QUOTE(Kath @ Dec 20 2009, 01:52 PM)
this is a really cool movie, I loved it. it does have some slightly new-agey overtones in places, but I didn't find myself minding at all, they rather seemed to manage to only use the bits of new age thinking which I *don't* disagree with.
the movie though, left a big impression on me. I was really impressed. its a rare thing to catch myself still thinking about a movie a couple days after watching it.
I absolutely loved it as well. I don't know very much about the Native American path, so I coudl very well be wrong...
but instead of New Age I thought it was reflecting the Native American beliefs and thier tragic treatment by the Westerners. Their journey from Home Tree to the Tree of Souls for instance, made me think of the Trail of Tears. Thier deep connection to the Earth and thier ancestors, and thier open-ness.
The parts of the occult and magic I saw was the peoples perfect soveriegn collective Self. That is what impacted me so deeply. I have understood that one of the primary goals of most occult practices is the remanefestation of the Self to grow ones own divinity and sovereignty. Of course everyone was not totally perfect, for instance the other warior that did not accept Jake so kindly, or when he displayed his deep jealousy.... but even with those flaws... the way that he handled those flaws was at a higher level of perfection than most human beings can manage. The main example was the girl Jake fell in love with. Her awareness while preparing to kill him. Her restraint while angry at him and explaining her remorse for killing the wild dogs. That right there, that scene specifically affected me deeply. It caught me of guard because I didn't understand why she was angry or where she was going with it with it either until she explained it.
Just the day before I had a customer at my job who was a flaming a$%*#!*. He actually reminds me of the military guy from the movie now that I think of it. He came in being an a$%*#!* to my coworker. I rescued my coworker after listening, and while ignoring the guys vacuaous ranting proceeded to speak to his wife instead and begin to fix his problem. I almost mixed up what I was doing because the guy would not stop bothering me, openly trying to piss me off, and just let me fix his problem. (I work at ATT Mobility btw) When the guy realized that he wasn't going to get to me and that I was successfully tuning out his attitude, he began being friendly instead, and telling me stories. So he proceeded to tell me about the Safari hunts that he goes on and all the big beautiful animals that he has killed and all the medals he has won for thier size and how rare they were. Just for sport. Just for F'ing fun. Just for a dam stuffed head to hang on his wall, and he was so GD'med proud.
So when I saw that scene in the theater and I made the stark comparison in thought between the character and 90% of the population today it made me cry, and still makes me cry.
My boyfriend wonders why I hate people so much. Just that one customer negatively affected me more when he was attempting to be friendly, rather than when he was attempting to piss me off, and he did it in half the time. I have to work with people like that every day. By the end of the day every day I have been exposed to more nasty people than I would ever want to meet in my life. Not all of them are nasty and not all of them are christian, but most are. I live in the deep south and most are also genetically linked to the flaming idiots that actually waged war and split a country in half over keeping other human beings as slaves.
So I saw the attitude and collective soveregnty diplayed by the blue characters as having great signifigance as an example of balanced soveriegn behavior. It was in perfect sync with the universe as a whole being writ small in a creature as Richard Cavendish explains in his book The Dark Arts. To master the universe one must master kindness, malice, sadness, anger, empathy, fear, fury, etc. All of these were displayed in perfect balance by the blue creatures in all the situations they were presented. Everything was accepted as it was, experienced and handled without damage to their Self.
I also appreciated the stark comparison to the mindset of the blue creatures by the military guy which, for those who don't work with the public and have a personal experience that contrasts like I do, created that contrast to make it powerful. Then there was also the reference to corporate greed and how it gets out of control, destroying raw beauty for petty gains.
It was an amazing movie. I have kept on thinking about it too, obviously. That night that I saw it afterwards, I almost felt disturbed and couldn't explain it. But I think I just explained my way through it so I feel better now. (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
I thought it was kinda cute how Eywah is a mutilated Yaweh. I don't know if that supposed to be a positive or negative reference to Yaweh, but it's interesting anyway.
EDIT: I forgot about the references to energy. I guess that was the main new agey thing, but the Native Americans kind of went with that too. It also reminded me of the concept of Chi. Of course, it is not like a computer, but in martial arts that practice chi cultivation and manipulation it is accepted that there is physical energy in the human body and in just about everything. In most things they believe it can be manipulated.
I also liked the part about all energy being borrowed and that it must be eventually given back. It is true that energy cannot be destroyed, and that it can only take different forms. So if the energy in our bodies is unique to us, therefore we live on in different forms after death.
This post has been edited by Tigeress: Jan 1 2010, 03:42 PM
Avatar
Dec 20 2009, 12:52 PM
