The Land of Make Believe

"It's too real! I come to movies to escape real life!"

For those who haven't seen "Unforgiven", it's one of those movies that everybody wears "Grey" hats as black and white blend together. There's no definite bad guy, or good guy- everybody has their problems. There is no Peter Pan playing a grand hero, no Captain Hook playing a despicable bad guy. (Or Picard versus the Borg, but that's another story.) From a brutal sheriff to a gunman/thief; everybody has a side to them that tarnishes their image.

It is a gritty, dark movie. Much like other movies like "Boyz 'n the 'Hood" and "Rush"; all we end up with is a lot of confusion. "Yes the Good Guys won- I think."

Yes, we travel to our Lands of Make Believe to escape reality; it is very pleasant to sit down and watch the Enterprise journeying among the unknown, to watch Cinderella meet her Prince; to watch the Lone Ranger, or Zorro, or King Arthur, or Robin Hood, or any other hero beating the bad guy and saving the World. Or Universe, depending how big a hero you are.

But, as is frequently discovered by both the audience and award-winning writers and directors, often the Land of Make Believe is the perfect warped mirror to reflect our reality. And it forces us to acknowledge reality. We're stuck in our movie seats for the most part- unless you like stumbling over people in the dark. And, in many cases, the images we see are vivid, emphatic, making us watch. "Apocalypse Now" forces us to watch as the 1st Air Cavalry descends with a whirlwind of fire and destruction to the sounds of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". "JFK" forces us to watch as the bullet slams horribly into the head of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, President of the United States. And we watch. Again and again and again. But do we understand what it means, what it could mean?

A Land of Make Believe, done properly, can show us the dark sides that we hide away, that we pretend don't exist. The sides that we must acknowledge if we are to control them, master them properly.

It is nice to travel to our respective Lands, to see life pass by in a predictable, triumphant way, where Good wins, Bad loses, and True Love exists. A land of noble knights, beautiful princesses, kingdoms to be defended and evil to be defeated. It is nice to be able to play on our playgrounds, fly through our galaxies, hunt the Red October, and sit down and watch the community access cable channel.

But we must not forget what a valuable mirror a movie can offer- if we sit down and watch all the grey hats go by. Indeed, sometimes we forget that the world is grey; and it takes movies like "Unforgiven" to remind us.