Wednesday, May 18, 2016
"I AM" Reaction
In class today, we watched part of a video called "I AM" about the life of Tom Shadyac and his journey of finding out all the good things in life after being in a cycling accident. Not gonna lie, right away I found this video extremely cliche. Here we see an extremely successful, wealthy man that is depressed because his life is materialistic but he's not actually happy, blah blah blah. The same old money doesn't buy happiness. It's hard for me to get into this video because of the message it is giving off right from the beginning. So this guy wasn't happy, fell off his bike, almost died, and now he see's all the good in life. It's just kind of like okay well he was already doing very very well with his life, making movies and making millions and somehow along the way it led to him being depressed. I feel like there's so much more that this video cut's short on. There are so many people struggling in poverty or struggling with domestic abuse or honestly anything more than simply not being happy. It's not so simple for some people to just fall off a bike and see the world differently. I get what this guy is saying about how he "had it all" but still wasn't happy, but it's just cliche, same thing we hear from rich white people all the time. I definitely think it's true that happiness and the ability to enjoy life is all about one's perspective on life and everyone has the ability to set their own destiny, but I just don't think this video can relate to an audience extended beyond the typical unhappy, rich, white people.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I see where you are coming from, however, I think Tom Shadyac is just telling his story. Some people are told "write what you know," and in this case, that is what Shadyac is doing. So I understand that this documentary cuts short of other stories, such as the struggle of poverty, or domestic abuse etc, but that is just because he did not experience those things. Maybe, if he wanted to include different perspectives, he could ask one struggling with poverty what his or her views of money are (does money=happiness..), but I am unsure whether or not that would fit with the purpose of his documentary. Although his personal story is cliche, he also talks about human nature, which I think takes things a step further. He states that "humans are born to be a community, it's the way we are wired." The empathy he claims humans possess can be applied to the entire human species.
ReplyDelete