A Swan? or Shark?
I recently watched ‘Up in the Air’. I totally had no idea what was the movie about prior to watching it. All I heard that it was listed in many nominations in some film awards, hence intrigued me. (Nominated for 6 Oscars. Another 44 wins & 52 nominations… more)
In this movie, Ryan travels around to fire employees, for a living. What amused me though is Ryan’s (George Clooney) speech telling people how to avoid commitment. I think it’s irony that while talking others out of commitments, he himself is actually in a commitment – i.e. his work- though he does love what he’s doing. Having commitment doesn’t necessarily carries negative meanings like, burden or loads. One also gains and learns about love and happiness through commitment. Well, one can’t simply live without any commitment, it seems. Anyway, the speech, aka ‘Backpack Speech’, is featured in the trailer below:
“Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.”
Personally, I believe that human beings are already tied with commitment the moment we were born. We’re obliged to listen to our parents, obey the school, pledge to the country, follow God’s orders. Commitment continues. It’s impossible to have a total freedom in life. In fact, I just can’t imagine if we’re totally free, with no commitments. It’s sure going to be chaotic, guide-less, ground-less. At times we just need the gravity to pull us back to the ground, and perhaps in this movie, it’s a hard knock on the head and eventually made Ryan realise what he wants or rather, needs.
I think I’ll stay as swan. I’ll end this note with this good quotes from the movie, “Life is better with company.” “Everybody needs a co-pilot.”
“And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided.” [3:103]
Entertainment, Review | alaniah April 2, 2010
2 Comments to “A Swan? or Shark?”
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By Mahirah, April 3, 2010 @ 9:50 pm
Salaam Kak! Oooo it does look like a nice movie, but yeah I agree with you, I’d rather stay as a swan, to me to label ourselves as ’sharks’ has a negative connotation to it, being a well-known, well-feared predator of the seas.
The bag analogy is pretty interesting, it’s like the pebbles and sand (I think there’s another item but it escapes me for now) analogy whereby it’s the people in our lives that matters the most. In this case he puts all the materialistic things in our lives at the very bottom of the bag and puts the people in our lives at the very top.
I think it’s contradicting final phrase referring to mankind as sharks. To me, it represents an individualistic, selfish perception of the purpose of life, the concept of “survival of the fittest” whereby one refuses to consider the effect the things he does on other people and is only concentrating on his own well-being, his own survival, something which is quite obviously prevalent in our society now.
Wallahu’alam. Btw I just came across this website of yours, I didn’t know you had one! MasyaAllah… great job sis! =D
Hope to see you again at CLense Session II, InsyaAllah =))
By alaniah, April 3, 2010 @ 10:39 pm
wow! n masya Allah… a great comment by a great sister! thanks so much Mahirah dear, for not only dropping by but also for sharing ur thoughts. Greatly appreciate it! Well, a good analogy u’ve got there. And.. there might be ’sharks’ around, but they just wont survive long being ’shark’, i guess.. they will eventually turn into ’swans’.. hehe.. Yeah, so see u @ CLense II…insya Allah ! : )