Why I started watching a lot of movies and what you can learn from them

What’s your favorite aspect of a movie? Is it the message? The acting? The special effects? The camera work? The general plot? A plot twist? All are valid opinions, but what about the fact that movies are a couple hours where you can just forget everything and get lost in a story whose path and ending is completely unknown? What if your favorite aspect of a movie is simply the fact that you’re watching a movie?

I don’t watch a whole lot of movies or TV. Typically, if I’m devoting hours to the television, it’s just to watch sports. But this summer, a few things happened. The first is that I worked a three-month internship living away from my family and realized that being an adult and working a real job is tough. The second is that my former coworker and good friend, Zack Browne, watches way too many movies. Over the course of the summer, he recommended so many movies and TV shows to me that I couldn’t even watch them all if I spent the rest of my life doing so. Lastly, my knee was really bothering me after I ran Grandma’s Marathon in June, so I had more time to kill since I couldn’t run. As a result, I started watching a lot of movies.

The first movie I watched this summer that really had me hooked was Doctor Strange. But I’ll be honest: when my roommates first suggested we watch it, I thought it sounded like an overhyped Marvel movie produced solely to heap more money into Disney’s lap. However, *spoiler alert*, I found it to be a gripping and moving cinema that culminated with an arduous internal conflict for Doctor Stephen Strange: return to his former life of luxury as a medical revolutionary, or give up everything to become the Sorcerer Supreme and protect Earth from the Universe’s darkest powers. Sounds pretty interesting, right?

After watching a fair amount of movies and reading a few books this summer, I’ve come to appreciate these art forms so much more. I left out TV shows because there’s no finite ending; there’s (almost always) another episode. Movies and books start and end definitively, providing watchers and readers with an opportunity to sit back and ask themselves: “What was the meaning of that?”

And the beauty of that question? There’s never a right or wrong answer. In fact, the answer to that question is determined solely by the consumer itself. You decide what you learn from each story; its message can be interpreted in an infinite number of ways. So, you might be wondering, what’s my main takeaway from Doctor Strange?

In life, you’re going to be faced with some really tough decisions. It’s unlikely you’ll have to choose between making millions as an esteemed surgeon or sacrificing everything to save the world, but you might have the opportunity to give up something for the benefit of others. So, will you?

In my first post, I referenced Signs by M. Night Shyamalan. If you read that post, I explained that my takeaway from that movie is that there are no coincidences: everything happens for a reason (you can learn something from every situation), and you can take control of your life by setting goals and maintaining commitment towards them. Recently, I watched another M. Night movie, The Sixth Sense, which (warning, another spoiler) is about an award-winning child psychologist, Malcolm Crowe, who couldn’t help one specific patient named Vincent. The first scene of the movie involves Malcolm getting shot by Vincent, who then turns the gun on himself.

Malcolm then helps another young boy, Cole, who sees dead people that want him to help them do things on Earth that they cannot. At the end of the movie, you find out that Malcolm actually was killed by Vincent, and he was helping Cole as a ghost of himself. So, what’s my takeaway from this movie?

Situations, like movies and books, can be interpreted in any number of ways. Malcolm could have left Cole alone to spend time with his wife or even manipulated him into assisting him. Instead, he helped Cole overcome his fear of these ghosts, and doing so made him feel so alive that he didn’t know he was dead.

I think Doctor Strange chose to become the Sorcerer Supreme because he knew it was right, but also because doing what was right made him feel more alive than being a wealthy surgeon who was a real jerk.

Like movies and books, this post also has a finite ending. So, what’s the message I’m trying to send? Am I saying that you should watch more movies? Or that every movie has a message you can learn from? Or is it that doing the right thing makes you feel more alive? Maybe it's something completely different.

It’s up to your interpretation.