Category: A Spiritual Look At All Forms Of Entertainment…

I think just about everyone has probably seen the original Disney 1950 cartoon movie “Cinderella” or at least know the story of it by now. After all, it’s been portrayed and reimagined so many times through various incarnations over the years, both in film and on television, including some of my personal favorites such as Ella Enchanted and Ever After, that you’d be hard-pressed not to know it nowadays. So I honestly didn’t think it possible to come up with another heartfelt and moving vision of the famed girl named Ella, but team Disney seems to have gone and done it again in creating the 2015 movie titled “Cinderella”, which truly inspired me to be kind and have courage.

This creative re-telling of Ella’s (Lily James) fabled story begins by showing us a little more about the childhood she had growing up. We get introduced to her very caring parents who constantly surrounded her with incredible amounts of unconditional love, which helps us to understand why Ella becomes the person she does.

I believe there are certain moments in each of our lives that very directly shape our futures, and Ella has one of those when her mother (Hayley Atwell) lay dying but still makes sure to remind her to always be kind and have courage in life, which indeed is what Ella strives for from then on. Even when her lonely father (Ben Chaplin) eventually asks for her permission to bring a widowed mother (Cate Blanchett) and her two daughters, Drisella and Anastasia, (Sophie McShera and Holiday Grainger) into their home, Ella remembers her mother’s words and chooses to honor them.

She first decides to give up her bedroom for Drisella and Anastasia when they arrive, and even graciously accepts and embraces her new stepmother’s request for Ella to live in the old and drafty attic while all the bedrooms supposedly get a slight overhaul. Sadly, it’s not too long after this that her father dies during one of his many trips away and it’s then that she begins to see the true wickedness and selfishness her stepmother and her two daughters bring.

During one of their particularly cruel treatments of her, Ella’s heart just can’t take it anymore so she rides off in tears on one of the horses deep into the woods. It’s there she unknowingly meets the Prince (Richard Madden) who’s on a hunting excursion, as he disguises himself under the name Kitt and says he’s only an apprentice. A brief playful and romantic moment is shared between the two and rest of the story is then played out quite similar to the original.

What I was charmed most about in this modern retelling of Cinderella was how she truly did embrace each and every one of life’s situations no matter how difficult they were, with that same kindness and courage. It really was a great reminder for me in life given the health issues I’ve been facing for a while now. Sometimes my ego drives me during my many moments of pain to not be kind and to run away in fear, but I realize Ella’s approach is the one I know my Higher Power would want me to have. Hence the reason why I felt this new movie was exactly what I needed to see the other day in the theater, because it brought about a much-needed inspiration.

So if you’re looking for something that will remind you about the importance of always being kind and having courage in life, no matter what you’re circumstances, I encourage you to see the 2015 remake of Cinderella, because in the end, I’m sure you’ll leave the theater as I did, uplifted and filled with a greater amount of those very things.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

I’m sure that many can say that a time travel plot for a movie has been totally played out for awhile now. “Project Almanac” is the latest one to enter this genre and try for a different spin within it á la found-footage. While many of the nation’s movie critics seem to have been far less than satisfied with the film overall, I on the other hand rather enjoyed it immensely. But maybe that’s because I have yet to grow weary of this genre yet or maybe it’s because I, like probably many others, have often wished I could go back in time and change things.

“Project Almanac” centers around a young man named Jonny Weston (David Raskin) who’s dream is to go to M.I.T. Upon discovering his acceptance letter in the mail, he finds the university was unable to give him enough of a scholarship to actually be able to attend in the fall. In frustration, Jonny begins to hunt around his attic for anything he could use as a science project in the hopes of attaching it to the only remaining scholarship he hasn’t applied for yet. While there, he and his sister find an old video camera with footage of his 7^th birthday that arouses nostalgia in them both. But in a mere fraction of a moment, Jonny sees himself in that video staring back at the camera off in the distance. This incredible and seemingly impossible discovery is shared with his two best friends, which ultimately leads them all into the basement where his father’s old work lab once existed. It’s there they uncover one of his father’s old work projects that can only be described as plans for a temporal device. Through trial and error, they eventually get the device up and running, much to their delight and after setting some ground rules for its usage, they begin utilizing it solely to have fun and for their gain. But when Jonny misses out on an opportunity with the girl he likes in one of their time jumps, he starts breaking the rules and changing things to benefit himself, which only leads to a ripple effect and disastrous results, hence the butterfly effect. It’s then that the true premise of the movie takes off as Jonny attempts to fix time itself.

I’m quite sure the reason why critics haven’t really enjoyed this movie is for some of the plot holes that exist within it. Regardless, I chose to ignore them and imagine myself in Jonny’s shoes as the movie played on the large screen in front of me. At first, I think I think my ego would have been just like him and his friends, using the machine for money, popularity, and the like. But where my path might have diverged from his a little would have been me trying to change parts of my life that didn’t go over so well in the past, such as the day my father committed suicide, the day my drunk mom fell down the stairs and died, the day I chose to pursue a bed and breakfast that bankrupted me, the day I chose to enter many relationships that only ended in ruin, or the day any number of other difficult things happened to me. Yet it’s that butterfly effect that stops any of those thoughts in their tracks nowadays for me because I wouldn’t want to alter who I am today on any level. I actually like who I am now and who’s a part of my life as well, therefore the idea of any of that changing if I altered past events isn’t alluring whatsoever.

So in the end, I had a good appreciation for “Project Almanac” and its found-footage take on time travel, mostly because it was a fresh reminder of the dangers that could come from altering the past. Each of the trials and tribulations I’ve gone through over the years, while difficult in nature, have truly shaped and molded me into the person I’ve become now. And because I unconditionally love that person I’ve become, I wouldn’t want to change a single thing from my past. Thus maybe it really is a good thing that time travel doesn’t exist for any of us…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

It’s no secret that I’m not a big fan of guns, violence, or war. In fact, I’m glad that I didn’t grow up during the draft years because I stand for peaceful resolutions to conflict and not bloodshed. Maybe that’s why I became so disturbed and unsettled while I watched “American Sniper”, which was a movie about the deadliest sniper in U.S. History.

The film itself is about the life of U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) who served four tours in the Iraq War, was awarded many commendations for his heroism, and who accumulated 160 confirmed kills (with at least 95 more that were rumored) during his years of military service. Nicknamed “Legend” by his fellow soldiers, Kyle was considered just that because of his accuracy in shooting, one of which being from a very long range away at 2,100 yards. Because of his talent as a sniper, the Iraq insurgents even had a bounty placed on his head that was purported to have been near six figures. While some of the movie’s alarming events were fictitious, like most Hollywood movies tend to be, much of what was portrayed in it was actually quite accurate. Having viewed the film in Cinemark XD, I often felt myself becoming submersed in the throngs of Kyle’s inner world. From the difficult decisions he had to make alone about who to kill and who not to kill, to the burden of having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) upon returning home to his wife and children, I found “American Sniper” to be extremely unsettling, even more so when I learned that Kyle was killed by a fellow retired solider with PTSD whom he was only trying to help.

While I can see why this patriotic movie is doing exceedingly well at the box office (over $90 million in its opening weekend of wide release), it’s still a bleak reminder to me that war doesn’t create peace on any level. Each person that’s killed during a war only seems to bring forth more in retaliation and further bloodshed. And then there’s the war within that people like Chris Kyle face when they return home, that of having PTSD. I’m a firm believer that this condition is solely due to the soul suffering from what one’s eyes have seen and maybe even done during the act of war.

Interestingly enough, as I reflected on all of this the other night over dinner with my partner after seeing the movie, I found myself being overly irritable and angry. What I realized was that my own soul was suffering from watching the film, both for the tragic loss of U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle and for all the other deaths that have been the direct or indirect result of a war. “American Sniper” truly was a gritty, but vivid portrayal of a war that was fought both oversees, as well as within one soldier whose name was Chris Kyle…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson