken scenes, crazy and death-saturated talking, and perceived compulsion to cause him physical and emotional pain, he finds himself falling in love with her.

But there is much more to Jordan’s behavior than can be determined at first glance. There is a deep struggle going on within Jordan that she is working out through her interactions with her new companion Charlie. This struggle is what keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, anticipating how My Sassy Girl’s destiny will work out in the end. This is also where we find the true world views that the authors intended to present through the movie.

Originally in the form of love letters posted on the internet, Kim Hosik told the true story of My Sassy Girl, or in Korean, That Bizarre Girl. The story went from the love letters, to a novel, to a Korean film directed by Kwak Jae-yong in 2001, where it was the second highest selling film with 4,852,845 tickets sold nationwide during its 10 weeks in the cinemas. Then My Sassy Girl was remade into an American film that hit the screen in 2008.

It is important that we recognize that My Sassy Girl was from East Asia where many of the people have an Eastern Spiritualist world view, and after that it was turned into an American film. (I have not seen the Korean film to confirm that the view is Eastern spiritualist, but this would be my guess.)

It is evident through the way Jordan Roark discusses her destiny and the ways in which she makes her decisions that its American version portrays the world view of Western Spiritualism with the typical Western focus on self. Also, American director Yann Samuell states, "It's a fable about destiny, in the end," which hints that though he himself may not be a “spiritualist,” that is still the message of the movie. Actress Jesse Bradford backs up the movie’s Western Spiritualism world view by conveying a sort of self redemption when she summarized the movie as “a romantic comedy about how they pull each other to a more healthy place by virtue of their relationship.”

Cars

Pixar’s great CGI family film Cars is everything you expect it to be and possibly a little bit more. Directed by John Lasseter, Cars raises the bar on animated films just as its predecessors did before it (Toy Story, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles). With a voice over cast including the likes of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, and Larry the Cable Guy, the film follows a hot shot rookie race car Lightning McQueen, who finds himself on the verge of making racing history. Having a chance to be the first rookie to win the “Piston Cup,” McQueen finds himself stranded in a small town on route 66 after a series of mishaps. There he goes through attitude and priority adjustments as he meets new cars and makes new friends. I’ll let you find out if he makes it to his big race or not.

The movie is a stereotypical family film guaranteed to bring out many sentimental sighs. At its core the film’s message is a call to self actualization and a reexamining of identity and priorities. Although we generally associate self actualization with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and/or Western Spiritualism, the film does not seem overly frank about its world view. It could be argued that existentialism is the dominating world view as we see one character in particular hiding from what could be called his existential purpose as he refuses to live authentically and stays in hiding. As I said though there did not seem to be a blatantly dominating world view that stuck out to me. One particular line did however.

During the film one of the cars explains how things have changed concerning route 66 over the years. Concerning the famous road, the character claims “Cars didn't ride on it to make great time; they rode on it to have a great time." One cannot help but see the metaphor created between the road and life. The film gives a message of “find out who you are and be true to yourself, get your priorities straight, and enjoy this life to its fullest.”

The movie makes for a curious blend of worldview factors, born out the unlikely marriage of two very different worlds: NASCAR and Hollywood. In real life, down-home, Bible belt Christian theism has a huge presence on the NASCAR circuit (see, for example http://insiderracingnews.com/RG/041906.html). But over the past twenty-plus years, Disney studios have consistently produced a “find-your-own-meaning-from-within-yourself” form of Western spiritualism, more or less obvious from one film to the next. Perhaps in this film, we have a genuine attempt at a fusion of those elements—lacking the opening ceremony prayers that take place at NASCAR events (the only major American sport left doing so), but definitely a feel-good-at-the-end-of-the-movie movie, free of sex, violence, language, and any values transcending personal self-interest. Animation: all you’ve come to expect from Disney/Pixar, and more; as for overall message, all you’d expect, and even less!

"Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it?
1. He cheated
2. He's lucky
3. He's a genius
4. It is written"

The Academy Award winning movie Slumdog Millionaire begins with these four options. Jamal, an uneducated orphan from the slums of Mumbai has correctly answered every question given him on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." Now, he is one question away from winning the show - a remarkable feat, considering Jamal's background as a "slumdog." In fact, the host of the show finds Jamal's success so remarkable that he concludes it is not possible. Suspecting that Jamal is cheating, the host secretly orders the police to arrest Jamal and torture him until he confesses to cheating. As the police chief questions him, Jamal explains how significant experiences from his childhood provided him with the right answers the questions on the show. From each experience revealed in a flashback, the viewer learns the story of Jamal's tumultuous childhood - from his mother's murder to his narrow escape from a gang leader to his separation from his childhood love Latika. We find out that Jamal appeared on the game show not to win the money, but with the hope that Latika would be watching the show and find him. Jamal is permitted to return to the show and answer the final question, which he shockingly does not know. Without revealing the dramatic ending, Jamal's life-long search for Latika comes to a climax with this final question, and the opening question of the movie is answered: (D) It is written.

With this answer, the central role of destiny in the film is confirmed. Jamal believes that it his destiny to be with Latika. Therefore, he goes to great lengths to try to be united with her. When all else fails, he goes on the show as a final attempt. The fact that his childhood experiences seemingly coincidentally give him the answers to each question reveals that, as Jamal says many times throughout the movie, it truly is Jamal and Latika's destiny to be together.

In an interview, Director Danny Boyle explains that, "the idea of the film is that he [Jamal] believes that it is his destiny to find this girl and that they will be together." Boyle goes on to speculate that the people of India hold on to the hope of destiny as a way to deal with the challenges and hardships of life. He hopes that Slumdog Millionaire communicated the optimistic message that one could change his or her destiny. "I think that's where it's a hybrid of the philosophies there [in India] and a kind of more Western application. which is that you can change your destiny," said Boyle.

This view of destiny, that is both unavoidable and yet can also be fulfilled by individuals making certain free choices, reflects the beliefs of western spiritualism. Spiritualism embraces the impersonal, powerful "force" of destiny, yet the fact that an individual can make choices to affect his or her own destiny is a western belief, a fusion that gives Slumdog Millionaire a distinctively western spiritualist perspective.

One of the more highly praised movies to come out recently is Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda. The main character of the movie is Po, a clumsy, overweight, noodle-serving Panda who has been identified as the legendary dragon warrior. Po wanted to be a great warrior but his father wanted him to be a noodle chef. One day he sneaked off to watch the ceremony to decide who will become the dragon warrior and, through some Your browser may not support display of this image. crazy antics, he ends up being chosen. The rest of the movie is about Po trying to defeat Tai Lung (The adopted son of Po's master, Shifu, a great Kung Fu Master who turned evil) and fulfill his destiny as dragon warrior.

The film is set in ancient China and hence there is a significant presence of pantheistic themes. The Kung Fu Master, Shifu, and his master, Oogway, dwell and train in a monastery. Halfway through the movie Oogway learns that "his time has come" and he is caught up in a rush of wind and flower petals to join the great universal energy. Oogway believes that there are no coincidences, that Po was fated to be the dragon warrior, and that the universe itself controls our destiny.

Though there are elements of eastern religion it is not true eastern religion. There are definitely western influences. When Po finally masters his training he receives the dragon scroll, when he opens the dragon scroll there is nothing inside, just a reflection of himself. It is his own uniqueness that makes him special and if he just believes that he is special then he will be. The focus, throughout the movie, is on the individual. The different characters are on their separate paths and they need to find the answers and the strength within themselves. This is a much more individualistic focus then would be present in truly eastern religions. Po's incredible attraction to food is what enables him to be great.

Overall I found the movie to have strong western spiritualistic perspective. It is Po's overwhelming desire to have food and eat that enable him to become a great warrior. The channeling and gratification of his desires help him to be great and fulfill his destiny as a great warrior. There are also emphases on meditation, martial arts, Oneness, and other aspects of western spiritualism.

The Covenant, directed by Renny Harlin, offers a unique twist to the familiar clash between good and evil, as well as delivering a somewhat ambiguous message concerning drugs. The story, described by the director as a “supernatural action thriller,” is set in a New England university. The main characters are the four sons of Ipswitch, descendants of the first settlers in the area. Each of the boys possesses magic powers that allow them incredible opportunities while at the same time threatening their very lives.

The story is simple and fairly predictable. The four young witches form The Covenant, and they’re close friends. They have their school, their fast cars, and their hot girls. Things change with the arrival of a new boy at school, a boy who turns out to have powers that surpass their own. As it turns out, there were originally five founding families of Ipswitch. This new boy is the fifth descendant who grew up not knowing what his powers were until he was trapped in their curse.

The way their powers work is on a rigid schedule. When they boys turn thirteen, they get their first taste of their powers. They are able to use them freely and without consequence until their eighteenth birthday. At that moment, they ascend and their powers come to full maturation, multiplying a thousand fold. But the price is high. Every time they use their powers, it eats away at their life by aging their physical body. Like Caleb, the main character says, “Some can handle it. Some can’t.” Caleb’s father was one such tragic example. He fell prey to the addictive thrills of using his power and by age 44, had withered away to a crumpled, wrinkled and haggard crust of a man.

Any story about witches and magic touches of spiritualistic elements. Powers such as those used by the five witches draw on supernatural sources and involve contact with more than just the physical realm. Embedded in The Covenant is a message about drug usage that far outweighs the spiritualistic elements.

The magic power is addictive. This fact is reiterated numerous times throughout the film. It’s also deadly. This is clearly seen in Caleb’s father. The characters interact with their powers the same way a drug user would with their drug of choice. They even go so far as to describe tapping into their power as “using.” “Someone was using last night….”

A fairly clear metaphor is drawn between the magic powers and drugs, but the message delivered is ambiguous. Far from being a clear-cut clash between good and evil, the story is about the clash between dark and…darker? The first four witches, especially Caleb, are presented as kind, even noble, despite their dark powers. At least their opponent is a clearly portrayed power-hungry villain. All through the movie, the magic power is described as dangerous and addictive, yet in the final clash, the hero draws on his dark power to defeat his enemy. That which could destroy him becomes the only thing that can save him.

As far as movie quality, this one definitely appeals to high school age students with its metal oriented soundtrack and a host of beautiful actors whose looks surpass their acting talent. The story is predictable, the dialogue awkward and overly-dramatic. On the upside, the soundtrack is catchy, the set and scenery breathtaking, and the special effects are convincing and exciting (arachnophobes beware).

The Covenant uses beautiful actors and spiritualistic elements to deliver an ambiguous yet memorable metaphor about drugs. Use the power too much and it will destroy you…but not just yet…and for right now, “the power is your life.”

Lady in the Water is the most recent of M Night Shyamalan’s fictional film masterpieces. Although the film was not considered a blockbuster hit, it is a suspenseful tale, filled with tense moments and a plot line that builds to the end, as well as a wonderful story that children and adults alike can enjoy. Written and directed by Shyamalan, he uses a fairy-tale script, talented actors, a suspenseful score, and bizarre camera work to keep the audience captivated throughout the film.

The movie’s introduction sets the scene for the rest of the story. It tells of ancient times, when humans and the “water people” were linked, and lived in harmony. The water people were guides for the humans. Eventually, because of man’s greed, there was a separation, which led to things like war, poverty and hate. However, now the water people are trying to once again guide humanity back to its peaceful ways. The rest of the movie follows “Story,” one of the “water people” who is sent on a mission (Bryce Dallas Howard), who falls into the care of a hotel grounds keeper “Cleveland Heep” (Paul Giamati). Her goal is to find a certain person who will be a “vessel” with a message that will bring change to humanity.

Along the way, “Story” finds others who serve their purpose by aiding her in her mission, which exposes the message of the story to be that “all beings have a purpose.” This is a constant theme throughout the film as each character discovers their own purpose in bringing “Story’s” mission to completion. Another strong theme is the connection that all beings have with each other. Although there are some theistic elements in the dialogue in the film, the idea of universal connection of all is a very monistic idea. These ideas of Eastern monistic metaphysics from Shyamalan, a Hindu though he was brought up in Catholic and Episcopalian schools, come out in other works of his, such as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.

Overall, this movie is good. It’s good for families, good for a scare, good for a laugh, and good for a strong moral message, but I do not believe that it is good to delve into for a Christian testimony or message.

The best word to describe the movie Darkness is the word which inspired the title: Dark. Usually if you ask someone what happened in a movie and that person says that everyone died, they’re probably joking. Not this time. If you’re looking for a dismal movie in which evil and death are part of the main cast, then look no further; you’ve met your match.

The movie Darkness has to do with Occult matters. In the 1960s, a group of seven children disappeared. They were taken to a house in the Middle-of-Nowhere, Spain. Why were they kidnapped? Sacrifice. Who kidnapped them? Those who loved them. What spurred on this heinous act? Evil.

Every forty years there is a special eclipse, and the film begins with that eclipse in the sixties. These seven children were to be used as ritual sacrifices to complete a “circle of blood,” and part of the ritual was that their throats were to be slit by people who loved them. Six children were murdered, but one escaped, though, so the ritual could not be completed. Now, forty years later, it is high-time for the ritual to be completed, and the house is awaiting its final blood.

The child who escaped at the beginning of the movie is now grown up, and he remembers nothing of the kidnapping. He unwittingly moves his family to Spain, to the very house in which the ritual happened forty years ago. But something is stirring in that house, and it is not a pleasant something. This man has a wife, a daughter, and a seven-year-old son, who is tormented by that which thrives in the darkness: the ghosts of the six murdered children. They torment him and do not let him rest, and he is the only one who can see or hear them.

The high-school aged daughter and her boyfriend realize that something is awry at her house, and that something haunts her brother. Not only that, but her father (the child who escaped those forty years ago) is acting very strange…evil, almost. As she tries to awaken her mother to the problem, her mom is in denial and simply says that nothing is wrong.

In their search for the truth, the girl and her boyfriend meet an old man who reveals to them the secret of the house. The house is actually an Occult temple, constructed for the purpose of ritual sacrifice and “giving birth to spiritual energy.” Underneath the floorboards is a large metallic circle made in the image of two dragons, and once the final sacrifice is completed during eclipse, all hell breaks loose. Literally.

All is set in motion, and as the eclipse draws near, the daughter is kidnapped by her grandfather, who, as it turns out, kidnapped his son with the intent of sacrificing him all those years ago. During her kidnapping she asks why he is doing this, to which he responds, “Because darkness is a kind of evil in its purest form….It’s really a question of faith. We are our origin, and our origin is evil.” Through his coordination the sacrifice is finally completed, as his son’s (who had originally escaped) throat is slit. The three remaining family members are then consumed by the darkness, and evil triumphs in the end.

Darkness is the product of a quickly-rising cultural interest in the spiritual and paranormal. It is not your typical happy-go-lucky film, but is deeply rooted in spiritualism, particularly the darker side of the Occult. In fact, it is hard to conceive of spiritualism getting any darker than this.

Synopsis: A long time ago, a demon fox with nine tails existed. To counter it the people gathered ninjas. One ninja sealed the monster in a life or death battle and died. That ninja was known as the Fourth Hokage. The demon fox was sealed in a young boy, Naruto. As he grows older, he is unaware of this and desires to become a ninja. The town leader has forbidden anyone to tell Naruto that he has the demon fox inside. As the series progresses and Naruto trains to become the best ninja, he must master his chakra (bringing out spiritual and physical energy and mixing them together within the body), so that he can perform more kinds of jutsu. The series is mainly about him trying to become a ninja and the different adventures he has on the journey.

World View: This clearly reflects a perspective of mysticism. I would identify its worldview as eastern spiritualism. There are five types of chakra that fall into normal magic categories: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning. Naruto and the rest of his group learn to develop skills such as Earth Element (Suicidal Beheading) and Fire Element (Blazing Fireball). Calling on the different elements for power is nothing new, especially for a country such as Japan (where the show is originates). The main religion is Shinto, followed closely by Buddhism, so it comes as no surprise to see the Yin and Yang, and the power of the self presented openly.

The show presents definite rights and wrongs. For example, it is right to use chakra to fight; however, it is wrong to use chakra for personal gain. Everything must be done for the good of all. Fighting for one’s self is not as noble as fighting for others; and fighting alone is not as good as fighting as a team. The attributes of humility and self-sacrifice are seen as the highest virtues one can attain.

[written by] Tim Wecks

Deep in the Peruvian jungle, manuscripts lie hidden. These manuscripts will change the course of history and provide the next step of human evolution. The insights contained in the manuscripts will bring a shift in human understanding.

Based on the bestselling novel The Celestine Prophecy, the 2006 movie brings James Redfield’s nine insights to life. John, a former school teacher, stumbles through a series of coincidences and ends up in Peru searching for the nine insights. What he takes to be a relaxing and enlightening trip, however, soon turns into a chase as the government and the Catholic Church attempts to destroy the insights. Coincidences begin to take significance as John runs through the city. Eventually, he lands himself in the home of Wil—someone who has worked on the insights and has been waiting for John. The two of them start running from the government, trying to understand the insights as fast as they find them.

As John is chased through Peru, he gradually finds the people who can show him the insights and the insights himself. He learns about the course human history is taking—from the beginning of evolution from slime to the eventual evolution into spirit. After meeting Marjorie, a scientist working on the insights, he learns how a person’s energy interacts with another person.

Connecting to the energy of the planet, rather than stealing energy from other people, is John’s first lesson along his spiritual path. By the end of the movie, John is able to see the energy flow between people and planet. Following the teachings of the insight, he can then disconnect from distractions and relate correctly to all energy sources, enabling himself to take the next step in human evolution.

The government and the Catholic Church however, will do anything—and anything goes in Peru—to keep the insights from influencing the people. The main authorities attempting to destroy the insights tell those working on the insights, “You people are so naive. You think there is something spiritual out there guiding us. We know there is nothing out there, and so we will always be in control.”

While they try their hardest to squelch the insights and eventual leap forward for humanity, the authorities cannot stop the flow of evolution. Wil tells John, “A connection with the energy of God is a glimpse into the future…the mystery is moving us somewhere. The guidance within evolves the world towards a heaven that is already here. To know this is to know our destiny.”

Like Redfield’s novel, the movie Celestine Prophecy draws heavily from spiritualistic influences. He advocates for a connection with the energy of the universe, as this will bring humanity to the next leap of evolution. The movie includes a ten second recap of evolution, beginning with the energy of the stars and ending with the spiritual energy field of evolving people. The purpose of humanity is to achieve the leap forward in evolution. It is up for people to stay in the flow of the energy and evolution.

The Celestine Prophecy is rated PG for some violence. It stars Matthew Settle as John and was directed by Armand Mastroianni.

[written by] Rebekah Farquhar

My Sassy Girl

© 2008 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Cars

© 2007 Cars