17 Again, Forever Strong & Amadeus

Drie movies wat ek die afgelope rukkie gekyk het: ‘n teen-erige movie, ‘n Amerikaanse rugby-movie (waar hulle die Haka doen???) en ‘n meesterstuk oor die lewe van die befaamde komponis. Gebalanseerd, huh?

17 Again met Zac Efron en Matthew Perry het my bo verwagting beïndruk. Ou Zac, al lyk hy nou nie regtig meer soos ‘n hoërskoolkind nie, se spel was actually heel skaflik, hoewel ek dit tog sal like om hom in ‘n fliek te sien waar hy nie ‘n basketbal op sy vingerpunte rondtol of dat basketball enigsins in die fliek is nie (Hairspray tel nie). Maar daar was goeie elemente in die fliek en saam met Juno dink ek behoort ‘n mens eers dit vir tieners te wys voordat jy begin praat oor hoërskoolseks en -swangerskappe. Dis snaaks en breek die ys gemaklik sodat gesprek openlik kan volg sonder om geforseerd oor “die daad” of “die bytjies en die blommetjies” te praat. Sal graag wil sien hoe dit werk!

Dan, Forever Strong met Sean Faris: trust die Amerikaners om ‘n ordentlike rugby-fliek te maak voordat ‘n regte rugbyland soos Engeland, Australië of, wel, selfs SA dit doen (Bakgat! was meer ‘n teen movie as ‘n rugbyfliek en Number 10 moes net nooit gebeur het nie!).
Ek het hiervan gehou, omdat dit uiteindelik iets is waarmee SA seuns kan relate. Omdat ek self baie belangstel in die ontwikkeling van rugbyseuns, kyk ek gereeld na goed om te gebruik. Classic voorbeelde is soos Remember The Titans, wat rassisme, spangees en transformasie aanspreek, Gridiron Gang en natuurlik Friday Night Lights (die series) wat menslike issues tussen spanlede hanteer.
Maar nou is daar ‘n rugbymovie, yay! Ook baie oor spangees, realities, pa-seun-verhoudings, attitude…al daai dinge. Iets oor die movie wat ek nie lekker kon kleinkry nie (maar dalk moes ek fyner geluister het), is die konneksie met New Zealand, want daar was baie gemaak van Maori-woorde vir familie en sulke goed. Ook, natuurlik, die plek van die Kiwi’s se HAKA, wat ek vreemd gevind het vir iets wat in Utah, VSA afspeel. Dit was tot ‘n mate lekker om te hoor hoe die Yanks “Ka mate ka mate koro koro!” skree, want wat de hel, maar ek sou net graag ‘n verduideliking wou kry vir die link. Niks fout daarmee nie, ek het dit net nie gevang nie. Maar, soos die een girl tereg opgemerk het: “Die Amerikaners wat daarna sou kyk, sou dit nie eens agtergekom het nie.” True.
Maar, ‘n goeie movie. Sal dit baie graag saam met die rugbyseuns wil kyk. Die gesprekke daarna behoort awesome te wees. Ook omdat dit waardes soos respek vir jou span en abstinence van slegte gewoontes soos drinkery en drugs en hoërskoolseks voorhou. Dankie aan die producers!

En dan: AMADEUS.
Nou, ek wou al lankal na hierdie fliek van Milos Forman kyk omdat dit so hoog aangeslaan word en oor die naweek het ek die Director’s Cut teen R80 raakgeloop en dit aangeskaf. What a movie! Ek dink, aan die een kant, ly ek nog steeds ‘n bietjie aan bomskok. Want hoe baie van ons is nie maar soos Salieri nie, wat ons lewens devote om reg te leef, en die gebed dat ons met talente geseën gaan word, maar dat dit dan nie regtig gebeur nie? Ek dink dit het te make met ons modernistiese/post-modernistiese wêrelduitkyk van : “You’ll get what is coming to you”, “what goes around, comes around”, “wat jy saai sal (of eerder, MOET) jy maai”…ons leef in die ding van dat ons moet kry wat ons verdien. As jy ‘goed’ leef, verdien jy ‘goeie dinge’. As jy ‘sleg’ leef, verdien jy ‘slegte dinge’. Ons vra dikwels die vraag: “Why does bad things happen to good people?” Terwyl ons dit ook kan omdraai en vra: “Why does good things happen to bad people?” !
Maar talente en seëninge werk nie volgens ‘n prestasiekalender nie. Op die ou einde moet jy die beste maak met dit wat jy gekry het, sonder om jaloers te wees op dit wat ander bereik het. Natuurlik kan jy daaruit leer, ja, maar jou jaloesie op hul geseëndheid moenie die oorhand kry nie. Makliker gesê as gedaan, of hoe? 😉
Terloops, ek dink ook nie Salieri was so opreg in sy gebed dat hy “net saam met God in Sy glorie wil deel deur die musiek wat hy vir Hom wil maak” nie. Ek sê nie dit is die rede dat hy nie so geseënd soos Mozart was nie, maar ek dink nie ons moet ooit probeer om in God se glorie te deel nie. Dis kind-of Syne alleen…gebruik jy net die talente wat hy vir jou gegee het ten volle en los Hom om jou te bless op Sy tyd en op Sy manier. Sy glorie is Syne…

Laastens: is Hollywood opreg besig om hulle morele wortels te ontgin, of spring hulle net op ‘n bandwagon wat deur flieks soos Fireproof gedryf word? 17 Again promote abstinence, Forever Strong sê dis sleg om te drink en te rook as jy sport speel en Ghosts of Girlfriends Past het ‘n ding teen om met girls te mors. What is up?

Theology and Friday Night Lights: season 2 episode #05

“I sin daily and I’m a better Christian than you, Garrity…”
Being there, together, with the people that needs us – that is one of the practical implications of Christianity that emerges in this episode of Friday Night Lights. Riggins and Layla want to stage an intervention to get Jason Street to forget the whole stemcell-surgery. He would have been implanted with shark-DNA! Craaazyyy. But she is reluctant at first and after Riggins threw her that line, she reconsiders. Looks like, so far, she is taking her recent conversion seriously.

So she agrees to the booze cruise Tim suggested, albeit reluctantly at first…the ends we will go to for the people we care about needs to be extreme sometimes!
At the eventual intervention, Layla and Tim tells Jason that they don’t want him to have the surgery, to which he responds with the expected rage and “you don’t know what I’m going through”-type attitude and comments. The Layla in her over-eagerness tries the religious take: “God has a reason for everything that happens to you.”
Jason: “God and I aren’t exactly friends ever since He decided to break my neck.”
Layla: “Okay, fine, you don’t want religion? How ‘bout this is a stupid idea and you’re being an idiot!”
Jason: “Maybe I’ll just let some Jesus freak dump my head under the water and wash all my troubles away. It’s that easy, right?”
Which, of course, it isn’t.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt… So Tim Riggins resorts to giving Jason the cold, hard facts: Best case scenario, he loses 10 grand. Worst case scenario, he ends up dead. He loves him and will knock him down and drag him back to Dillon if he needs to.
So Jason jumps overboard…and after it looks like he’s gonna drown, he starts swimming! With the realization of hope dawning on his face, he swims joufully to the shore. There his friends meet him and he apologizes to them, saying that he’s not having the stemcell surgery anymore. Maybe his realization that his life is not necessarily over when he figured out that he is able to swim got him thinking that God still has a purpose for him after all…
As they go back to the hotel, they pass the Jesus-statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro or San Something (are there more than one of those statues?) and Riggins suggests they go for a drink first “unless it’s against your religion, Garrity.”
Layla: “Yeah, that’s funny, Tim.”
So at the beach pub she kisses them both whilst dancing with them both (apparently quirky threesomes with paralyzed guys and line backers are not against the rules of Christianity or something…) Realizing what she has done/is doing, she says: “I gotta go pray.” And she walks off. Mmmm. Looks like old habits die hard…

We may come to a dead end place in our lives and then we start grabbing for straws, thinking that maybe it will change everything back to the way it was. But things will never be the same as before, no matter what we do. We gotta go forward. Life is not a Turning Back-business. It is a Going Forward-business, where we have to decide what to do now, how to handle life from now on. We might make mistakes again, but that’s okay – as long as we keep on going (remember Dory from Finding Nemo? “Just keep swimming!”). We can’t change things back to the way they were. But we can find new ways to define ourselves in life, to make our lives better from here on.

Another thing: when we enter into an intervention with a person, it is not wise to “pull Christianity” while such a person is not acceptible to it, especially a situation like that on the boat. Layla probably is not far off – I, too, think that God can use us in any state we are, and that He has a purpose for our lives, but you need to read the situation correctly. Don’t try to bring a message of hope while you are confronting a person, you will only infuriate them more. Calm him/her down first, get them to think straight and then witness about hope/peace/love/faith. It is difficult for us to actually agree to the whole “purpose of life”-thing when we can’t see past our problems, but when we are comforted and when we feel loved, then we can start to, little by tiresome little, gnaw our way back to hoping again.

Other stuff that happened in this episode: Coach Taylor’s “taking care of his wife” because now he’s back and like a normal man he wants to have some “together time” with his wife…nice! But aaawww, Tammy’s not ready yet after her pregnancy. So after some incidental advice from another coach he sends her on a girl’s night out, hoping that she will come home and he can take advantage of her relaxing. Turns out, all the other women knew that men do this – and she is still not ready yet.

Landry’s lies (to his very supporting father) are twisting him further down, and his father is calling it – so he forbids Tyra to hang out with his son: “I won’t let you drag him down with whatever it is you are involved with.”

Inspirational winning quote during half time in the Panther Locker Room: Landry’s bit about winnig together or losing alone to which Coach responds: “Clear eyes, full hearts…”
Team: “CAN”T LOSE!”
Apparently Landry is quite a tackler and after a huge hit on one of the opponents, Smash and Saracen want in so bad (they’ve been benched because they have been fighting the past few weeks continuously) that they “decide to kiss and make up”, resulting in them playing in the very last play of the game. At first, Landry gets hit and they lose the ball as the final whistle blows, but then the touch judge calls a fowl, so they get another chance in the end zone and the game ends with Smash making the touch down, causing the Panthers and Coach Taylor to win his first game back.

So at the after party Tyra ends it with Landry, according to his father’s wishes, but she is obviously unable to tell him the truth why, so she lies to him about it and she sucks when she does it: “Did you ever think in a million years if that didn’t happen that we would end up together? Take a look in the mirror. I don’t know what I was thinking with you. This is over.”
Eish. Because Landry, the New Kid on the Block in Football Hero Town, is not an oil painting. Stardom means nothing when your girl dumps you because your father doesn’t like her.

Brownie points to Saracen for telling Julie (who came crawling back to him after they broke up and asking him to a concert, to which he at first agrees) straight that he is still pissed off at her for cheating on him and lying about it. Something all of us men should do when our exes come crawling back. At the Republiek van Kollegetehuis we have the Squash-ball Theory: “The harder you hit them, the fatser they come back to you.” Saracen seems to understand that.

Brownie points to the producers too for not treating Christianity like an easy answer with prayer as some sort of magic spell. It contains far more than that. I’m really looking forward to see what they’re gonna do with it.

And finally, Coach gets lucky after the game when his wife asks him if he wants to fool around.
Coach: “Do you want to?”
Tammy: “Yeah.”
So he responds appropriately…