I like my movies and books to be relatable.
And, although my sci-fi-loving friend reminds me that, as
hard as I try, I will never know what it’s like to be an old Cuban man spending
weeks fishing for enormous marlin that are only going to be eaten up by hungry
sharks in the end anyway, I’ve always had a soft spot for some good, realistic
fiction.
Some of the movies that I’ve enjoyed the most and thought to
be ‘good’ are, in fact, ‘realistic,’ in the sense that there are humans and settings
that look like our world and conflicts that humans in our world face.
There’s The Way,
by Emilio Estevez, about a man who pilgrimages across northern Spain after his
estranged son is killed in a freak accident along the same pilgrimage.
There’s National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation, which caricatures
an American family’s Christmas (mis)adventures.
Just getting stuck under giant log-transporting trucks...the usual way to start off the Griswold family christmas tree hunt |
There’s Stand By Me,
an adventure about four boys who spend a weekend in the woods searching for the
body of boy from their town.
Can I please be friends with you??? |
There’s Outnumbered, which
is actually a tv show, but is a semi-improvised comedy that documents a British
family’s everyday life.
This is actually the funniest tv show. Please go watch it now. |
But, then when I think about it, there’s Midnight in Paris,
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spirited Away that I also thought to be pretty
‘good,’ which aren’t exactly the most realistic.
Thinking back to what my friend said to me about how I can’t
ever really relate to the Old man and the
sea any more than she can to Ender’s
game, I realized that really, a good movie, a good book—essentially, a good
story—just needs to tap into some part
of the human condition, the connection between beings. Humanity and what we experience
can be manifested in a bunch of ways, not just what is familiar to us. Whether
it’s through aliens or an American family, a good movie helps us understand what
seems completely foreign, obscure, and unrelatable and then, through that,
helps us understand our own connection.
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