Category: A Spiritual Look At All Forms Of Entertainment…

For most of my life I’ve loved escaping into the movies solely to watch something that really moved my soul and hopefully uplifted me. On some level, I have used films ever since I was a young kid for an anti-depressant of sorts, and it worked, for a long time, until only in recent years where it seems as if movie studios keep pumping out films that are becoming darker and darker and darker, doing the exact opposite of what I hope to get from them.

The most glaring example of this came just over a week ago, prior to the evening of the Academy Awards. I had gone to a local theater to see the five Live Action Shorts that were nominated this year in that category. Each of those are typically around 30 minutes or so, yet still tell an entire story in that brief amount of time. I have watched some pretty amazing submissions over the years in this category, even writing about one of them last year that moved me incredibly. This year though, every single one of them was sad, dark, and depressing.

The first was about a husband who was about to unplug his wife from life support and how he was coping with that. The second was about a young guy in the future who’s wrongly imprisoned and held without trial, in the worst of conditions, all because of our world being run by technology. The third was about a dwarf female who had never been with anyone and just wanted to be loved, who meets a truck driver who she thought liked her, and then ends with him raping her. The fourth was about a South Asian family in the UK who is just living out a happy day together when a far-right, all-white march singles them out and executes the majority of their family. And the final one deals with a woman from the Kyrgyz Republic who just wants to live out her happy dream of going away to school and becoming something more when she’s kidnapped one afternoon and forced into a marriage.

As you can see, none of those sound uplifting and they weren’t, not on any level. Of course, one would argue that film is art and art tells a story no matter how tragic it may be. My argument though is that the reason why superhero films continue to rake in at the box office and why art films like these and others continue to fail is solely because people are looking to be uplifted.

We live in a world now where people are afraid of deadly viruses, the threat of war, violent crimes, blatant racism, police brutality, and so much more. Why would anyone want to go to the theater and watch something right now that’s so bleak and depressing? The theater I was in had only a few others and I could tell we all left in a very morose condition. Personally, I left the theater angry and frustrated that I had spent my evening doing something that only brought me more down than up. Thankfully, I went to the Cold Stone Creamery nearby and treated myself to an ice cream to uplift my inner child, who really needed that at that point.

I’m not sure why film studious continue to think what the world needs right now are films that are far from uplifting. Sadly, television seems to be following in the same trait, with many shows focusing in on all of what’s wrong in our society. And any uplifting show seems to be cancelled after one season.

I’m often told that what we focus on becomes even greater, so if we continue to focus on all the dark and depressing things in this world, especially in our visual entertainment, it’s only going to make our world feel even darker and more depressing, which I’m sure is something none of us want. Film and TV directors keep questioning and putting down the success of superhero films and television shows. What they don’t realize is that it’s the only genre out there right now that’s lifting anyone up.

I sincerely long for films and television shows that get back to what much of the stuff from decades ago did, which was to inspire and uplift, to bring joy and peace, and raise camaraderie. I miss those days of leaving the theater talking to total strangers about how good some film was that we all just clapped to at the end. I miss those days of talking about television shows that did the same, that connected us more than disconnected us.

I fear we are headed in the wrong direction, moving farther and farther away from becoming a brighter society. I hope for our world’s sake, I’m wrong, and the entertainment industry will wake up and start focusing on bringing greater light in than darkness. As until then, I’m probably going to start avoiding watching what’s considered “art” in the movie and television sector, because sadly, it’s no longer a healthy escape for me and most definitely not an anti-depressant of any sort…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

With it being Oscar season for the film industry, I’m always busy this time of the year catching up on movies the industry says is worthy of Academy Award consideration. One such film that garnered the top number of nominations this year, that being 12, was The Power of The Dog, a movie released on Netflix starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a repressed homosexual and extremely angry cowboy named Phil Burbank. While the film was electrifying in its acting, cinematography, sound, directing, etc., there was something I discovered that took place in the film that actually happened in real life and it disturbed me greatly because it dealt with animal abuse.

During one of its scenes, Cumberbatch was deep in his role as Burbank when he took his character’s anger out on a horse, beating it with his fist. When the horse reacted to the hard contact on its face that came at it multiple times, it ran out of the barn it was in and was jumping around outside in obvious pain and fear. At first, I thought, “Wow, this horse was well-trained!” Yet, something in me felt otherwise, as on some level, I felt like I was feeling this horse’s pain, so I investigated it further only to discover something very troubling. The movie was filmed overseas in New Zealand and never got PETA’s blessing. And in an interview with the press, Cumberbatch admitted he actually did hurt that horse because he wanted it to be as real as possible for his movie’s character. He also admitted that the other two scenes in the film where animal abuse took place happened as well. One is where he castrates a bull, and the other is where he torments a rabbit that ends up getting a broken leg in the process and then has its neck snapped. After learning this was all true, I became angry and came to despise both this movie and the Academy for nominating it.

Why something like this has not gotten more press I don’t know. Maybe it’s because PETA has made such issues with many small things I don’t know. But animals truly were harmed in this film and being an animal owner myself with two cats, as well as having many friends who own plenty of other types of animals as well, I felt this went way too far for the purposes of making a film seem more real.

Cumberbatch was probably near the top of my list as actors I enjoy seeing on the screen. I feel completely different about him now, much to my dismay, because my favorite role he presently continues to carry is his Marvel role of Doctor Strange, something he does extremely well. There is no reason though he needed to hurt an innocent animal who couldn’t defend itself.

Animal abuse bothers me immensely. I once knew an alcoholic who often beat his dog each time he got drunk and it made me so angry every time it happened. I always tried to stop him from doing it, but you can’t really stop an active alcoholic from doing anything. Eventually I had to walk away from this individual because of things like that he did.

Regardless, Cumberbatch wasn’t drunk during the filming of The Power of the Dog, he just was method acting, and chose to hurt something that didn’t deserve to be hurt. I am disappointed and frustrated that most probably don’t know this really happened during the filming and I honestly hope Cumberbatch doesn’t win his Best Actor nomination he received for his role. Because winning only says that the animal abuse he did was ok, and it’s not. As I’m sure it wouldn’t be if it was your animal on the screen he was abusing…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

I recently watched the 2021 film CODA on Apple+ and was simply blown away. It’s one of those movies that will move you, and then move you again, and again, heart, mind, and soul, that when it finally comes to an end, you feel better about yourself, this world, and life in general, something I think we all need a lot more of right now in life.

Directed by Sian Heder, “CODA” stands for Child of Deaf Adults and stars Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi. The film centers around her as the only hearing person in a family of deaf individuals, where her life becomes torn between pursuing a gift she’s only just coming to learn she has, that of singing, and of not abandoning a family who depends on her. When Ruby opts to join the school’s choir solely out of pursing an attractive male interest who’s also joining the choir (Miles, played by Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), she’s quickly introduced to its teacher, Bernardo Villalobos (played by Eugenio Derbez), who immediately sees her potential and the prodigy she is. But the more Ruby pursues her gift and a path that can lead her to the Berklee College of Music, the more her deaf family and their fishing business seems to depend on her, leaving her to choose in life what’s more important, the love she has for her family, or the love she has for music?

CODA was such an enlightening and uplifting film. In recent years, I’ve grown weary of what Hollywood considers awards-based contenders, as most have been dreary and dark. In this COVID-bleak world, where the news fills us every, single day with dread and horror stories, where the world seem charged with negativity all the time now, seeing CODA was truly a breath of fresh air and exactly what my soul needed. It was the first artistic film I’ve seen in a long while that truly moved me to incredible tears, not tears of sadness, but tears of joy, one that left me filled with that long after the credits had rolled.

I don’t believe that people need depressing movies with depressing endings right now in life, where crime and violence, greed and manipulation, addiction and its demise, and anything of the sort rule a film’s storyline. What I think people need are a lot more of right now are uplifting films that inspire us to be better people, that drive us to love each other far more than we have been in the past bunch of years. CODA was able to do this for me and then some.

Why films like The Sound of Music, The Shawshank Redemption, It’s a Wonderful Life, Forest Gump, and even E.T. continue to stand the test of time and watched by one generation after another is because they are inspiring and inspire people in general to be better individuals in life. But films like 2021’s The Power of The Dog, where real animal abuse actually occurred on set and where its ending was so very tragic and desolate, will most likely become one more film that’s forgotten about in the years to come. But why a movie like Spider-Man: Far From Home makes over $1.5 billion dollars worldwide and will probably be viewed countless times in decades to come is because it’s inspiring and that’s what people are driving to in droves right now.

CODA was THE most inspiring film I saw in 2021’s slate and one I plan on buying for home watching when it becomes available on Blu-Ray. I pray and hope that one day what Hollywood finally recognizes is that our world needs uplifting films far more than it needs a crop of artistic bleak, depressing, and downtrodden movies that leave a viewer feeling more down than up by the time the credits roll. Thankfully, I will remember CODA long after this pandemic and even this decade has come and gone.

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson