Last night we watched "Reign Over Me," the probably first serious movie with Adam Sandler in existence, or at least the first one I saw, and apart from being a wonderful character study (especially for those familar with the Enneagram), the movie addresses a few interesting points in regards to 9/11, some of which may even say more than the movie makers originally intended. Or perhaps that's just my interpretation of it, but as with everything in the world, I think it's up to each one of us and our individual perception, what we make of it, and learn from it, and I have made it clear elsewhere that I believe that the Almighty has placed more lessons all around us than most of us are willing to notice, even availing Himself of the creativity of our fellowmen to drive home points that they may not even have intended to (and that is nowhere as much as a reality as in the art of movie-making).
Sandler plays Charlie, a former dentist in New York who lost his wife and 3 children during the 9/11 so-called "attacks," which by a growing number of people around the world, and even Americans, are rather referred to as an "inside job." Charlie refuses to deal with his loss and ( - in the manner of the Enneagram's personality type SEVEN, whose driving force is defined by Enneagram authors Rohr and Ebert as "The Need to Avoid Pain," taken to the extreme), he refuses to remember what happened, and that he had a family at all, and reacts very aggressively to any third party attempts (such as those of his in-laws) to confront him with what happened.
The friendship of his former college room mate - with the help of a too-cute-to-be-real therapist (Liv Tyler) - very gradually pulls him out of this, and we watch how beautifully friendship and communication can change people's lives for the better.
The point which the blessed creators of this movie may not have intended to bring across, but nevertheless insists on jumping in my face (as I'm sure some readers would), is how Sandler's role portrays the refusal of the majority of the American public (as well as a substantial percentage of the rest of the Western populace) to deal with the realities behind 9/11. Although evidence abounds that the official version of 9/11 is as likely to have happened as the Twin Towers having been erected by an army of ants, in the typical fashion of pain-avoiding hedonists, most Americans refuse to face the facts of just how rotten to the core their government really is and how astray they're being led, willingly manipulated into one war after another and never-ending bloodshed, reacting quite aggressively to those who would try to confront them with the truth.
If there was any intention from the side of the movie's makers to bring across that sort of message at all, then the message would read on: "Give us time to deal with all of this in our own fashion!" The sad part of the real story is, time's running out! If time is money, as they always say, then it's definitely running out, and whether people want it or not, the truth is going to come crashing in on them, and already is, as things turn out to be never the same again on Wall Street and elsewhere around the world.
Today, little Mr. and Mrs. Jones may be pointing their fingers at the greedy stock brokers and shake their heads at them, "Tsk tsk, those greedy, naughty boys." But in a year from now the repercussions of what really happened here will have affected their lives to such an extent that there will be nobody there to shake their heads at, similar to the way it happened in 1930, a year after the first global stock market crash, which, it seems, is finally finding its match in the events unfolding before us right now.
Of course, way over 90% of the population vehemently refuse to acknowledge what's going on. They're choosing the blue pill (as in "The Matrix") every day: "Put me back to sleep and let me know none of all this!"
Well, just as dear Charlie in our movie eventually had to sit down and face the truth and reality of what happened, sooner or later that will have to be the case with everyone else. The only question is when and where; whether it will be in this life, or the next.
As far as I'm concerned, an integral and indispensable ingredient of love is truth, and without it, I wonder how real any of all that love is that people would like to reign over them, or if it's perhaps not just a bunch of good intentions paving their road to hell. If you want love to be real, you've got to have truth in it, and when that's the case, I'll agree: Let that love reign over all of us!
Sandler plays Charlie, a former dentist in New York who lost his wife and 3 children during the 9/11 so-called "attacks," which by a growing number of people around the world, and even Americans, are rather referred to as an "inside job." Charlie refuses to deal with his loss and ( - in the manner of the Enneagram's personality type SEVEN, whose driving force is defined by Enneagram authors Rohr and Ebert as "The Need to Avoid Pain," taken to the extreme), he refuses to remember what happened, and that he had a family at all, and reacts very aggressively to any third party attempts (such as those of his in-laws) to confront him with what happened.
The friendship of his former college room mate - with the help of a too-cute-to-be-real therapist (Liv Tyler) - very gradually pulls him out of this, and we watch how beautifully friendship and communication can change people's lives for the better.
The point which the blessed creators of this movie may not have intended to bring across, but nevertheless insists on jumping in my face (as I'm sure some readers would), is how Sandler's role portrays the refusal of the majority of the American public (as well as a substantial percentage of the rest of the Western populace) to deal with the realities behind 9/11. Although evidence abounds that the official version of 9/11 is as likely to have happened as the Twin Towers having been erected by an army of ants, in the typical fashion of pain-avoiding hedonists, most Americans refuse to face the facts of just how rotten to the core their government really is and how astray they're being led, willingly manipulated into one war after another and never-ending bloodshed, reacting quite aggressively to those who would try to confront them with the truth.
If there was any intention from the side of the movie's makers to bring across that sort of message at all, then the message would read on: "Give us time to deal with all of this in our own fashion!" The sad part of the real story is, time's running out! If time is money, as they always say, then it's definitely running out, and whether people want it or not, the truth is going to come crashing in on them, and already is, as things turn out to be never the same again on Wall Street and elsewhere around the world.
Today, little Mr. and Mrs. Jones may be pointing their fingers at the greedy stock brokers and shake their heads at them, "Tsk tsk, those greedy, naughty boys." But in a year from now the repercussions of what really happened here will have affected their lives to such an extent that there will be nobody there to shake their heads at, similar to the way it happened in 1930, a year after the first global stock market crash, which, it seems, is finally finding its match in the events unfolding before us right now.
Of course, way over 90% of the population vehemently refuse to acknowledge what's going on. They're choosing the blue pill (as in "The Matrix") every day: "Put me back to sleep and let me know none of all this!"
Well, just as dear Charlie in our movie eventually had to sit down and face the truth and reality of what happened, sooner or later that will have to be the case with everyone else. The only question is when and where; whether it will be in this life, or the next.
As far as I'm concerned, an integral and indispensable ingredient of love is truth, and without it, I wonder how real any of all that love is that people would like to reign over them, or if it's perhaps not just a bunch of good intentions paving their road to hell. If you want love to be real, you've got to have truth in it, and when that's the case, I'll agree: Let that love reign over all of us!
P.S.: Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like we don’t all do it. After all, what makes us watch movies by the dozens in the first place? We all like to get a break from reality, and it’s not like I can’t wait for all the gory stuff to happen, that’s awaiting the world, according to the Book of Revelation. I remember the first time I read it, I actually felt physically sick, the way Neo in the Matrix did, when he found out the truth about what the Matrix was, and what his life thus far had been…
But there’s a difference between being optimistic or positive and being naïve. It’s obvious, that basically we’re all wonderful and often can’t really be held to blame, because we simply don’t know any better. But there also comes the point when we should know better, because we have been told the truth, and it’s up to us to either accept or reject it, and I’m afraid that a lot of stuff is coming up around the bend that is going to test our love for how real it is, and I’d just advise anyone to fasten their seat belts.
No comments:
Post a Comment