. . . yet, here you are, “Rango”

I’ll be honest. When I saw the trailer for “Rango”, I thought it was some dumb kids movie. When I did watch it (not at my prompting) I was blown away. It really is a significant film, and I’m not sure kids would really get the message that is so cleverly communicated. Sure, there’s some well placed slapstick comedy, but the film is really about a search for identity.

The film starts out with pet chameleon Rango living in his glass aquarium. His uneventful life has inspired him to be an actor, director, and set designer who produces plays for himself. His first self revelation is that his “character” in his play is “undefined.” And how does Rango come to define himself? It’s through his next self revelation- unexpected conflict. Just as he speaks these prophetic words, his whole world is turned upside down, literally. Now stuck in the middle of the road in the desert far away from the comforts he once knew, he’s faced with a choice. Lie down and die, or go in search of who he is in his own story. He soon meets an old, wise armadillo, and his only thought is to get back home.

“I don’t belong here,” Rango complains.

“And yet, here you are,” is the reply he gets.

It’s this answer that moves Rango forward in his story. Through a series of adventures, he ends up in the town of Dirt. There’s a problem- drought has caused much hardship for everyone. Bad guys show up. Up until that point, he’s been acting, telling everyone that he’s the hero they’re looking for. When faced with the reality of the problems he’s told everyone he will solve, he starts to have some serious self doubt. However, instead of disengaging and running away, he faces everything that’s thrown at him the best he can. And he’s not exactly Bruce Willis in Die Hard. He makes mistakes, makes a fool of himself multiple times, and gets the town in deeper trouble. Shamed, he runs back to where he started, on the road. Finding the “Spirit of the West”, he confesses that he’s a phony hero, and actor who isn’t the kind of chameleon that saves others. The answer that he’s given is to be the hero he wants to be, and that it’s impossible for him to step out of his own story.

Emboldened, Rango goes back to save the town of Dirt in a final showdown of epic proportions. If Rango had given up, if he had disengaged from the problems he was confronted with and wanted to solve he might have been OK. But his friends would have been done for. It’s his desire to help others that was his story. As the “Spirit of the West” said, it’s not all about Rango. There’s a bigger story he’s a part of. His story is just a piece of the whole.

What is your story? How can you step beyond yourself and help those who are in need of a hero? Because whether you think you are a hero or not, you have the capacity to be, just like Rango.

I Am "The Great Gatsby"!

I havent' read "The Great Gatsby" since I was in high school, which was half of my life ago. I hated the book at the time, and quickly forgot what it was about. After seeing Baz Luhrmann's film adaption, I'm sure I'd love the book now as an adult.

The film perfectly portrays a love triangle between the protagonist Jay Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom Buchanan. Gatsby, who had been raised in poverty, meets Daisy, a rich young woman, while in the military. They fall in love, and Gatsby promises he'll come back to her after his military service is done and when he builds wealth. Five years later, Daisy is married to the abusive Tom Buchanan, who has a mistress in New York City. Gatsby has become very rich, and throws extravagant parties hoping that Daisy will show up at one. Enter Nick Carraway, Gatsby's neighbor and cousin of Daisy. Long story short, Gatsby and Daisy reunite behind her husband's back.

Gatsby is in love with Daisy, and she professes love for him as well. However, she's unwilling to leave Tom. In a brilliant scene near the end of the film, Tom lambasts Gatsby as a new money loser who Daisy will never be happy with. Tom leaves, confident that Daisy is still his.

At the end of the film, Gatsby is wrongly accused of killing Tom's mistress. He knows the truth, yet keeps it to himself because it would condemn Daisy. Gatsby waits at his mansion for Daisy to call, hopefull that she will leave Tom for him.

In a narrative section of the film, Nick describes Gatsby as the most eternally hopeful person he has ever met. Even in the face of all the facts to the contrary, Gatsby has hope that he and Daisy will be together. Some might say he is delusional. Some might say he is obssessive. Shouldn't he just move on? She's married now, and has shown by her actions, if not her words, that she won't go back to Gatsby. Gatsby should just sweep up the broken pieces of his heart and forget about this past love.

Not Gatsby.

And not me.

We both hold on, beyond reason, to eternal hope. We'd rather live with hope than hopelessness. We put it all on the line, doing what we can to win back what we have lost.

And we do so knowing that we most likely won't get what we are seeking.

Betrayal in “Braveheart”

We all want to be like William Wallace. The dashing hero, Wallace fights against injustice. He is the ultimate good guy, strong and sensitive. Robert the Bruce, however, is a different guy. A promising leader, he is a possible heir to the Scottish throne if Scotland gains independence from England. His political maneuvering gets him in trouble, as he chooses to betray Wallace in hopes to gain the throne by politically appeasing King Edward I, who is king of England and fighting to keep control of Scotland. Not the good guy or bad guy, Bruce is somewhere in between.

The dichotomy of these two characters is interesting. Wallace makes perfect ethical decisions; he’s someone we can root for easily. Bruce is someone we wish would have stuck his commitment to Wallace and not betrayed him. It’s easy to moralize Bruce’s actions, to look down on him. Truly, what he did was reprehensible. However, there’s a part of Bruce in all of us. The part that says to compromise in the face of adversity, that it’s better to high tail it out of a sticky situation to fight another day instead of standing firm for our convictions. These decisions can result in negatively affecting those around us, as it does in the film in the case of Wallace’s capture and subsequent grisly execution. We wish we were Wallace all the time, but there are times that we are Bruce.

Bruce does redeem himself. In the film, he ends up leading battles that overthrew English rule. He takes his mistake and learns his lesson- that he will never again betray those who fight for the independence of Scotland. It was a costly lesson, a lesson that almost cost Scotland its freedom, but it’s a good thing that Bruce comes around in the end. The film is highly historically inaccurate as Bruce never betrayed Wallace in real life, but the themes of betrayal and redemption in the film are worth examination.

“Jumper”- The movie it Could Have Been

“Jumper” seemed like a special effects driven story with little plot other than good guy vs. bad guy with a good looking couple having sex at some point in the movie. The film seemed to limit itself in the scope of the message it portrayed. The main character, David, has the ability to jump anywhere in the world he wants to, as long as he knows the exact spot. Others have this innate ability, and some "secret" corporation or bad guy organization or whatever hunts down and kills those with the ability to "jump." It’s pretty general sci fi plot stuff here. David uses his power for selfishness, stealing money from banks (but leaving "I Owe You" notes) to pay for his extravagant lifestyle. He has a flat in London, goes to the pyramids of Egypt, etc. He meets another jumper and is pursued by Samuel L. Jackson, with a love interest caught in the middle. There’s nothing groundbreaking here.

Our protagonist learns the error of his ways, for sure, and the movie seems to be a character introduction and setup for the sequel. Let’s hope so. The sequel could be so much better, because one element that seems to be missing that was actually toyed with during the film. At one point, David watches a news report of a major natural disaster wreaking havoc in some third world country. The movie could have made a turn at this point, with David "jumping" in to save lives. Instead, he goes off and continues his adventure by having a huge CG battle with Jackson with the help of his jumper friend. Why can’t David use his powers to help those in dire straits? That would have made a much more interesting movie.

However, it’s revealed that David’s mother is also a jumper hunter. This complicates things a bit, and makes the emotional center of the film stronger. What will happen in Jumper 2? Will it be Mother vs. Son in an epic battle? Will the League of Jumper Hunters be thwarted by a mother’s love? Will David become a hero, saving those in dire straits instead of living a self-indulgent lifestyle?

Let’s hope!

“Kick-Ass” Kicks . . . Well, You Know

Say what you will about an 11 year old girl viciously killing mobsters with all sorts of knives, guns, and martial arts skills, “Kick-Ass” explores a question most of us ask when we’re kids:

“Can I be a superhero?” Or perhaps a better question we ask is, “How can I be a superhero?”

Some of us even went as far as to go out in some sort of masked costume to fight crime (I’m not the only one, right?). Some of us didn’t go past our own neighborhood, but the desire was there for greatness; to fight evil in order to protect the innocent. Dave Lizewski’s (played by Arron Johnson) efforts to fight crime got him into the kind of trouble that is both heart-wrenching and cautionary. If we had actually confronted carjackers like Dave did in the film, we too would have been stabbed. That’s a scary thought.

Of course, being a Hollywood film, that’s just the beginning. Most of us, after being discharged from the hospital, would never take to the streets again in our embarrassing superhero costume (Complete with a too small cape we grew out of from that Halloween costume our moms made us a few years before. Again, who’s with me? I’m not the only one, right?). Facing a real bad guy with a gun, knife, and/or real street fighting skills would be so intimidating we’d pee our pants. However, Dave mans up and tries yet again, and in the process meets some “real superheroes” he learns some chops from. The film goes on from there, and you can either love or hate the cartoonish, grisly violence dished out by “Hit-Girl” and “Big Daddy.” That’s not the point of this post.

For those of us who at least dreamed of fighting bad guys as a vigilante crime fighter, “Kick-Ass” delivers the truth of what would have happened: we would have gotten our asses kicked. Let’s be glad our friend’s dad saw us in our ridiculous costume and we were so mortified we hung up our cape and mask for good. Otherwise, we might have ended up hurt, maimed, or dead (I’m pretty sure this is a common experience for many of us, right?).

Thanks, ‘Kick-Ass.” And thanks, friend’s dad. You are superheroes because you saved us from a world of hurt.