Watching Movies of Life - the Movie Meditation
These descriptions of certain emotional states of mind are intended to encourage us to watch specific aspects of our life as if they were a movie. A five star movie in this list is not rated necessarily as a highly entertaining, mainstream movie. Instead, a good movie suggested here may more accurately reflect the drama of life in all its facets -- the shadow of an emotion as well as its positive side. Find out what moves you and learn to simply let it be. Meditation is watching, unidentified and non-judging.
H -- Quiet Strength
The shadow side
Being under stress, being totally controlled, petty, being afraid of shame and being denounced and laughed at publically, fear of being overwhelmed by something bigger, disgust, fear of being late, overly time consciousness, being a snob and deadly serious, wanting everything under control, control freak, being bound, tied to 100 small things, explosive personality if something is out of control, obsession with impeccability, regretting having missed out on something
The light side
Doing in a relaxed way what is necessary, having an inner, natural security and control, being able to keep people and things together, untieing bonds, true love, being full of humor, being able to overcome barriers, being relaxed in the here and now
Movies with these themes
The Game
Nicholas Van Orton (Douglas) is a successful, extremely wealthy businessman, but his success has come at the cost of his personal life. He is estranged from his ex-wife and goes about life in a cold, detached manner, seemingly incapable of emotion, or caring for anyone or anything.
On Nicholas' 48th birthday, his younger, rebellious, brother Conrad (Penn) presents him with an unusual gift -- a game offered by a company called Consumer Recreation Services -- promising that it will change Nicholas' life. (The idea of Consumer Recreation Services seems to be lifted directly from the G. K. Chesterton story "The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown").[4] The nature of The Game is unclear at first, but it appears to be a sort of live action role-playing game that integrates directly into the player's real life...
Clockwise
The film centres on Brian Stimpson (played by Cleese), the successful but obsessive headmaster of Thomas Tompion comprehensive school. Having been habitually late and disorganised as a young man, he has grown up to become famously punctual, and his school runs 'like clockwork'. On the way to a Headmasters' Conference (to which he has been elected, for his school is a state school and the HMC is a trade association for fee-paying public schools) at which he is a speaker many misfortunes befall him and his ordered world begins to unwind in a way reminiscent of Greek tragedy. A Morris 1100 car, similar to the Austin 1300 beaten with a stick by Cleese in Fawlty Towers episode 'Gourmet Night', plays a key role in the plot of this film...
The Covenant
Chase Pope-Collins, played by Sebastian Stan, is the oldest Son of Ipswich, although he was not raised with the other four "Sons". Chase is the descendent of the fifth family (Putnam), which was banished for breaking the covenant rules during the 1692 salem hunt. Chase was oblivious of his true lineage and power, due to being adopted at a young age. Because he grew up without complete understanding of his powers and their effects, Chase became addicted and power hungry. He ultimately kills both of his adoptive parents in car accident. After his ascension, Chase finds his physically weakened biological father and convinces him to will his powers to him. This causes him to be more powerful than the other four "Son's of Ipswich". Chase transfers to Spencer Academy in search of the four other "Sons of Ipswich," aiming to force them to will him their powers, as well. Chase believes that the more power he has, the less he will be affected by the aging effects and will be able to 'use' his powers freely...
Titanic
In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team explore the wreck of the RMS Titanic, searching for a necklace set with a valuable blue diamond called the Heart of the Ocean. Unsuccessful, they instead discover a drawing of a young woman reclining nude, wearing the Heart of the Ocean, dated the day the Titanic sank. 101-year-old Rose Calvert learns of the drawing on television, and contacts Lovett to inform him that she is the woman in the drawing. She and her granddaughter Elizabeth "Lizzy" Calvert visit Lovett and his skeptical team on his ship, the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh. When asked if she knew the whereabouts of the necklace, Calvert recalls her memories aboard the Titanic, revealing to anyone for the first time – including her family – that she is Rose DeWitt Bukater, a passenger believed to have died in the sinking...
Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie
Mr. Bean, a hopeless caretaker at the "Royal National Gallery", London, is sent by his employers, who wish to get rid of him, to America under the pseudonym of "Dr. Bean" to oversee the transfer of Whistler's Mother to a Los Angeles art gallery. Once at the airport, he is surprised to see policemen with guns and pretends he himself has one. He ends up being arrested by Lieutenant Brutus.
Once released, he meets David Langley, an employee of the Grierson art gallery, and David's family, with whom Bean is to stay for his visit. Despite winning the affection of David's son (played by Andrew Lawrence), David's wife is hostile about having to look after him, while David's rebellious teenage daughter finds Bean "ugly as Meat Loaf's butt". His wife later leaves after Bean breaks a family heirloom while fiddling with a CD player...
The Abyss
An American ballistic missile submarine, the USS Montana, sinks near the edge of the Cayman Trough after an accidental encounter with an unidentified submerged object. As Soviet ships and submarines head towards the area in an attempt to salvage the sub, and with a hurricane moving in, the Americans decide that quickest way to mount a rescue is for a SEAL team to be inserted onto a privately owned experimental underwater oil platform, which they will then use as their base of operations.
In a subplot the SEAL team is accompanied by the platform's designer, Dr. Lindsey Brigman (Mastrantonio). Her estranged husband, Virgil "Bud" Brigman (Harris) is the foreman of the platform. Unbeknownst to anyone, the SEAL leader Lt. Coffey (Biehn) has developed High Pressure Nervous Syndrome, and is losing his ability to reason as he passes slowly into a paranoid state...
As Good as It Gets
Melvin Udall is a successful novelist with a brash and abrasive personality who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. He insists on sitting at the same table at the same restaurant each day, much to the chagrin of Carol (Helen Hunt), the main waitress who waits on him.
Melvin works from home, and often uses anti-gay remarks to berate his neighbor Simon Bishop, a painter who is often seen with his little dog Verdell, which Melvin dislikes.
Simon is robbed and severely beaten in his apartment. He survives, but has no health insurance for his medical bills. Suddenly broke, he is forced to lay off his housekeeper and also faces the loss of his apartment. His agent Frank (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) pressures Melvin to look after Verdell. Melvin grows fond of the dog...
Sweet November
Nelson Moss (Keanu Reeves) is a typical businessman who devotes his life to his career. He meets Sara (Charlize Theron), a woman very different from anyone else he has ever met. His arrogance and ignorance leads to her failing her DMV test and she decides to track him down to make him pay for what he did. She beguiles him and convinces him to spend a month with her on the promise that she will change his life.
Throughout the course of November the two experience several breakups. Nelson examines his life and his past in great detail. During their adventures Nelson befriends a fatherless child called Abner (Liam Aiken). Eventually Nelson realizes that he is deeply in love with Sara and asks her to marry him. This sets in motion a sudden chain of events that reveal Sara's terminal cancer. Because Sara cannot bear to have Nelson experience her decline in health and eventual death, she asks him to leave. For a time Nelson complies with her wishes, but then stages a surprise return during her Thanksgiving dinner...
Remark
Although the movie list is inspired by Tibetan Pulsing typologies on the human mind, it does not claim to be completely accurate in its assessment.
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