Before I submit the final blog installment in the other series on Memory and Forgetting (forthcoming) I thought I would briefly follow-up with a quick review of the movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
You will recall that I dedicated a previous blog series on “The Curious Case of Time’s Arrow” several weeks ago at this web site and one of the issues covered was the story of Benjamin Button. As a gerontologist -and as an avid movie fan – I found this movie to be poignant and an effective catalyst to make you think – and reflect – on the vagaries of life (whatever direction it may take ! forward, backward, sideways, or comfortably in stasis- at least for a while).
This is a movie for your lifetime – literally – and seriously. The acting and the mind-bending notion of aging backwards (in this movie) while all around you “all else moves forward” was well conceived and acted with solid credibility – especially as we watch the people “age” and grow ”young” before our eyes. (see review by A.O. Scott in NY Times { Movie review}. Instead of a retread carpe diem message, the theme is more thoughtful: there are many routes through life – but the end and the beginning of life can settle into similar completion – as though bookends.
I highly recommend this movie as a refreshing difference these days – as an antidote – in a world of CGI without soul – or PIXAR happy-gas movies that fill the stomach like cotton-candy , but leave the brain wanting more. As a person trained in the scientific method, I sometimes find a greater affinity with Cartesian doubt, but I still believe in stoic joy -and this movie offers the possibility of thinking – and experiencing life as a journey with loved ones – all the while as history unfolds, and people live and die – and we should remember, and savor the experiences before it all drifts along and empties into the ocean.
The river is still “there” even if the water is constantly moving – how can the river be still present – if is carried along with so much water ? Shades of Heraclitus! –”On those stepping into rivers the same, other and other waters flow.”
Thus, I find it quite moving the movie is set in New Orleans and the Mississippi River flows on, but then Katrina is nearby, then the waters rise, and the clock stops and whether it moves forward – or backward – it does make us stop to wonder about our lives (in and as) a moment – a flash of the firefly – and youth flashes by and by. Along with our personal aging we have an array of memories, but in this movie we are reminded that so many older adults are left to fade in nursing homes or in solitary dwelling spaces cut off –isolated – in our communities. What was their story? Who is there to listen? Why did so many have to perish? Yes, if you examine the statistics of the mortality rates associated with Katrina – the elderly were most vulnerable, as we have learned with heat waves in the midwest (see the book “Heat Wave” by Erik Klinenberg – Interview w/ Klinenberg) and with earthquakes in China and with several tsunami in the Pacific region.
This movie is worth the ticket price and it is money well spent as it a movie for the soul, the heart, and the brain. Now, try to find that in any store – at any discount – in a consumer culture gone amok. As you walk out of the store with that 70% off “thing” – I ask you to compare that to walking out of this movie with a “life” (yours – I would wager) as made more meaningful, more contemplative. And then I hope to reflect – on those most vulnerable in our midst.
Thanks, Scott D. Wright
Marcus Aurelius
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