It's been a few weeks since my last post. It has been difficult deciding what to write about. I've been catching up on reading. Caught a new indie movie. Family life. And all that. So, this will be a ramble.
A few years back I read Stieg Larssen's bestsellers focusing on Lisbeth Salander; starting with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. You have to be a serious reader to get through them. The plots and the character developments are wonderful. But you have to be focused to get through the descriptive parts. I say that because Stieg Larssen sets up important subplots with detailed background on Swedish politics and other historical information.
Anyway, I was enthralled by the books. And when the Swedish movies came to town, I naturally had to go see them. And as with all movies, each was preceded by previews. While several of the previews were interesting, I was especially taken with Winter's Bone. It is an indie movie and had a limited release. And I missed it when it came to town (think flash in the pan). I did the next best thing; read the book. Or rather, listened to the unabridged audio book. And it was good! Not that I wasn't expecting it to be good, but I really enjoyed the character development. Again with character development! I looked for the movie for about a year but couldn't find it locally. I finally found it last week. And it was just as good as the book.
Now what you need to know is that I am considered an 'eccentric' movie watcher. Just as I love almost all genres of books, I love almost all types of movies. Though gratuitious grossness is not my thing, I will sit through 'horror' movies just for the plot. I watch 'slow' movies, action, wacky, non-english speaking, and more. If there is a downside to all this it's that realistically I can't watch all the movies that interest me. That and I watch many movies by myself. I mean, try finding a movie-mate who likes a wide range of movies. Thankfully, DD enjoys much of what I enjoy. Much, but not all.
And in knowing that, I have come to a realization; that I am most interested in character development (yes, that again). As in books, I am intrigued by what motivates characters to behave as they do. I search for the answer to the question "Why?" That and "What in the character's past drives the character to behave as they do?"
Take Lisbeth Salander, for instance. She is anti-social, follows her own moral code and has her own ethics. When she sees injustice done (according to her moral code), she retaliates. No remorse. Why? How did this moral code develop? What in her past molded her to the person she's become? It's the same with Ree Daley in Winter's Bone. She is persistent in her search for answers to her father's disappearance, even to her detriment. And she is determined to care for her younger siblings regardless of the effect to her wellbeing. Why? How did this tenacity develop? What in her past prompted this necessity? And, for grins and giggles, take Wolverine. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (the movie) depicts Wolverine's beginnings. Again, what drives him to turn from a life of adventure to a life of simplicity (even though that life of simplicity was temporary)? And why did his brother, Victor Creed's, path veer so distinctly from his?
Yes, yes, yes. These are all trivial and fictional characters. But though movies are produced for monetary gain, still the folks who write the screenplays impart a bit of themselves, knowingly or not, into the stories. And therein lies the rub. Whether we know it or not, our private lives, thoughts, impressions, etc. leach out through our actions and words, written, planned, unplanned, and so on. And as an inveterite observer of people, my question is what motivates us to behave as we do? What in each of our pasts colours our present?
And I think that is one of the primary reasons I enjoy reading and movie-going. I am curious. As I read, regardless of the brevity, I am curious about the motivation, the cause to the effect, the underlying/ contributing factors. I enjoy thinking, coming up with my own hypotheses and then finding out if I am anywhere near the mark. And as I have written before, life is all about learning.
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