Before anyone begins to read this blog, I have to warn you that I compare it to the new movie, Reign Over Me. If you plan on seeing this movie, you may not want to read this blog.
I wasn't really sure what I was going to write about in my blog this week. Last night I saw Reign Over Me and immediately saw a comparison to A Streetcar Named Desire. Although the two story lines have completely different settings and circumstances, a similar theme exists. In Streetcar, Blanche tells numerous lies and embellishes many stories. The reason for this is that Blanche doesn't want to face the truth. She'd rather live in a fantasy world than in her real life. By telling these lies, Blanche is creating her own imaginary world, where she can pretend certain things don't exist. In Reign Over Me, Adam Sandler's character, Charlie, has lost his wife and 3 daughters in 9/11. He creates a pretend world for himself as well. He blocks memories of his family and memories prior to 9/11. He buries himself in remodeling his kitchen (several times a month) and video games, so that he has removed himself from his previously normal life. He doesn't even recognize his college roommate, Allen, when he runs into him on the street.
In Streetcar, Stanley tries to bring Blanche back to reality. However, some may believe that he does it in a cruel manner. He knows that Blanche has created a web of lies and he tries to get her caught in her own web. In the end, Blanche is forced to face reality, no matter how hard she wants to hide from it. Reign Over Me takes a different approach. Allen knows that Charlie needs help. Whenever Allen brings up a topic regarding Charlie's family or previous dental career, Charlie goes ballistic. He throws tantrums and mentally shuts down. However, Allen refuses to give up on Charlie. Instead of ruining the fantasy world that Charlie has created for himself, Allen lets Charlie slowly integrate reality.
Both stories show that if you are willing to, you can shut your mind off to anything. If you tell yourself a lie for long enough, you will eventually learn to believe it and live by it. However, facing reality can be hard when you've lived in a fantasy world for so long.
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2 comments:
I never saw this movie but it sounds interesting. I do have to agree with you Stanley was the one to cut the cake with Blance and tell her the truth about the way she has been. But this was not the right way it was actually cruel of him to do. And the fact that he raoed her was awful but the worst part was that he got away with it.
I haven't seen Reign Over Me yet, but you don't ruin the movie I want to see it more now that you talked about in your blog. I know what you mean though. People live in their fanasty words and don't want to see the truth and unfortuatly it hurts them and the people a round them. Stanley's way of bringing Blanche back was a little mean, he almost seems to enjoy when her world crumbles. Where as Allen wants his friend to be able to survie and move on with his life and knows he has to bring him back slowly.
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