Seems so weird to me. Action movies usually sell very well, and when analyzing what is the main situation in one of them, as a norm the main character (the one the viewer suppose to identify with and feel like is him/her in the movie, living what the main character is living), is having a big adventure with lots of action and many very physical situations, which make for a very entertaining kind of life.
I guess is understandable that a viewer identify with the main character and his/her interesting life, especially when the viewer’s life is flat and boring.
But to make the life of the main character interesting (in an action movie), there are some requirements that has to be met. For instance, people like to see the main character suffer all kind of bad things, and get wet, cold, hungry, hurt, wounded, bleeding, etc. and be chased, attacked, even tortured! Then people put all these elements together and call it “An epic adventure”
Weird!
Then…
If people like to feel the adventures of the main character in a movie as their own, why is such a drama when the car gets locked with the keys inside? Or, why people get so mad when they get a flat tire in the highway?
Seems to me like people desire a different kind of life; one that is more interesting and entertaining compared with what they have, and so by feeling their hearts racing when watching somebody else’s life, they can briefly perceive their own lives as more interesting, by simply “borrowing” the main character’s life for the duration of the film.
Yet they are not prepared to live a life like that!
And I am not talking about the knowledge or experience a, let’s say, secret agent has to have in order to save the day in the script, but mostly the attitude of confronting problems and solving them on the fly.
Seems to me people have a boring life mostly because they reject the possibility of adventure in the way of confronting the unknown, especially if it implies physical danger; so unconsciously they guide their life into the boring, and only have a bit of adventure by borrowing the main character’s life for a brief amount of time, and always from the safety of remaining in the area of reality, so they can have a little of a spice life, without having to even try the plate.
A very entertaining and challenging life will require the capability of confronting problems and solving them on the fly, so it seems like too much to handle for most people, and so they guide their own into the boring, as a way to remain safe and without having to keep control of the situations and their own behavior. Sort of leaving life into auto pilot, to allow themselves to use the least amount of energy when it comes to movement and self-control.
Let the main character suffer all the intense possibilities life can offer, so we don’t have to, and just borrow for a brief moment his/her life when we need to spice our own, to create a small, yet comfortable bump in our own, flat lives.
I wonder…
Raul
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