EXT. EARTH

So, I know that this is pretty much a sin as a film student, but I finally watched “Schindler’s List” for the first time a couple weeks ago.  … I really don’t know what to say.  This will forever be a pillar to me as to what film and story can do.   After making this film, Steven Spielberg became so passionate about the story and preventing another Holocaust that he started an entire organization.  He went around, collected as many eyewitness testimonies as he could from surviving Jews, and now these accounts are available to students across the world.  They were all brought together and now make up the basis for the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.  The testimonies are played most in German schools.   http://college.usc.edu/vhi/  In the film, Schindler was one man.  But he saved hundreds.  I think this hit Spielberg hard and that’s why he started this foundation.  Steven Spielberg is one man.  But through his work and efforts millions have seen the frailty of human nature and the terror of the Holocaust.  Millions have seen what should never happen again, and have a base for how to go about creating change.

Now I look at myself and wonder what God will accomplish through me.  It makes me realize that through Him I have a purpose that requires all that I am.  And what kind of action or passion have I put into that purpose?  Most of all, I need to remember that through God my purpose is not film although that may be a part of it.  It’s something greater that does not require money, recognition, or a camera.  Only a willing heart with His direction. 

The last thing I want to touch on with “The Fountain” has nothing to do with the fundamental ideas of eastern religions, but with how the views of these religions are depicted and conveyed.  As a Christian it’s sometimes frustrating, but I can handle films depicting different religions.  ”The Fountain” on the other hand, goes much further than just depicting eastern religions.  It glorifies them.  After I got done watching “The Fountain”, I wanted to be able to see death that way.  It was just all so attractive on screen.  In fact it looked like such a magical way to go that I lost sight of the fact that this wasn’t at all what I believed.  The final scene in the film was breath-taking, fantastical, awe-inspiring, and completely wrong. 

Once again, I’m not saying the film should be outlawed.  I, for one, still enjoy it quite a bit.  I’m just saying that the religious views of the film didn’t mix with my own at all, and it changed the way I felt about it.  This is a good example of how film can sway peoples’ thoughts about things.  From product placement to persuasion on the afterlife and eternity, film has a huge power.

Another thing that became evident to me after watching “The Fountain” for the second time was the strong encouragement of the idea of reincarnation.  After the first time, I really had no idea why the tree seemed to be alive and react to Jackman’s affection and attention.  It was one of those things that I just let go over my head the first time around.  But things have connected a little more now.  At first glance in the film, it just seems like Jackman’s talking to a hairy tree, but when you see him plant the seed at his wife’s grave it all starts to make sense.  He plants the seed from the Tree of Life at her grave so she will be reincarnated and live in the tree.  That’s why the tree at the end seems to react to Jackman’s touch and presence.  This is a huge idea adopted by most eastern religions.A thing I love about the film is the shot symbolism found throughout.  Examples are the two extreme close-ups of Jackman speaking to his wife and then speaking to the tree.  In both shots you see only his lips in the right side of the frame speaking and the hair on his wife’s neck (aka hair on the tree) flexing with his words and breath.  This really helped me connect her to the tree.  Aronofsky does a brilliant job in “The Fountain” of using shot symbolism to connect and help the audience understand the film’s complex structure.