Do The Right Thing, At The Wrong Time – Good VS Evil In Film (Cross Talk Ep. 26)

 

What is the true meaning of good? And what is meaning of evil?

People have been trying to demonstrate the qualities of these diametrically opposed concepts for millennia now. And so many different art forms try to describe the ideas as best they can, digging into the details and pulling out some great notions of what each means, and more importantly, their effects on life.

If we were to look at a text-book definition of good, there are a number of aspects to filter in. For instance, the need to be desired or approved of while having the desired qualities of a higher standard. The word sacrifice is commonly featured over and over too. Ultimately this all stems from a sense of empathy, benevolence, selflessness and going beyond the superficial aspects of life to find humanity at every turn.

That altruism is so very necessary in corner of good when looking at the battle of good versus evil.

Evil is that much more simple. If something is profoundly immoral and wicked, often represented by or directly embodying a force of harm and undesirable outcomes. People who are evil lack empathy, acting upon their own needs and desires about all else. To be selfish in this way prevents real connections, and often leads to the suffering of many, for the wishes of the few. An inability to see the world from another perspective can be attributed to evil, but in many cases, the conscious disregard of others is all the more sickening.

As always on Cross Talk, there are many fantastic examples of good versus evil in film, but we decided to dive into more details on less obvious examples. We did this to really hammer home the idea that some themes defy genre, that science fiction, horror and drama can address this just as easily as an action-adventure flick.

This is episode 26 of Cross Talk. This is good versus evil, as represented in film.

 

Not sure if you can tell from the introduction or not, but we had a lot of fun with this one as a team. And we all couldn’t help but get excited when it came to presenting our individual case studies. I mean, come on, Prince of Darkness, The Fifth Element, AND Training Day all being discussed in the same conversation?

Just one of the many perks of Cross Talk. We bring the theories to you, so you can mull over the moral implications of these films too.

As always it would be great to hear what you think creative cuties? Spend some time with shorter video and then please like, share, and comment on both timotheories.com and the YouTube channel. We want your feedback! Join the conversation and tell us what we’re doing right, and if you have any better examples on hand that we should have considered.

And now I’m out of theories. Once again I’m off to La La Land. Not the movie, but the analogy for sleep. Ain’t no rest for the wicked, at least that’s what they say. But what about the good? Beauty sleep for everyone? Mull it over and get cak to me!

Tim!

Genre Benders (Cross Talk Ep. 19)

Some of the best experiences of life need to happen within a certain sequence. Otherwise they just won’t happen at all. For instance, you have to go through the standard education system, taking (and passing) classes throughout primary school, followed by middle school, and then working through secondary school, before you can finally go to that graduation ceremony and throw your cap in the air, like you just don’t care.

Except that you do care. And that’s okay.

Rituals are important in life, and we should experience them fully so that we can transition from one stage to the next with no regrets.

Except that no one gets through life without regrets.

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Life is interesting that way, while a coming of age story for one person can be seen as comedy, for some it’s a fantasy, for another it’s a drama, and for others a tale full of horror.

Movies always find the best ways to showcase the subtle difference of life and no matter with the core message of the movie at hand, you can be sure that numerous genres have tackled the story at hand…

Which is why today, Chris and I explore some of the more common themes we see in film and how they really do span genres. These are genre defying themes, if you will. We’ll be chasing after the loss of innocence, coping with loss, triumph over adversity, good vs evil, and overcoming differences.

Don’t expect this to be a deep dive of the themes I just mentioned though, I want to give a sense of what exists out there, before we decide to focus in on one or another, otherwise we’d have over an hour of content on our hands, and nobody’s got time for that!

This is episode nineteen of Cross Talk friends! It’s going to have laughter, tears, anger, excitement and all kinds of references to films you know and love. Some of them which you would never expect to share a connection. In some cases I was surprised at what we came up with, to be honest. But enough preamble… Dig in!

I hope you enjoy this one creative cuties. Were you surprised by what we came up with? Did you like our movie examples? Did you expect us to cover some different themes then we did? I’d love to hear what you thought! Cross Talk is a conversation, after all.

Please comment, subscribe, and share this video with friends. We want to hear your feedback!

Tim!