Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The power of words.....

I recently watched a movie, called "The book of Eli". Its set in a post apocalyptic world, where resources are scarce, there are dead bodies strewn all over the world, and the new generation of people can't even read.. In a world like that, a gang lord, sends out his goons, day in and day out, trying to find a book,, a book that would give him the power to rule over everyone else... His subordinates do not understand, that how a book, could make happen, what so much muscle could not.. He then says, that the book has the words, the words that will hit people right in the heart, and make them come running to him, to worship him.. That book, will give him the words to use, the power to make them count!

The movie is set in Hollywood, so that book is the bible. It could as well have been the Bhagwad geeta or the Quran. The fact of the matter is, that though we say so much... How much really counts? How much would actually matter to you, how much would you remember say 1,2...maybe 5 yrs down the line?

This is where literature, and to a lesser extent, movies make their mark.. For example, i read a book some 4 years ago.. I barely remember any one thing that anyone said back then, but this dialogue from the book, just stuck!
"I shall have lived in vain, if i do not prove to you that the rapier of irony is stronger than the bludgeon of insolence."
-as spoken by Olivier Haddo, from The Magician, written by William Somerset Maugham.

Some movies just immortalize such stories, quotes, or poems.. They make you want to just stop and read all the great literature there is in the world..
There are few which do it with as much effect, as the movie Invictus... If you've seen the movie, you just cannot not be a fan of the poem! So here it is...

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

- William Ernest Henley (written in 1875)

Passing thought - If you want someone to be a really great writer,, ensure it by adding a "William" to their name! It seems like every other great writer in the world has the name!!

In the movie, they used this poem. But in real life, Nelson Mandela gave Francois Pienaar an excerpt from the speech, "The man in the arena", by Theodore Roosevelt.

Maybe someday, i'll be able to make every word count like these great people.. But until then, (I'm a maths student, i believe in probability),, So i'll use lots and lots of words, probability says, that atleast a few of them will be remembered!!


Movie review-
The book of eli - Slow, with brief stints of very gruesome action. Very cinematic. Every shot of this move could be made a wallpaper!! An entertaining watch, and a must watch for Denzel Washington Fans.

Invictus- One of those very feel good movies. Added to the fact that its based on a true story, just makes it that much better. Immortalizes Nelson Mandela, and what he did for South Africa. A very very good movie!

1 comment:

  1. probably the name william has everything to with the will. Thats what a writer is supposed to write, his will or probably somebody else's will. But it is about will

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