Rubaiyats of Lote-Tree

The Poet T.S. Elliot wrote "Human beings cannot bear too much reality" and one of the reasons that we can't bear too much reality is that "Reality Really Sucks"! And it sucks because unlike Fantasies, we can't bend "Reality" to our own will. Reality is something that we are unable to control. Something that we have no power over. That’s why human beings invented Art. Art allows us to go beyond the limitations of reality and explore the limitlessness of the human imagination and the Human Spirit - to endow, so ironically - "Reality" itself with meaning and purpose as well as giving us goals to aspire to and dreams to dream.

Movies as an art form therefore is a great medium to give our wildest "fantasies" the Illusions of Form and Shape; to bring it out of our heads so that it can be viewable by others, so that it can be shared with others, so that it can be experienced by others. Through movies (and like any other art form) we can explore the HIGHEST in us - the highest in us that rise above the clouds and breathe in the fresh sunlight in the sky. But it also allows us to explore the LOWEST in us too - the lowest in us that crawls on hands and knees and contemplates the meaning of darkness. And just like we can accept the HIGHEST in us with Pride, movies also explore how we might come to terms with the lowest in us with understanding. But you might ask: what do these movies - Sin City, Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman are exploring? The answer is quite obvious.

Sin City is a very violent film. Even with the use of black and white film format and using different color for blood – quite interesting use of color no doubt, the violence is quite intense. I would not normally go and watch an overtly violent film that has no story even if it had “Eye-Candies” (A uniquely Rap euphemism for Sex) like Jessica Alba or Keira Knightly. The “Jean Claude Van Damme” type of mindless violence never appealed to me. But despite the violence the stories in the film (there are three separate stories) is quite engaging. And the thing that I found surprising was that the film is actually about Love. It was an exploration of how Love can redeem the most unredeemable. How love can give meaning to the most worthless of lives. How love can bring out the “good” in the human heart even when it is swamped by hate and violence. It also explores what it is means to love. For love, the characters willingly suffered and even heroically gave up their lives so that Love may continue to live; so that Love may continue to give meaning - even in death.

But how is Pirates of the Caribbean anything about Love?
I enjoyed the first film. Captain Jack (played by Johnny Depp) is quite an interesting and amusing character and the CGI on the Ghost Sailors was great and the story was quite good too. In the second movie the CGI is fantastic, specially the Squid-face Captain – Davey Jones. But sadly the story is so disappointingly rambling, and killing the love story between Keira and Orlando leaves the movie wandering and adrift in the sea. And even the actions at times become quite tiresome. But the film is also is about love. Yes, even Davey Jones takes his own heart out and puts in a box for love and Captain Jack gives up his life to the Leviathan for Love but will Love resurrect him in the next movie? We will have to wait and see.

And the Superman film is that about love too?
The first two Superman movies I thought encapsulated everything about the Superman Myth (minus the nonsense about fighting in the American way). The later movies were pointless additions to the Mythology of Superman. In fact later movies seemed to abandon myth of it all altogether and give us something that was bland without any depth.
Superman is our Highest Ideal; it is about rising above the clouds and breathing the fresh sunlight in the sky. He is our “selfless” self. He is our incorruptible “invincible” self and as result this ideal is never easy to achieve and therefore, this ideal not always perhaps is appealing to mere mortal like us. But nevertheless he remains the ideal that goes above the clouds to gives us a “Gods-Eye” view of the world and all that is in it and makes us feel invincible.

Superman may be all powerful and invincible but he has his mortal weakness too and it not just the green Kryptonite. His “weakness” is of course is his love for Lois Lane. The story of Superman is also story about the power of Love. How love equalizes the playing field between the Powerful and the Weak; between the Invincible and the Vulnerable. For Love Superman reverses Death for Loise Lane and even gives up his Powers and becomes mortal. The new Superman movie continues with the theme of love. But this time Superman is coming to terms with Love itself. His amazing Powers are quite useless when it comes to Love because Love and Power it seems does not mix. They seem to be equal and opposite…

Anyway have you seen these movies. What did you make of them?