The window of movies...

I'm reading a great book at the moment - Windows of the Soul by Ken Gire. Here is a couple of extracts from his chapter on movies:

'In an interview with The Door, Garrison Keillor said, "If you can't go to church and, for at least a moment, be given transcendence; if you can't go to church and pass briefly from this life into the next; then I can't see why anyone should go. Just a brief moment of transcendence causes you to come out of church a changed person."

I have experienced what Garrison Keillor described more in movie theatres than I have in churches.

But movies don't always tell the truth, don't always enlighten, don't always inspire. What they do on a fairly consistent basis is give you an experience of transcendence. They let you lose yourself in somebody else's story. And sometimes in losing yourself you find yourself, or at least, a part of yourself. It may be a part of yourself you didn't even know needed finding. It may be a wounded part or a calloused part that you find. It may be a very beautiful part or a very ugly part. A part that needed to grow up or maybe a part that needed to go back and become a child again. A part that needed to understand, maybe, or to forgive. Or maybe it was a part that needed to die, or maybe one that instead needed to be born.'

The chapter goes on to highlight a few movies that have windows of the soul for Gire. I love movies and can't fail to be affected by them in some way. A few key movies for me would have to be Shawshank Redemption, To End all Wars, The Thin Red Line, Good Will Hunting, Braveheart, Gladiator, Dead Poets Society to name but a few. Just realising I haven't watched a movie in ages - need to get along to the cinema soon!

I'd be interested to hear what movies have really impacted/inspired you so please leave a comment! I'm always looking for somethin good to watch!