I have come to squirm at one specific phrase in nearly any context. A friend may lean over and quip to me, “it’s just like the movies.” I may nod. I might even agree.
But it bugs me. I think it demonstrates one of the most pervasive trends in our society. Life reflects movies … rather than movies reflecting life. Oscar Wilde seemed to recognize it in his own day when he said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.” It seems that we, as a culture, are trying to live like the movies.
Our appearance, relationships, conversation topics, and even conversational fragments seem to be made up of the bits and pieces of movies that we have seen. We have accepted movies as true. Not in the sense that we believe the characters actually exist, that we think the stunts could really happen, or that the story itself is credible. We do, however, seem to take the character’s actions as believable. It becomes a model for our real life behavior. In accepting part of these movies as true, our words, attitudes, and actions are shaped by the silver screen.
It certainly seems alluring though. There is some romance to romantic comedies and some epic movies capture a mood of grandeur. There is something oddly compelling about visualizing a different place, time, or story. Yet, it is important to understand just what sort of culture in which we are going to be imbibing.
Now, I certainly understand the fact that you can’t just remove yourself from culture. There is a certain amount of this whole thing that is “baked” into society and our tendencies. But rather than living by someone else’s fantasy or script, we should write our own story. This isn’t so much a call not to watch movies or never point out the similarities between art and life … but a call to seriously consider what motivations undergird our actions. Plain and simple, we should not do anything just because it happens to resemble a movie. The warrants for our arguments and justifications for our actions may mirror those of a character’s … but the truthfulness of those warrants and justifications has never simply been that mere resemblance. Similarity to a movie does not disbar something from being truthful … but neither does it justify.
Read books. Watch movies. See plays. Just remember, however, that these cultural mediums may contain varying degrees of truth. It is just a reflection of life … not a script for it.
To be honest, when I first read your opening line, “I have come to squirm at one specific phrase…” and having seen the title Living like a movie, I was ready for something along the lines of “say it…out loud” or something to do with Twilight :) haha, but actually, Twilight could tie into this topic quite well, although I hope in opposition(I can’t think of the right word) to your phrase “We have accepted movies as true” its known that vampires and werewolves don’t actually exist. :)
This leads me to think of relationships in movies and how it is easy to adopt the movie version of love. Rather than seeking Love, I think the masses absorb the movie definitions of love. I agree that we should write our own story and I also think that we should seek more truthful definitions for words like love. I’m wondering what a balance might look like? A balance between exposing ourselves to media and still being creative in the ways we define what is being represented? What has your journey looked like for finding a balance between these two?
Ruth,
A very valid set of questions. It’s always easier to deride something negative and far harder to describe what positive and proactive steps to take in its resolution. I guess balance looks a lot like careful consideration. We are part of our culture, and try as we might, there is no such thing as a complete separation. One could very well ask, what does it look like to be “in, not of” our mediated environment?
That answer means taking mediated influence and comparing it to our philosophical and moral basis. On the basis of that comparison, between whatever “input” we are measuring and truth, we can determine how much we ought to let that “input” influence our life.
Refusing to take things at face value does not necessarily mean that the idea itself is wrong or loathsome, but just that we ought to intentionally examine every bit of culture before we accept it into our worldview.