July/August 2006
Editorial

Soul-stirring movies

By RAVI DYKEMA

Twenty three years ago a farmer in Northern Illinois, near where I lived, imported sand to create a “beach” on a field, complete with seashells, a boat wreck and a sign warning, “Swim at your own risk.” He called it “Midwest Coast.” And it was part of his plan to save his family farm. John Peterson created artistic events that drew people from all around to celebrate solstices, equinoxes, and holidays with music, poetry, films, and new games. He invited people to live on his farm and use the renovated hayloft to create art. I sent my one staff writer to do a cover story for my new magazine in Madison. It ran in the second issue of Attunement, April, 1982.

Fast forward to 2006 and this quirky soulful new-age farmer stars in a movie, The Real Dirt on Farmer John, one you’ve got to see! (I did. It’s great. See our review, following.) It will soon appear in area theaters. Watch for show times in local papers.
But Farmer John isn’t alone. Dan Millman wrote a now-famous book in 1984 called The Way of the Peaceful Warrior. Now it too is a movie starring Nick Nolte and Scott Mechlowicz. (See my interview with Dan Millman)

Two other remarkable movies are in theaters now or will be soon, and are reviewed here. Illusion, starring Kirk Douglas, and The Celestine Prophecy Movie.

To celebrate this wonderful cinematic trend, we are inaugurating our new media column here with reviews of these four great movies, by our newest columnist, Amber Terrell. Watch for her reviews of movies, music and books in future issues. Welcome Amber!

Movies That Ask the Primordial Questions
BY AMBER TERRELL

Two hundred thousand years ago, storytellers huddled near the warmth of a prehistoric fire weaving tales of myth and magic as the light flickered across eager listening faces. These stories probably served many purposes—to gather at day’s end, to answer questions about the stars and sun and moon, to give meaning to the cycle of birth and death, to instruct in the ways of courage and strength, to record the history of a people—and perhaps, even then, to simply entertain.

It is interesting that this electronic age still finds us huddled together in the evening—in movie theatres and around our plasma screens—with story-laden light still flickering across our eager faces. We humans have been in love with the magic of storytelling from way back. But what have our movies been offering? An escape? A romantic fantasy? A way to be moved, or feel scared, or to be thrilled?

At the core of the human psyche there have always lurked these primordial questions—Who am I? What happens after death? Does true love really exist? What is courage?

It is not surprising that the greatest and most memorable literature of any culture has always faced unflinchingly these very questions.

We are happy to inform you that a flood of new movies boldly explore these timeless, universal inquiries in both new and ancient ways. The intent of this new column is to keep you informed of these superb releases as they approach your theatres, and to keep you posted on what’s to come. Stay tuned for news on the best movies and, in future columns, books and music.

Peaceful Warrior
Cocky college gymnast Dan Millman is in training for the Olympic qualifiers. (See our interview with the real Dan Millman) He’s quite sure about his chances of getting through. And why shouldn’t he be? He trains seven days a week, gets straight As, has a rich father, great friends, and any girl he wants.

So why can’t he sleep at night? Why does he wake in a cold sweat with nightmares about his leg shattering during a dismount?

One sleepless night he takes leave of the girl in his bed while he jogs down to an all-night gas station for a snack. He is only mildly disturbed when the old man who runs the station happens to be wearing the same mismatched pair of shoes as the old janitor who sweeps up the fragments of his leg in the nightmares.

Dan remains cool, makes a sarcastic comment about the shoes, then walks away. But as he turns to glance back at the attendant, he sees the old man standing on the roof of the gas station, 15 feet up. His curiosity about the strange incident compels him to return to the gas station the following night.

“How the hell did you do that?” he demands from the old man. “There’s a lot you’d need to know before you could understand what you saw,” the old man replies while tinkering with a carburetor. “I know more than you think,” says Dan, dubbing the old man Socrates in sarcasm. “You think more than you know,” Socrates responds with a strange authority. “Knowledge is not the same as wisdom.” From that moment on, an intense relationship with Socrates begins that will lead Dan into a heart-pounding transformation and change his life forever.

And it could very well change yours too, if you dare to “stop gathering information from outside yourself and start looking for it inside yourself.” For this is the kind of movie that points you back toward yourself. Not yourself as story or history or future, but yourself as timeless essence, utterly complete in this very moment.

The movie is based on Millman’s best selling book, The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior, and stars Nick Nolte as the enigmatic Socrates. Scott Mechlowicz, (EuroTrip, Mean Creek) portrays Dan Millman with a best-ever performance.
Even the musical score gets high marks as it weaves intimately into the story, taking each scene to a deeper level. Destined to be a classic of the first order, this is a must-see for anyone interested in self-discovery or simply an unforgettable movie experience.

Scheduled for release June 23, it gets a PG-13 rating for mild sexuality and language.
Says Socrates, “There are no ordinary moments.” And this is no ordinary movie.

Illusion
Are we cast in a role, playing out patterns that were pre-programmed in our script? Is life a movie that has its brief run and then is put in the can and shelved forever? These are some of the questions raised in the provocative new Kirk Douglas film, Illusion.

A brilliant film director, Donald Baines (Kirk Douglas) lies propped up in bed, dying. Cancer and old age have stripped him of most of life’s pleasures, like walking and smoking, but he can still watch the movies he has sacrificed his life to create, and he can still order his staff around as they attend to his many needs. But other than that, Donald Baines is a pretty lonely man who lived by a rigorous schedule into which love and relationship did not fit.

He has no family, other than a bastard son begotten in a moment of casual lust, a son he has only glimpsed once 30 years before when his mother showed up attempting to dump the kid on his doorstep.

Now on his deathbed, Donald wonders how his son’s life may have unfolded. As he ponders this and other regrets, Donald is startled by a young man who appears at his bedside. “Who are you? How did you get in here?” he demands harshly. But before the mystery man can answer, Donald recognizes him as Stan, a favorite film editor who used to work for him years ago. They talk of old times for a moment until Donald remembers that Stan died in an accident more than 30 years before.

Suddenly transported to an old movie house, the old director is mysteriously granted a viewing of three segments from his son’s life. As he witnesses the heart-wrenching effects of his absence in that life, Donald has the rare opportunity to rethink the meaning of death, life, and love.

Based on Pierre Corneille’s 17th century play L’Illusion Comique, the film Illusion is brought deftly to the screen by Michael Goorjian, who both directs and plays the leading role of the son, Christopher, at all three stages of his life. Kirk Douglas is amazing, moving and painfully believable. At 88 years old, his speech is occasionally hard to understand, but that is the role he is playing, so it is worth the strain to hear him.

While a few elements of the Christopher episodes do not quite hang together, these are small flaws in an otherwise poignant, powerful and uniquely unpredictable love story––not just boy-girl, or father-son, but a commentary on love itself that leaves you breathless in the end.

Are we just a brief flicker on the screen in the dark? Is life illusion or is it love? See the movie before you decide.
Coincidentally, the movie opens and closes with a depiction of the akashic record, which we will cover in our Journeys to Healing column in the next issue.

The Real Dirt on Farmer John
John Peterson was raised on a dairy farm in Northern Illinois in the early 1950s. It was a time when neighbors came together to raise each other’s barns and feed each other’s kids, an idyllic America that has all but ceased to exist. “Back then, I thought the whole world was a farm,” John recalls.

A genuine American journey with footage composed of real-life shots, filmed mostly by John’s mother Anna with a Super 8, The Real Dirt on Farmer John captures with naked clarity those early years on the farm, where we see young John being reared with the earth flowing in his veins.

On one level, this film is a love story about a farm, the land and a life that was honed and destined to grow things. Like all love stories, it has its romantic and its tragic elements. But on a deeper level, it is a story of personal anguish, transformation and passionate expression.

Eventually founding and operating a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) project, Angelic Organics, we get to watch as John faces his demons and embraces his love, finally bringing the land, the people, and the food together in a thrilling harmonic convergence.

Winner of 18 awards, this documentary will make you laugh and cry and keep your heart-felt attention to the last moment.

Celestine Prophecy
Ancient scrolls are discovered in a remote village in Peru that tell of an impending evolutionary shift in human consciousness. John Woodson, a grade-school history teacher, is mysteriously drawn to Peru in search of the scrolls and certain “insights” that they reportedly reveal. The Celestine Prophecy, based on James Redfield’s book of the same name, begins like a heart-pounding adventure movie, reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but soon unfolds as a message-movie about the use of power and energy and the possibility of finding within ourselves what historically has been sought on the outside.

As an independent, medium-budget film, touching on questions of consciousness and the subtle energetic component of human relationship, the project is a good effort with many pluses, though not without flaws in story and execution. Fine performances from Sarah Wayne Callies (Tarzan), Elizabeth Gish (X-Files) and Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong) lend veracity to a difficult script.

In spite of superficial imperfections, however, the film does contain at its depth a hidden gem, like a pool lying still beneath the obvious storyline, offering the possibility of a deeper self-reflection to those who come to it with an open, receptive heart and mind.

Amber Terrell is the author of the book Surprised by Grace, A Journey Beyond Personal Enlightenment, and two music CDs, Awakened From A Dream, and In The Heart Of All Being. She has a B.A. in Philosophy and an MA in Education, teaches at Front Range Community College, and gives talks on Self-Discovery in the Boulder Area. www.truelightmusic.com.