Thoughts On Amadeus

Watching the movie Amadeus, which is also Mozart's middle name, was an enlightening experience from me, in terms of the story and the music of Mozart. A classical music paradise, along with one quirky protagonist, in a darker plot than it seems. I have always heard of the names of Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, and famous artists, but I never heard or knew their background, or their famous works for that matter. Classical music was something that I had little exposure to. As a matter of fact, I rarely even know many of the contemporary artist of today. Hence, this movie gave me much insight to the eras of classical music and the world at its time, and of course, the life and story of
the influential composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

It is likely that Mozart was an exceptionally gifted child. In the film, Amadeus, we could see that he was proficient on the piano and violin at an extremely early age. He was already performing in front dignitaries and royals. Apparently, he also started composing music scores and plays at the age of 5. In a different scenario, we could also observe the acuteness of his giftedness. When he was being introduced to the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Antonio Salieri wrote a score to welcome him, and was played by the Emperor himself. After merely one hearing, Mozart could remember the entire score, and further improved and added variations to it. Nonetheless, such intense gift may also come at a price. It is apparent that Mozart has certain behavioral issues, which can be most irritating and difficult to deal with. For instance, he likes to laugh out loud whenever he feels like it, regardless of the situation. He also tends to show disrespectfulness and make inappropriate remarks, including scatological humour, or toilet humour. Moreover, he exhibited socio-emotional disturbances. A prominent example is the way that Mozart coped with the death of his father, Leopold Mozart. As Salieri mentioned in the movie, Mozart figuratively raised his father from beyond the grave to torment him in his opera after his father's death. His effects of father's death seep into his operas, and probably worsen his drinking and thrifty lifestyle as he attempts to cope in such methods.

'Amadeus' delve deep into life of Wolfgang Mozart.  It showed plenty of his character, of whom many agreed is an accurate reflection of the real Mozart, as well as showcased many of his works. Although the dark plot of Antonio Salieri the poisoner remains inclusive and highly debatable. It also explores the concepts of giftedness versus mediocrity. Two different levels, two different characters, and two different challenges. It is difficult to say that one is more greater, or worser, than the other. It's two differing paths. And it applies to all of us too. Comparing our life to another, and saying one is better, or worser, than the other, is a faulty and biased standpoint. We all have our own paths to walk, and with all our characters, flaws, strengths and attitude, the experiences and the challenges of each of us will be vastly different and incomparable.

Thoughts on Schindler's List

Steven Spielberg didn't soften the impact when he filmed the movie. Either that, or I am too young and innocent to such brutality and cruelty. It is movies like these that made rethink my concepts of war. As it is, my perception of wars is largely based off computer games and fictional movies. Conquest always seems grand and full of wonderful victories. But after seeing a legitimate war being portrayed, war is not the glorious phenomena that I envisioned it. On the contrary, it is war that we can see the deepest level of mankind's heart, both the darkness and the light.

It is be hard to swallow the violence and discrimination that the German soldiers did towards the Jews. Of course, other groups of people were also victims, such as the Poles, Romani and homosexuals. I asked my self, how could one man treat another without remorse, respect or humanity, but instead, with superiority, dehumanisation and evil intentions? Philip Zimbardo would suggest the Lucifer effect is being carried out, which refers to how good people do bad deeds. It is hard to imagine so many people, such as the entirety of the German army under the Nazi party, being evil. However, the line between good and evil is not fixed. Good people can be seduced to cross the line. A key aspect of Zimbardo's Lucifer effect is his focus on institutional or systemic factors. He described how good people commit bad crimes under the political and legal influence of institutions. In the case of Schindler's List, the institution and system would be the Nazi party and its ideologies. It is hard to imagine hundred of thousands of Germans being evil, or the context of war changing everyone's viewpoints regarding humanity so drastically. However, the mentality of the Nazi party being casted onto its people, who viewed many other races as inferior to their Germanic race, it creates a top-down influence that ripple through the people. Zimbardo also emphasized on how evil is the exercise of power, with the intention to harm others. In all of these case, the Nazi soldiers can be seen exerting their power over others with ill intentions. Furthermore, this is escalated by the sense of deindividuation of the German soldiers. Wearing cohesive uniforms under the Nazi flag, they are now anonymous, and are not longer individuals with names, but a single German army. Loss of self-identity would lead to greater conformity to group influences.

Despite all these chaos and madness, we see one man, Oskar Schindler, who stayed good and heroic. Zimbardo talks about heroism as the antidote to evil. The same situation that brings out the evil in some, can also evoke the heroism in others. To illustrate, during the liquidation of the ghettos, the soldiers were being aggressive, randomly shooting and enjoying themselves in the process. On the contrary, Schindler was horrified, and soon decided to save the Jews, albeit through recruiting Jewish workers for his factories. There are two key components to heroism, which is to act when others are passive, and to act for others, not for yourself. In this case, Schindler stuck his head out repeatedly for the Jews, risking his life while briding and persuading the German officials, like Amon Goeth. Zimbardo also speaks about how heroes are not necessarily the traditional, societal heroes, such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, because they are the exceptions, who spend their life fighting for a cause and left behind a legacy. The heroes are also not the fantasy heroes, such as Superman and Thor, because they have supernatural abilities. Instead, heroes are just ordinary, everyday people. In the case of Schindler, you may even call him a crook, a womanizer and a businessman who initially took advantage of the Jewish's plight for his own financial profit. Even so, this ordinary, everyday man, was the one who became heroic in the same situation that others became evil.

While this movie showcase the depths of human cruelty as its darkest levels, it also showed rays of hope within ordinary people. I was stunned at the absolute savagery of mankind. It was brutal to see the way they treated a fellow person. The random executions, the forced labor, the living conditions they were in. Even so, it showed light, the light of humanity. It can be seen in the hope of Jews during their hard times, where they maintain that it could not be any worse, and still move forward with hope. And of course, most notably, in a businessman and a playboy who listened to the humanity within his own heart and save lives of people at his own risk.

Thoughts on Grace Is Gone

This movie was slow-paced, and focuses on family bonds. It revolves around a father and her two daughters, spending time together, before the inevitable truth sets in. As someone who had just received news of the death of his wife in military service, John Cusack fit the role neatly as a stern father with a distant and longing look in his eyes.

Since the beginning until the end of the movie, we can see how Stanley attempts to cope with the loss of his wife, Grace. In his own way, he was grieving, and yet, trying to break the news to his two girls. According to Kubler-Ross, there are five stages of grief, which are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. As a whole, Stanley did not go through the five stages in order or proportionally, but he tends to sway between denial and depression. As an example, his denial can be seen when he called his house phone while they were travelling, so that he could hear her voice on the answering machine and "talk" to her. It was almost as if nothing had ever happened, and that Stanley was leaving a simple voice message for Grace like normally. Conversely, when he first received the news from the military officers, he was so shocked that he couldn't form his words properly, and merely slump on the couch and not going to work. This could be his depression stage, where he couldn't do anything, and didn't want to have anything to do with others. Nonetheless, there were brief scenes of the other stages as well. For instance, when his brother, Uncle Joe, heard the news, he was surprised and confront his brother, inquiring of his current behaviour. Anger was seen when Joe began to push Stanley to a corner, forcing him to face the reality, to the point where Stanley lashed out with rage and grab Joe by the shirt. In contrast, he could be seem to be in the bargaining stages too when he "talked" with Grace and asked her for advice on the answering phone. He woefully mentioned how he should have been the one that went to the war and not her.

Heidi was a character that pique my interest. She was only twelve years old, yet she displayed a sharpness and emotional acuteness that was above her age. At twelve years old, she is on the borderline of concrete and formal operational stages of Piaget's cognitive development. Supposedly, the formal operation stage signifies beginning of abstract thought processes. However, it is possible that Heidi matured earlier than according to Piaget's stages, as she seems to have a solid grasp of underlying meanings of actions and words. She knew that there was something going on with his father when he suddenly wanting to travel to their fun places. As the movie progress, we could see how Heidi kept an eye on his father's behaviour and occasionally tried to pry the truth out of him, one way or another. For example, at the Enchanted Garden, she asked him directly, by suggesting certain possibilities. She was also correct when she guessed that her father didn't go to work on the day that they left. Moreover, she inquired Uncle Joe of her father as well, of certain things that she knew that her father wouldn't have answered.

Personally, the way that Stanley dealt with the loss, and how he tried to gently break the news to his daughters, broke me on the inside. It hurts to see someone cope with loss. Because I know what it is like to feel that way. None of my friends or family have died, so I have not lost anyone in that manner. Nevertheless, I have lost many, many of my friends, due to lost contact or long distance. I didn't know how to cope with it. I have learned to acknowledge it and deal with it, especially on an emotional level. Even so, to this day, it still hurts and aches at the loss. Just like how the Philipps family would feel the hurt and ache at their loss.

Thoughts on Sybil

One word. Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. I knew the background of the story, but nevertheless, I was still looking forward to how Sybil would be portrayed by Sally Fields. Admittedly, this was also what kept my attention alerted, otherwise the three hour movie may have been a little too long and too draining. The introduction flashback scenes itself were enough to creep me out, reminding me of something out of a horror and torture movie. The most prevalent aspect of the film was the multiple personalities within Sybil, denoted recently as Dissociative Identity Disorders, or DID. It resembles fragmentations of identities and selves, with differing memories, thoughts, and emotions, all within a single person.

The sudden switches of the many 'hers' in various settings and stimulus were intriguing and eye-catching. For example, when Sybil, the present her, was cautious, or even fearful, of accepting Richard's invitation for a ride, 'Vicky' emerged to gracefully accept the offer. Vicky seems to be Victorian era lady, who is sociable and likeable, prefers things to be prim and proper, and enjoys speaking French. The transition from the subdued Sybil to Vicky was vastly different, as it was two different person with personalities that vary extremely on its spectrum. That being said, the portrayal of Sybil's personalities were likely to be dramatized, being a Hollywood movie. In reality, the various 'selves' of a DID person are largely not obvious. It is typically subtle, to the point where most people around the particular individual are unaware of its existence, much less able analyze it, be it their family, friends, or professionals. It is also one of the reasons why it is diffcult for mental health practitioners to accurately identity someone with DID.

That being said, DID is arguably one of the most controversial diagnosis in the mental health profession. Childhood trauma is said to be one of the primary causes of DID. The distress and suffering was too much for a child to bear, so those memories are repressed and kept away from the self, resulting in other selves emerging to deal with the pain. These selves have specifics roles and mentality, in order to cope with the varying types of anguish. In the case of Sybil, when her musical abilities was denied by her mother, 'Vanessa' was born within her, who was filled with all of her piano skills and proficiency. But within Sybil itself, those abilities were 'lost'. These repressed memories are kept hidden and deep with the recesses of her mind. However, therein lies the issue. Professionals argued that, how can we know that these "repressed memories" are authentic? There has been large concerns about false memories and its credibility. These 'memories' may been planted by the psychologist evaluating the client, either intentionally or unknowingly. It is also one of the main reasons why hypnosis is discouraged. Suggestibility is strong when a client is a hypnotic-induced state of consciousness. As such, instead of probing for memories with the consciousness, a psychologist may end up impressing thoughts into the client, perhaps due to the leading questions of the psychologist. 

To this day, DID remains controversial. Not merely because it is difficult to identity, but also because of its comorbidity with other disorders, such as depression, borderline personality disorder, eating disorders and so forth. In my case, my perception of DID is largely influenced by the various movies that I have seen, or hearsays and rumors from others. Since I had no idea of how it is originally, perhaps these views created the basis of my DID schema. Although Sybil presents an enlightening view of how DID may be, and there is definitely some degree of truth in it, it would be wise to watch the movie with a pinch of salt, and not jump to conclusions and judge others too quickly. 

Thoughts on Whale Rider

Well, this movie caught my attention the WHALE time I was watching it. Sorry, bad joke. Also, part of the reason of why I was so focused, was that the movie had no subtitles, and with their Australian accent, it was tricky at times to discern the conversations. The movie itself had various deep layers to it. The concept of the movie itself was fairly straightforward, but there were many subtle layers that were not explicitly mentioned. Instead, its significance was shown through the visual.

Firstly, the movie portrayed strong cultural roots and beliefs systems. Among them, there was the concept of a chieftain. I presume that these customs had practical reasons behind, as the chief needed to protect his people. A chief had to be strong, angry, skilled in the tongues of the tribe and so forth. However, it is interesting to see how traditions tend to turn into 'laws'. Not just the way it should be done, but also the way it MUST be done. Soon, these traditions become rigid and stiff, allowing no room for discussion or protest. This tendency is prevalent in many other customs, cultures, religions and so forth. When examining the roots and origins of it, I noticed how these ideology develops over time, and how it tends to somewhat stray from its original purpose. The elders of a particular culture are typically unyielding in their ways, claiming any manner of questioning as dissents and deem as unforgivable. To a certain degree, although the current practices are technically correct, but its true intention behind it may have been muddled.

In my mind, Koro's character is a true manifestation of a traditionally and culturally rooted man, which is admirable in the lost and wandering ways of today's world. To me, he comes across as one of a choleric temperament. As such, it is not surprising that he is of the line of chieftains, although whether he was born that way or brought up that way is uncertain. I like to describe him as a quiet Alpha male. He is domineering in nature and in many aspects of his life, except over his wife, Nanny Flowers. I had a laugh when Nanny said that Koro think he does, but actually does not. He is also proud and sure in himself, which, arguably is both his Herculean strength and Achilles heel. He can be resolute, or in other words, stubborn. This can be seen in his unyielding efforts to not teach Pai the ways of the chief and only limiting the candidates to the boys. No other opinion was allowed or given thought. Right until the very end.

Moving on to the next generation, or rather two generations, Pai was brought up as an only child, although she is technically born as a twin. As according to Adler's birth order, she tends to portray adult characteristics, even at such an early age. Her emotional regulation can be seen as steadfast and strong. For example, during a stage play where Pai was leading the presentation, a fellow student farted and caused a uproar of laughter, disrupting the performance. Although feeling slight discomforts, she did not react negatively at the embarrassment, but merely composed herself and carried on with the stage play. Furthermore, when Pai's father, Porourangi, showed up for the performance, I was surprised to see her not shaken nor feeling bitter, but rather joyful that he came to see her perform. As far as I can tell, her father has been absent in most of her life, yet at that moment, she was not holding a grudge but set aside any misgiving about him and just enjoyed his presence. Huge respect for such maturity.

The movie showed how strong beliefs and values can be, which in this case, is likely to be perceived as gender stereotypes in today's world. They keep us rooted and firm, knowing that the ideology we possess will bring us stronger into the future. Nonetheless, this movie also shows strength, in the form of a steadfast, mild-mannered girl who was determined in her ways. A twelve-year-old girl who was sure of her identity as a chief of a tribe and was loyal to her people, despite all the chances and reasons to leave, she still followed her heart and kept moving forward.