|
You are all so generous, and I often join you, but here's where I get stuck:
We are alone in the universe.
Without a God coming down and explaining every solitary mystery of existence, we're on our own. We have nothing to guide us except human wisdom.
The good news is human wisdom has been collected in art, philosophy and religion (three sides of the same die, in a way).
As such, an excellent but pointless bit of entertainment loses points next to the film that helps us negotiate our way through the universe.
AND/OR
What does it mean to be human?
Here, the sciences are welcome to lend a hand, and we appreciate it. But science can take us only so far. We require the humanities to help us fill out the picture if we are interested in fully answering the question.
Again, a film that delivers solid thrills and chuckles can't compete with a film that helps us work out the answer to our most fundamental question.
-----
So I like the idea that DIE HARD is a five-star movie (let's say) and so is Bergman's PERSONA.
But I hope you can see that it isn't just snobbery that makes me revere one and not the other.
---
(But we can't investigate the deeper questions constantly, so a few days ago I spent a fragment of my finite time on earth watching EXPENDABLES II and laughing my head off.)
|