Best Movies Revealing the Mystery? - the Shack is Amazing! Show your Favorite Here

a reply to: DayAfterTomorrow

Upstream color is actually about two individuals who are victims of mind control and find one another and help one another escape the "program." I really liked it and highly recommend it. But it is not about God.

Also Vonnegut was maybe the first author I fell in love with, cats cradle though. And slapstick. So friggen weird and good... even the short stories. @the Slaughterhouse 5 mention... might have to watch that movie now.

The Shack looks good, too.

The problem with films like these is that they are like strawman arguments, in which a scenario is imaginatively built and a drama played out, simply to provide a positive or optimistic slant on belief systems. Like all the sacred books that have ever existed, they are man-made and are about as divine as the story of Hansel and Gretel. In other words, they are not factual, but fictitious narratives that evangelise a belief system, and seek to appeal to fearful superstition for their power.

Personally, I think to hold a belief in something without there being any evidence of it is wholly irrational. Educated minds should not fall for it.

originally posted by: geezlouise
a reply to: DayAfterTomorrow

Upstream color is actually about two individuals who are victims of mind control and find one another and help one another escape the "program." I really liked it and highly recommend it. But it is not about God.

I found it more to do with the nature of consciousness and life cycles, how everything has an effect on everything else. It has almost no narrative as such, more metaphor, like an abstract painting in film and sound conveying these abstract ideas, which are more "felt" than "intellectually understood".

a reply to: Ruiner1978

That's nice and all but I thought it was pretty straight forward about the production of a popular street drug, in which a specific flower/plant is needed, but in order to grow that specific plant... the connection between human and pig must be made (a mind control situation) and the dead bodies of those particular pigs babies is used to grow those special plants. There's definitely a sense of interconnectedness going on, but it wasn't exactly abstract to me. More like a labyrinth, mirroring the labyrinth of the mind control that happened. The two individuals that got involved had to figure out the maze in order to escape.

a reply to: geezlouise

You've made up your own narrative for the film. If that's how you best make sense of it, that's fine.

I think you missed the point of it though.
Like I said, more felt than understood...

Does Drop Dead Fred count?

In my interpretation, Drop Dead Fred (played by the amazing but sadly late Rik Mayall) symbolises religion, the imaginary friend, which can help you cope with abuse and things missing from your life. However, it is ultimately destructive and makes you crazy. Once you learn to stand on your own two feet, and stand up to those who oppress you, you no longer need that imaginary friend and can get on with your life with a greater degree of normality.

It's a silly film, but it's really good.

a reply to: Ruiner1978

It's been awhile since I've watched it and I only watched it once. Also it is possible that I'm confusing it for another movie. But in it, there is a woman who falls victim to a man who cleans out her bank account via hypnotism and mind control, then afterwards she has memories of being in a trailer and having some kind of surgery next to a pig. During her memory coming back, she meets a man on a train... who later finds out that he had a similar experience. Their lives are strangely ruined but together they put all the pieces together and figure out what has happened... am I correct? In the end they take over the pig farm, and stop the growth of that specific plant needed to make the street drug (in fact was it the drug used to help aid the hypnosis of the victims who were robbed?). TBH I watched this movie many years ago but clearly it made an impression on me and I apologize if I have offended you.

Dude I'm sorry to say it but I was spot on. I just looked it up.

en.m.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: geezlouise

Yes it's the same film.
No one's offended. I'm just saying you're not seeing the deeper meaning the film is trying to convey.

The writer/director is even quoted saying in the link you provided:
"I don't believe that narrative works when it's trying to teach a lesson, or speak a factual truth. What it's good for is, an exploration of something that's commonplace and universal — maybe that's where the truth comes from."


It's not just simply about "two victims of mind control". That's not the plot, it's a film device to get something else across, which the film does fantastically.