I took the boys to see the movie Gravity yesterday. It is only a 90 minute movie with minimal dialogue and only three on-screen actors. The movie shifts from an almost silent calm to cataclysmic intensity in a matter of seconds. It is a visually stunning movie. George Clooney adds the necessary humor to keep it from being too depressing. Sandra Bullock will probably get an Oscar nomination for her performance.
I can’t help myself from seeing the message of the movie in relation to our current Fourth Turning. I do believe art, literature, television, and movies reflect the mood of the times. The popularity of dark themes in shows like Breaking Bad and Walking Dead, along with the popularity of shows like Doomsday Preppers reflects the darkening mood in the country. Common people beginning to lose their minds and hurting others and themselves is a sign of the times. Increasing levels of violence go hand in hand with the despair created during a Fourth Turning.
Without giving away the plot of Gravity, I can clearly see a Fourth Turning theme reflected by the movie. As we drift along and everything appears calm and serene, the unintended consequences of an act by another nation causes a cascading failure across the entire world. An epic devastating storm of debris mangles everything we have come to depend upon. Technology fails. Communication fails. Life as we knew it is changed in an instant. People we depended upon are gone. Just when you think the worst is over, the debris storm comes back with a vengeance. The storms are relentless. The only thing we have left is our humanity, intelligence, tenacity, hope and desire to survive.
The theme of the movie is to never give up, no matter how bleak the circumstances. Don’t let go. Fourth Turnings are devastating episodes and only the strongest will survive. Some people will willingly sacrifice themselves for others. Others will fight for their ancestors. Others will fight for future generations. Some will fight to prove to themselves they have the Right Stuff. The climax of this Fourth Turning will depend upon the individual and community choices we make.
I have to stop thinking so much. Maybe it was just an action adventure movie and I should have just marveled at the 3D tears floating towards me. You can judge for yourselves. It’s worth a trip to the movie theater.
Can you explain basically what you mean by a “fourth turning” ? Arts and Cinema definitely reflect the present and interior mood & drift of life … and hints even at the future. I agree with that conclusion.
Len
The Fourth Turning is a book by Strauss & Howe written in 1997. If you go to the bottom of the page on the right hand side to the Fourth Turning Library you can learn more than you ever wanted to know about the Fourth Turning.
I saw the movie on the opening night. I had to suspend disbelief as much of the science behind the film was just plain wrong yet it was visually a stunning film. I enjoyed it.
It seems to be a movie about the fall of man into his inner psychology of negativity and violence. Thugs are and always have been out there. But if most of humanity were positive in their thinking and trusting, non suspicious, and not enjoying their negativity then the thugs would be neutralized by the mob. They could not do because the mob would not be afraid of the illusions they create to retain power.
Remember the movie; “A bugs Life”? When the ants woke up to the threat to their queen the grasshoppers were wiped out. As humanity has become today is it fait to say we can be compared to an ant colony?
I’ve only watched two movies at the imax in the calif science center. one was ‘beavers’ which i was disappointed to learn was about some rodents. the other was the shuttle film. very impressive to be along with our crew in near space. if things can go wrong in a moment, how can we hope to make it to the nearest planet? but never mind my cavilating, as the old sailor said, we have to go out, we don’t have to come back. kinda makes you proud to know peeps like SSS and others here.
On an unrelated but related note: Patton made his home in el paso, yet, the Patton memorial is outside of the old training grounds near Indio. I wonder if that’s been cordoned off?
Mr. Malone and I caught the flick yesterday afternoon. I agree, Admin. It was a an allegory for 4th Turning, but instead of doom, I felt very hopeful.
Big Government, for all of its (our) resources was nowhere in sight. It was up to individuals to help one another and triumph over the considerable challenges.
A very inspiring film. Visually beautiful too.
Catch it on the Big Screen – don’t wait for the DVD – cause the film will lose alot of its luster on a smaller screen.
Saw and advert for Enders Game today. To bad hollywood will totally fuck up a great book just like they did with ERB’S John Carter of Mars.
Gravity is a bitch.Take it from one who has experienced it first hand.It isn’t the fall that get’s you.It’s the sudden stop.
The only reason to see this is Sandra Bullock.Why?because she is beautiful or as some would say HOT.
bb says: because she is beautiful or as some would say HOT.
but not BB because he ain’t riskin’ going’ to hell.
FANTASTIC 3D visuals!!
Story line ….. never giving up … Admin’s tie-in to the 4th Turning ….. quite good.
Reality Factor …. i.e.; could it really happen that way? ….. Zero.
Loved the movie. At 10PM … there were a total of 8 people in the movie. Two teenagers way in the front would not shut up. Ten minutes into the movie I blurted out — “You all down there better shut the fuck up!!!” Dead serious about that. They did.
flash, you are so correct! I fell just 8 feet when I was building my last home because I didn’t tie off the ladder. (I knew better as I was a builder by trade but I thought that I could just go up once…) Concrete, even from 6 feet is hard! I broke foot bones, sprained my wrist, smacked my head on an aluminum ladder rung and had the breath knocked out of me, but otherwise was lucky. You should have seen what a 150 pound body can do to an aluminum ladder in a short fall…lol. I had the bruises to prove it.
This film is a pass for me. I won’t spend the money for 3D max and 2D would not be the same. It, like many other movies today, was made for the WOW! factor of 3D. Most flop if not seen in that format. I like Sandra, but not that much.
dang, Makati, glad your here to tell the tale. as varn noted, when you think no one is watching, someone is watching, and when you think it won’t matter this time, that’s the time to tie off.
the page refreshed and I lost all my shit, crap. here’s the recap without the big commentary:
1. Jesus figure, Clooney, dies self-sacrifice, revives, offers salvation saying “choose life”
2. bullock, fetus with unbilical cord in the Russian module
3. bullock born twice, once from the rusky module then from the Chinese unit, because man needs to be born again to be saved
4. Christina’s world painting recalled in final scene, Christina being a polio victim and bullock is climbing onto land like the primordial fish, with a seeming inability to use her legs.
5. like a newborn, bullock finally stands looking at her new world, the old one having been destroyed as the remnants of such pass overhead.
all this stuff gets covered on TBP with regularity
6. bullock is baptized with fire in the Russian module and, on land, with water.
7. Clooney as a Christ figure, knocks on the escape hatch, “behold, I knock at the door. I shall come in and dine with you…he drinks vodka (wine).
8. as bullock is baptized, a frog nearby gives us the idea of a creature that first swims in water then develops legs to walk on land. bullocks legs look like frog legs.
9. bullock came down from the sky, we never saw her leave earth first.
10. being reborn, she looks at the world anew as the scales have fallen from her eyes.
11. Clooney the Christ figure asks, now that we are apart, do you find me attractive? song of songs.
12. Clooney as a ghost reminds her of the landing program. The Holy Ghost will bring all things to our remembrance.
bb says:
“The only reason to see this is Sandra Bullock.Why?because she is beautiful or as some would say HOT.”
dr. ryan stone is ellen ripley in the movie alien. she looks like her and pays homage to ripleys fearful sideways glance inside her helmet, removing her space suit to reveal an androgynous body in her skivvies. the space alien she fights is her fear. a fear she refuses to confront, insisting on completing her reboot as space debris races towards them. she is also sarah connor who has escaped the terminator and looks on the new world as a future battlefield which she is now prepared to face without fear.
anyway, the action takes place in the heavens above the land of Egypt, that pantheist land that worships the sun, the moon, cats, snakes and crawling bugs. the trinity above with one looking as if he had been slain.
bullock arrives on earth like a person arrived from heaven, a place earthlings can try to imagine but do not know. she is the lone survivor, much like ripley and will bring the story of her experience to an unbelieving public. ripley has battled the devil, dr. stone (the stone which buiders rejected) has overcome the attack of puffed up man that makes war with heaven (the tower of babel).