Sunday, September 30, 2007

I just watched The United States of Leland. It's an EXCELLENT film, and I'd reccomend it to anyone in a heartbeat. It definitely will not leave you feeling all happy at the end of the movie, but it will make you question how you view the world. The main character, Leland P. Fitzgerald, is arrested for stabbing a mentally handicapped boy to death. The film then explores his stay in prison, where he interacts with a teacher at the prison and the two challenge each other, and events leading up to and following the stabbing of the boy. Usually, a film like this wouldn't really hold my attention, but the way the script writer went about some of the narration was too good to pass by. Check this out.
"I think there are two ways you can see the world. You either see the sadness that's behind everything or you choose to keep it all out."

"The worst part is knowing that there is goodness in people. Mostly it stays deep down and buried. Maybe we don't have God because we're scared of the bad stuff. Maybe we're really scared of the good stuff. Because if there's no God, well, that means it's inside of us and we could be good all the time if we wanted. So when we do bad things, it'd be because we want to or because we have to. Or maybe we just need the bad stuff to remind us what the good stuff is in the first place." (both from) -The United States of Leland

Whoever wrote that script sees the world in a way very similar to me. The first quote is very similar to what I tell people on a daily basis. You can't just run around in life and look at all of the good things, all of the beautiful things, all of the fun things. At one point or another you're going to have to accept that there are bad things and look at them, too. That's being realistic. When you see the things that are so wrong with this word.

"...if there's no God, well, that means it's inside of us and we could be good all the time if we wanted."

Exactly.
I don't even know. Thoughts?