How Film Can Change Your Perspective
Every time I sit down to watch a movie, I have to be in the right mood for that movie. It’s like picking from a large buffet and not knowing where to start. Recently my husband and I have decided we’d go through all the Oscar-winning movies, because they had to have won an Oscar for a reason. We had a hard weekend with some family dynamics, and we knew we had to watch a movie that would have great depth and that would put our lives into perspective. So we chose a historical drama called Schindler’s List.
Schindler’s List will quickly put your life into perspective and give you so much gratitude about having free speech and religious freedom in America. Historical dramas are my favorite style of film because they often highlight unsung heroes that viewers would never know about unless a film was made about them. In this particular movie, Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson), was a successful businessman who saved over a thousand people in the Holocaust. The movie is beautifully shot—with the most amazing acting you’ll ever see in a film— and is about the plight of the Jews during World War II. When watching such a tragedy, it will quickly cause your own gratitude list to go through the roof about having personal safety and family all around.
I have dreams of making movies that have such impact, and I hope that one day I can make my own historical drama that will help people put their lives into perspective as well. As for now, I will continue to appreciate the greats like Steven Spielberg, who directed Schindler’s List; Bernardo Bertolucci, who directed The Last Emperor; James Cameron, director of Titanic; Michael Mann, director of The Last of the Mohicans; Mel Gibson, director of Braveheart; Ang Lee, director of Sense and Sensibility; Joe Wright, director of Pride & Prejudice; Edward Zwick, director of Glory; and Sophia Coppola, director of Marie Antoinette. Also one of my favorite directors, who’s no longer with us, and who also directed me in Dallas Buyers Club, Jean-Marc Vallée. He directed one of my favorite historical dramas called The Young Victoria in 2009. I’ll continue to study all these great directors with determination to find my piece of history that must be time-capsuled forever in film.