Films, Grit and Determination

I just finished watching a film that almost killed me laughing, snuggled into bed, checked Twitter and discovered Finding Nemo was on the trending list.  Idea for a Blog just arrived.  I was in the middle of writing one last night for you all, but it was so tedious I fell asleep in the process.  If I bore myself, I can only imagine what it must do to you all!

I’m something of a filmaholic.  I love films, all types apart from horror which I just zone out of.  I think there is enough horror around the world without having to add extra scenes of gore and monstrosity into the boiling pot.  The film I watched tonight was like my perfect film, with action, comedy, and, of course, a character to fall in love with.

Over the years, and more so in the recent past, people have suggested a film - or a TV series - about our slightly unusual family.  I think it would be great, but I can’t help the niggling thought that the world just aren’t quite ready for us.  By looking at the stats for this site I can tell that a lot of the people who view my blog have already met my family through the realm of cyber space and have been redirected here from A Murder of Crows, our site.  As you may gather from those pages, there is never - and really, I mean never! - a dull moment in this household.

But films and scripts are like everything else that I attempt to discipline myself to.  They are so often started and never completed.  I look through the collection of writings I’ve done and so many that are left unfinished.  Is this the fate of an artist without a muse, or is it - more likely - the sheer lack of grit and determination?  My sister, Judith, is pursuing her film through hell and high water to ensure it gets done.  Our family are an inspiration in continuing to use creativity.  Our house is like a library and one of the most beloved collections of books we have is a set called the Value Tales.  These are an American series that are biographies for children of certain individuals whose life had excelled in some “value”, for example Charles Dickens was The Value of Imagination.  We grew up with these books, I’ve no idea where they came from, but they have always been taken for granted by me, or used to rest writing paper on - they are the perfect size to hold A4 - until now.  My two favourites were the stories of Helen Keller and Louis Pasteur and their values were Determination and Believing in Yourself - not rabies, as I used to believe - and yet of the set, those are the two values I most struggle with.

This made me think back to films.  In this household every Friday night is film night when we all sit down together and watch a film of one person’s choosing.  Depending on the film, we occasionally analyse it afterwards and one comment that was made to me was regarding my need for an explicit hero character, not one of these dark antiheroes, but the proper sweep you off your feet type thing.  I fully expect to get shot down by some of my readers for suggesting this but feminism infinitely dashed the chances of finding these overtly romantic men with its aggressive stance that was so pro-women it became anti-men.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the right to vote and equal pay for jobs but it is my firm belief that, whilst men and women are equal in their rights, they are not equal in every particular.  I certainly hope that when Mr Right finally does appear at my door, he’ll appreciate my choice to be what I want, even if that is a housewife.

So I’m still looking for my hero, perhaps a little too hard.  It could be time for me to take my own advice, to Believe in Myself, like Louis Pasteur, or have Determination, like Helen Keller.  Today, the Twitter site of a certain individual I follow - that is in a Twitter sense, not in a scary stalking way! - gave these words of wisdom:

Today! If you fight all those who wish for you to fail- you'll be too weak to succeed! Work hard & stay focused and you'll outlast them all! 

My initial thought ran something like: “Well, that’s fine for you to say, you’ve got where you wanted.”  Then I reread it, and after flicking through a few web pages full of critics and their reviews of films and books, I realised the value of Believing in Myself and Determination.  Yes, perhaps people will fight against me succeeding and perhaps critics will tear my work apart, but my artistry means so much to me that I will outlast them all.  I’m planning, once again, to take his advice and build upon it - do the same.  If there is something productive worth doing, go for it.  Concentrate on strengthening those values most lacking and no matter what the sceptics or critics say, it will succeed with flying colours!

And watch that film: Triggermen.  Three guesses how I stumbled across it!