#UsGuys - "What Don't We Learn from the Movies" #UsBlogs Article Series

#UsBlogs Weekly Article Series. Week 4 Theme in honor of the 83rd Academy Awards is What We Learn from the Movies.

Middler year in college, I took my first screenwriting workshop. My professor said early in the course that people go to the movies for two reasons:

1. To be entertained
2. To learn something

I had not till then considered the validity of the second reason. Entertainment factor had been my sole criteria when judging the worth of a movie. I had absorbed the "TV Rots Your Brain" attitude and had tried to believe that if you really wanted to learn something you had to go to books, go to class or pay attention in real life to what was going on. That movies were mind candy, for relaxation, for a laugh or a cry. A mindless activity.

But I've since turned this position over in my mind, have changed my thinking and attitude. For I was not being very truthful with myself. To believe a significant amount of learning does not take place when watching a movie is self-deception that precludes a great opportunity for personal growth. Learning is in fact a value that folks maintain in their movie-going, consciously or subconsciously.

A Synopsis and Recommendation for UNTHINKABLE (2010)

Wasn't a well publicized movie, but I will not be surprised to see Unthinkable rise out of the ashes of obscurity in the months ahead.  Between Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Sheen, there is enough real dramatic tension to merit Oscar nominations.

But don't wait until this years nominees are announced to experience the dramatic thrill that Unthinkable puts you through.  Watch it now, if you'd like, on a free Stream

Synopsis

Michael Sheen plays Steven Arthur Younger (a.k.a. Jousef atta Mohammad), ex-army special forces and convert to Islam.  He is a U.S. Citizen and by his own account a patriot.  He is also a domestic terrorist in control of three nuclear bombs.

Samuel L. Jackson plays Henry Harold Humphries (a.k.a. "H")  H is also ex-army, a former master sergeant expert interrogator.  He is now contracted by any agency or department of the intelligence community for one purpose only, to get vital information out of prisoners of war by any means necessary, including those that are unthinkable.

Carrie Anne-Moss plays Agent Helen Brodie, an FBI Agent heading up one of the Bureau's investigation of the alleged threats made by Younger that he has 3 nuclear bombs which he plans to detonate on U.S. soil.  Her mission is to find the bombs, but that mission starts to creep the more she witnesses H's interrogation practices.

The plot is perfect and, aside from Moss, the acting is superb.  As the story moves through plot
points, H and Brody take on symbolic roles and become father and mother figures of us all as the question is put us, how far can the government rightly transgress against the body of an individual citizen on behalf of the whole, and even if it is wrong should the transgression still be done.  War is so often seen as large bodies of men and women fighting large bodies.  To my knowledge, never has a war movie been about one nation fighting one man.

Hollywood churns out war movies as often as any other genre, and we are always happy to witness a unique perspective over well-worn territory.  Unthinkable (2010) carries that unique look into war and war crimes.  You will ask yourself many questions when watching this film.  Do not judge yourself too harshly by your answers though---these questions are unthinkable.

I do not aim to achieve a glowing review in this writing.  I think the story stands for itself,  but I do however write now a glowing recommendation that you find 90 minutes to be astounded.  We are not unlike these people.  And we may at anytime become subject to similar necessity, to make such absurdly unthinkable choices and somehow afterward find the strength to live by them.