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Reviews on Books and Movies That Entertain the Spirit
By: Kim Bell
Gran Torino: Birth Days
Clint Eastwood’s film Gran Torino begins and ends with a funeral in a traditional Catholic church. Both services open with what are, seemingly, the two biggest questions we are called upon to ask throughout our lives: What is life? What is death? And while these questions significantly frame what happens in the film, the most powerful question worth asking (and answering) turns out to be an entirely different one—one that is, in a single, revealing moment, only implied by the film: When is your birthday?
The Curious Case for Caring: The Story of Benjamin Button
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" has a fascinating premise: a child is born in an old body and grows physically younger throughout his life, while his mind develops and ages in the usual trajectory. Yet this is a movie that is less about what it means to be a young mind stuck inside an old body (or an old mind housed by an infant’s) and much more about the universal need for care. Perhaps this film has had such an impact because we live in a society in which being cared for--especially if one is born in an imperfect body or has aged into an imperfect mind--can no longer be assumed. Benjamin’s father, a button manufacturer named Mr. Button, illustrates this idea when he abandons his son shortly after birth on the steps of an old folks’ home. Ultimately, however, this is a film about the love required to truly care for another human being. Every other encounter in the film exemplifies this worthy ideal.
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