Yesterday, by a fortuitous chance, I happened to turn on the TV and catch the movie "12 Monkeys" at about the halfway point. Even though I was only able to watch it for about 30 minutes, I was struck by how fantastically awesome this movie is. I mean, here I am in the center of this constant shitstorm of "TomKat" and "Bradjelina" updates, losing my faith in humanity, thinking that everyone, everywhere is a shitfuck dumbass, and then something like "12 Monkeys" comes along that encourages me to hold off my complete and utter contempt for the human race for, well, for at least a few hours.
The movie is about a time traveler from a plague-ridden future who everybody thinks is crazy. I happen to like movies and books about crazy people just because crazy people aren't so full of this God-damned self-superior fucking pretension. I mean, under other circumstances (like circumstances where people who are viewed as crazy were seen as normal) crazy people would probably just as big of assholes as everybody else. But because society thinks these people are crazy, and they treat them like shit, and they are excluded and tormented and abused, these people develop some pretty endearing traits. Also, you start to figure out pretty quick that they actually believe in whatever screwed up idea they are expressing because if they didn't why would they put up with all the downside.
People who are willing to suffer for their ideas are cool. It doesn't matter how fucked up the idea is. And the more they're willing to suffer, the cooler they are.
"12 Monkeys" is one of those movies that doesn't rely on stupid melodrama or idiotic special effects or even the big tits of Angelina Jolie to keep audience asses in their respective seats. No, this is a movie that aspires to do the most supremely difficult thing any artistically minded person can attempt, that being, to stimulate you mind. Now, if you are possessed of half a brain, and you know how to use it, a movie like "12 Monkeys" is a tremendous experience that gets you firing synapsis that have gone cold and stale as a result of typical American stimulus. The result is a billion times more captivating that even the best and most destructive Jerry Bruckheimer explosion. But of course, since the world is filled with dumb-fucks, movies like this go completely unappreciated and forgotten.
Even idiotic Roger Ebert only gave "12 Monkeys" three stars, the same as Adam Sandler's "The Longest Yard." Right in his review he admitted that he didn't understand a different film by the same director, Terry Gilliam, called "Brazil" (another great mind fuck of a movie). Of course, he didn't make the connection that because he didn't "get" the movie he is, in fact, a fucking moron. That passed right over his head.
The whole reason that "12 Monkeys" is so good is because it examines the conflict between the danger of figuring out what is really going on, versus just conforming to the idiotic shit that everybody believes. Bruce Willis, who plays Cole the time-traveler, comes back with all this doom and destruction news about the death of five billion people. Of course his psychologist doesn't want to believe it, so she starts telling him that he's delusional and all that, even though he keeps inexplicably disappearing and reappearing with shrapnel from WWI in his leg and things of that nature. Eventually, Cole has this great epiphany, "Wouldn't it be great if I really was crazy?" he says. This happens at about the same time that his psychiatrist decides that he isn't crazy and that the world really is about to end.
Right there you've got this great dynamic because all of a sudden it's her damn burden to save the world while Cole, for a little while at least, wants to believe he's crazy and that all these problems will go away. What kind of comment does that make against the "normal" people who would never even have given Cole's predictions the time of day to begin with? Cole's running around trying to turn himself in because he just doesn't want to face the fact that the world's about to end, and the psychologist is trying to convince him he really does in fact know some things that nobody else in the world does.
The reason I find this whole situation so compelling is that, despite the time-travel element, it applies so strongly to real life. When Charlie Chaplin made a movie denouncing the nazi's in 1936 (I'm fuzzy on the date, but it was before the war, when Hitler was Time's Man of the Year...Indicating that Chaplin was a fucking genius, as if he hadn't provided adequate proof of that already) everybody got on his case and told him what an asshole he was. This is exactly the type of thing that Steven Spielberg would never have done, and it is a billion times more impressive than any other treatment of the Nazi's because it came at a time when, had it been listened to, everything the Nazi's did might have been avoided. Chaplin was predicting the future and everybody was telling him that he was an idiot/crazy person, but then history went and proved him right.
Just about anytime you've got any sort of idea about anything, there will be a massive group of people telling you what a lunatic you are. Everybody wants to believe the whole damn world is lollipops and sunshine and rivers of chocolate. But the reality is that some pretty hard-core crap goes down from time to time, and thought it is in our power to prevent it, the assholes who form the idiotic majority of "normal" people, just don't want to believe that anything might change, or that there is information out there that might completely overturn our perception of reality. They want to believe they have it all figured out and that they can just trot to the end of their lives on "cruise-control."
But damn it, that's just not the fucking case. You never "Arrive" the whole fucking thing about life is that it's a journey and a horrific battle filled with suffering and false accusations. In the midst of all that, the only thing that can give you any sense of stability or purpose is the hope that you are working towards some kind of truth that extends beyond reality as we know it. And even if it looks like you're wasting your life on a false dream, or that you're trading in a certain amount of guaranteed happiness and prestige for torment and embarrassment, shit...the last laugh might be yours.
That's why they say "be true to yourself" although I kind of find that comment to be bullshit from time to time. Most of the people who repeat it don't actually practice it. I guess it all comes down to whether you think that little voice in the center of your mind, or consciousness is your ultimate savior, or a wacko who just wants to get you into trouble.
The answer is that he is both, but you'll be miserable if you don't listen to him. Then again, you'll be miserable if you do, but at least you'll have a purpose.
The End