The Movies That Changed My Life

Here I am again, watching so much TV. As I was into National Geographic Channel, there was this Jose Javier-Reyes ad on Live Curious. He posted the question, "What movie had changed your life?". He said, his was the movie "Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang" by Lino Brocka. I had a classmate in PI100 who said that the reason she was taking Film Arts was due to Nora Aunor's "Himala". I haven't watched those two movies and I wonder what's in those that made them decide to make films.

So, in response to Direk Reyes, the movies that inspired me are the Mona Lisa Smile, The Emperor's Club, and Good Will Hunting. I was inspired by the plot set on the academe. Thee films had given me the challenges I wanted in my life.

The Good Will Hunting talks about Will, a 20-year-old guy with behavioral problems but has a potential to be a great mathematician. During the course of his therapy, Robin Williams asked him "What do you want to do? What is it that you like with your life?". That same questions had also struck me years ago. It had taken me a year to decide on what to do. The films challenged me to take a big leap of change from the ordinary person to being a professional educator. Like Will, I was a person who only want to go on living despite the roughness of it, I enjoyed being a student, the company of friends, I enjoyed life as it may come to me every morning. But I had asked myself, when I am fifty, do I want to be this same person?

Of course, that stage in my life said time's up, your maximum residency has expired. I have to be in another track. Everyone in my batch is chasing their dreams, living their goals while I was stuck to the same kind of lifestyle. The person I was in college had been the product of the pushing me to the edge and the learning I had acquired through difficulties and achievements, but the person I had become after college is way too different to that. I stayed so much in my comfort zone after that. How eager I was to go back to those days when my problems revolve around problem sets and machine problems, dorm activities and how to be attentive during lectures and all those sleepless nights before exams. I am missing the STRESS! (how sadistic)

Then, The Emperor's Club had inspired me to become a teacher. To educate, change the lives of many, be the guidance of young minds. A History teacher can give a significant something to students, so how about a Math teacher? How can Math teaching touches the life of others? I want to see people grow, get directions in their lives through that little something in me, and I want to be remembered as their teacher who taught them how to do fractions and conversions.

The Mona Lisa Smile had given me the insights on how to be a teacher. The ups, downs and curvatures of teaching profession. The interactions with students and the ways to win their trust in you.

I wouldn't say that who I am now is the result of these movies but rather I can say that these movies had shown me a greater path that I haven't known existed. These movies had given me another train to take me to the next pit stop and keep me chasing another dream. 


Monday, December 27, 2010

Continue Reading...

A World Within Our World

I had my weekends watching TV. Got to have a good Saturday night films shown on HBO and Star Movies.

I was able to see Journey to the Center of the Earth and Horton Hears a Who. The two films are alike in plot on which they depict a world within a world. In the Journey, there is a world contained within the earth while on Horton, another world survives inside a dust speck. Is it really possible that a great new world is trapped beyond our lands and beyond to what our eyes can't see?


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Continue Reading...

I Never Know

I never know that I love Robin Williams films. Well, I think most of Robin Williams films were stories about life in general. Yesterday, I was able to watch Jack, a 1996 movie where Mr. Williams played the title role - a person who olds four times his age. Jack Howell was able to finish high school at the age of 18 but with a body of a 72 year-old person. He was the class valedictorian and delivered this short speech: 

I don't have very much time these days, so I'll make it quick -- like my life. You know, as we come to the end of this phase of our life, we find ourselves trying to remember the good times and trying to forget the bad times. And we find ourselves thinking about the future. We start to worry, thinking, "What am I gonna do? Where am I gonna be in ten years?"

But I say to you, "Hey, look at me." Please, don't worry so much, 'cause in the end none of us have very long on this earth. Life is fleeting. And if you're ever distressed, cast your eyes to the summer sky, when the stars are strung across the velvety night, and when a shooting star streaks through the blackness turning night into day -- make a wish think of me. And make your life spectacular. I know I did.

I like the content. Where am I gonna be ten years from now? What am I gonna do? The same questions I asked when I left my high school and college life. Goals fulfilled but still searching for the right path.

Another movie of him that I can watch all over again is the Bicentennial Man, a 1999 movie. It's a story of a robot who learned how to have emotions and worked himself to be accepted as a human being. He can appreciate beauty, make sculptures, and can feel love. Naturally, he was mistakenly created to develop feelings and behaviors of human. He is intelligent and was able to formulate ways on how he can achieve the body of a human being. 


Sunday, August 9, 2009

Continue Reading...