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Robinson Crusoe (1954)
My memory from when I was a kid
I saw the film of Robinson Crusoe either when I was a child or in high school. I'm 77 now and it's hard to remember. I loved it. Something about the man's not being a part of human culture struck me and the challenge of being alone and completely responsible for staying alive frightened. Today I am very much an existentialist. I would love to have confirmation that it was this Dan O'Herlihy version that I saw. This might help someone confirm it for me: at the end of the film, as Crusoe is getting into the row boat to go out to the ship, he looks back at the island and hears his old dog which he buried there barking. Oy vay, it tore me up. He was surely happy to have been found and that he could return to his former life but there was a bit of longing in the way he looked back at the island.
The Shack (2017)
Aside from being Christian, beautiful
I guess I must have started watching this film years ago and, when I began to see how Christian it was, I stopped watching. This time, I found it insightful, tremendously moving, and well done. I am Jewish and can do with out the Trinity stuff. In fact, I am an atheist. Nevertheless, the lessons in the film are to be soaked in and nurtured. I've lost my ability to sing, to hike in the mountains and, in too many ways, to love my children and my wife who asked for a legal separation even though she has Pancreatic cancer. We love one another and, having watched the film, I feel I can be a better man.
The Case for Christ (2017)
Circular "Reasoning"
The problem with all books, films, and arguments in person that make the kind of points this film makes is that they assume from the outset that the New Testament is historical information given to us by God so that anything they might cite in it must be true. The problem with that is that the claims that the Bible is the Word of God,, has no inconsistencies or contradictions, and should be read literally are all humans claims about the Bible, not biblical claims. So, if it says that 500 or 5000 people witnessed the Risen Christ, that is part of the story but it's not necessarily true.
Another assumption in the background throughout the film is that if God's existence could be proved then salvation through Christ must be true and if one can be transformed through belief in Christ, then it's all a gift of grace from the Christian or biblical God. But there are many proclaimed paths to God and because something works to make you feel less guilty or better in some other ways does not mean it is true much less the only way. It could just be a tool we use on ourselves.
Molly's Game (2017)
Loosely knit flashbacks at too great a speed
I hesitated to be critical in the way I'm about to be because of a few factors that I ask readers to keep in mind. I'm 71 and wear hearing aids. At home on my TV, I almost always have captions on because of my hearing problem. Still, But then, I already had trouble following all the dialogue in the West Wing. In "Molly's Game" getting the flashbacks was a similar experience for me: too fast, not quite clear enough who was who, and the connections with the current scene sometimes not quite clear enough and it went by too quickly to think about it as did much of the dialogue. That I have hearing and processing problems hardly means I don't understand and/or can't follow most films I see at the theater. I loved "The Post." Nor did I have trouble with "Molly's Game" because I'm not smart: I have a M.A. in philosophy from U.C. Davis. This film just seemed like Sorkin trying to outdo Sorkin with the snappiness. and speed of dialogue and more.
The Story of God with Morgan Freeman (2016)
Episode 1 was not about God at all
Watched Episode 1 on 4/3/16 of "The Story of God" with Morgan Freeman. Didn't know what to expect except that I thought it would cover beliefs about the divine from earliest times. This first episode had nothing to do with God. It was about humans and their beliefs about the afterlife which, although most people who believe in an afterlife also believe in at least one divinity, has no necessary connection to gods or belief in a god.
Regarding afterlife itself, the relatively minute numbers of accounts of people who have technically died and came back to life, reporting certain experiences, is no proof at all of the following claims made by guests: 1. that everyone who has died or who will die had or will have this apparent sort of experience of afterlife wherein people receive them into the Heaven-like "place" 2. that the experiences are of people and a "place" that are real beyond human life in this world and are not simply subjective experiences that humans have, and 3. that belief in the afterlife began in ancient Egypt. This claim is certainly false. We have discovered many graves tens of thousands of years old that contain artifacts useful to the deceased in the next life.
So, for this episode at least, the title was totally misleading. Plus, it contained enough mistakes and was shallow enough that I'm totally uninspired to watch any more of it.
An Unfinished Life (2005)
A beautiful film with many layers.
One of my philosophy professors in the 60's once said that a good book isn't a book you can't put down; it's a book that you've got to put down. A comment from a reviewer of another new film, "The Greatest Game Ever Played" was of a similar mind: like all great films, she wrote, it takes you elsewhere.
"An Unfinished Life" didn't take me elsewhere but deeper into myself and self-understanding and what it can mean to live a deeper, richer human life and what my priorities really are and should be. For me, that's a great film and great art.
It accomplished it through great writing, editing, acting, cinematography, makeup, and more. An excellent and very moving film.