The final scene of the film Hostiles is one of the most powerful, I think, in recent times.
PTSD sufferer Christian Bale is saying goodbye to the woman( Rosamund Pike) and child he saved from an Indian attack and now finally after a whole lifetime of abuse he has the option to join her ( and salvation ) or carry on hating his Indian foes and perpetuating his hatred for ever ....at the very last minute he quietly chooses salvation, and I remember leaving the cinema after I had witnessed this , elated and rather hopeful
How many choices do we all have that actually shape our lives for the better like this
Answers on a postcard please.
I haven't seen the film so I might be way off but I think we get to make choices like that most days: to road rage at the inconsiderate driver or not, to wear a mask in public or not, to forgive a hurtful ex or not.
ReplyDeleteIt's usually not dramatic but it can be when considered cumulatively
I think I was thinking of those few and far between monumental decisions
DeleteKyle is right about the number of important choices, shaping our lives and those around us. Always be kind to, and respect yourself and others...that's the best we can do.
ReplyDeleteYes kindness ...kindness
DeleteSometimes the choice is to stay or go. Drastic but necessary.
ReplyDeleteYes........I know
DeleteCan't see the video. My mother was a great optimist, and always told me that 'things always happen for the best'. So far she's been proved to be right.
ReplyDeleteYes....but we are all generally the hero’s of our own stories
DeleteThe poem by Robert Frost about The Road not Taken says it all really. I think of the twenty odd very happy years I had with the Farmer - why did I choose that over other options at the time? Love obviously - but something always shapes our lives and decisions.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written weave x
DeleteMaybe it's not so much the choice we make but more the way we USE that choice and the fall out after making the wrong one. No Good going along with the perseved correct or right choice if you handle the consequences badly or spend too much time dwelling on what could have been.
ReplyDeleteTess xx
Good point tess
DeleteI don't know. But it sometimes strikes me how very occasionally a decision that is made in a moment or an event can shape periods of our lives lasting decades.
ReplyDeleteI agree......and it frightens me
DeleteThere are lots of opportunities to take forks in the road in our lives I find, or we can just carry on straight ahead, which of them will be better is sometimes hard to judge. The thing is we usually don't know how things will turn out on any of the paths.
ReplyDeleteI am the sort of person who has always taken the fork in the road and lurched on to new adventures, and my brother is rigidly fixed on the same path even though it's one he hates. He has retirement fixed on his mind as the time that suddenly everything will be magical ... I do hope it will be that way ... but I doubt it. I see a lonely future for him, with not even that much to look back on :-(
Perhaps , like in most things in life a degree of balance is needed
DeleteOur lives are defined by the choices we make.
ReplyDeleteYes David ....perhaps I’m just reviewing my life decisions in view of an emotional movie
DeleteChoices are easier for some. I scrutinize every choice, seeing pros and cons to everything, and never make decisions lightly. Life changing decisions can be both exhilarating and terrifying. While we’ve all made “wrong choices” (were they wrong at the time or just in hindsight?) it is unproductive to engage in “what if” and “I should have.” Better to look ahead at what choices you have now and use your gained wisdom and experience to do better, going forward.
ReplyDeleteSassybear
Www.Idleeyesandadormy.Com
I’m like you weigh everything up
DeleteNot everything is shiny
Oh I do think that Kylie is right. Rarely do we find ourselves in a position that one decision will change our whole lives. We decide daily how we choose to live, and those small choices decide the days. The days make weeks, the weeks months. Years later, at the end of our times, we discover that those small choices created our lives.
ReplyDeleteNicely explained
DeleteHaven't seen the film, but I wept when he got on that train. The other choice in a film that has stuck with me for ever is in The Bridges of Maddison County, when she has her hand on the handle of the door......
ReplyDeleteOver the years, my choices have been coloured by others trying to control me, and looking back, I see that maybe they were never my choices at all. Now, I go with my heart, always, its choices have never let me down.
S
MrsL, Bridges of Madison County affected me deeply, too. Her hand on that door handle broke my heart and I still think about it.
DeleteYou too"it’s interesting how profound a moment witnessed can be , the step on the train, the hand on the door
DeleteIt broke my heart in a good way when I first watched this movie and remember writing about it when I first saw it
...and how often do we consider that we may have made the wrong choices at such pivotal moments?
ReplyDelete...and are we truly free to actually make any choices anyway, or is the feeling of freewill just an illusion hiding the fact that we just automatically do what chemistry in the brain makes us do?
DeleteI am not sure why I decided to say that... maybe I had no choice :)
DeleteYes, I kind of tied myself into a knot here
DeleteLike you did ( albeit for comic effect)
I believe that Kylie is correct for daily living. I have found that the best choices are different for each person when it comes to the big choices. In my life when a poor choice is being made, obstacles keep popping up. ‘Way will open’ is a Quaker phrase that I have found useful. I believe it doesn’t mean take the easy way, but evaluate those obstacles. Are you being bullheaded or are you being reasonable?
ReplyDeleteWay will open
DeleteI like this
My first thought, John, was that I don't have to watch that film now because I know how it ends! Just teasing you! Many choices each day but my brother always says, "things have a way of working out." So maybe we just adapt or adjust to the result of each choice we make...
ReplyDeleteYes Ellen I think you are right
DeleteI can’t quite work out just WHY this film and this moment has such a profound affect on me
All of the above ... I have nothing else to add!!
ReplyDeleteMe too
DeleteI like Christian Bale. Going to look this film up and watch
ReplyDeleteThis is one of his best films
DeleteThere are choices everyday but not as many big ones. I have a history of making bad choices unfortunately and they do stay with you for life. So you learn to appreciate the good and deal with the bad.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right bonnie
DeleteSometimes the big choices are not always clear xxx
Thank you so much for your card x
I believe that we either make a life or let life make the choices. I am a maker and choices, good or bad, are mostly my own and then I deal with them.
ReplyDeleteWell written
DeleteHi John I have just read a book that I think you would love. It moved me greatly
ReplyDeleteOn Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Apologies if you have already read it. I thought of you as I was reading it.
I’ve just read a review after your suggestion , and have just bought it on line x
DeleteI do make considered choices now but in the past I was a bit crazy and things went wrong-I won't swallow the poison again as I'm more level headed.My dogs keep me centred x
ReplyDeleteI think I should be more crazy
DeleteI went out with wide turn up trousers far too short yesterday John and an old fur coat to keep warm and looking rather scruffy tramplike x
DeleteThat’s my girl
DeletePoignant video clip but I haven't seen the whole movie.
ReplyDeleteDH and I will have our 48th anniversary in April and occasionally he'll wonder aloud "What if I hadn't followed that mini skirt down the hallway?" What if, indeed!
Hugs!
Lol babs , apologies for the spoiler everyone x
DeleteI met my future wife, now married to me for 44 years, because my girlfriend at the time, who had long term plans for us, cancelled a night out because she had caught a cold; so instead of just staying in for the weekend I went out to the Students' Union and this slim beautiful girl caught my eye and... Viruses eh? They brought me my wife. What if...?
ReplyDeleteOh... and when I related that tale to my daughter she said: "So I exist because some girl I've never met caught a cold?" Life's a lottery, many times every day.
DeleteSerendipity
DeleteI got on a plane with my two year old daughter and flew to Germany to marry a military man who said he loved us.. We've been married 30+ years ... getting on that plane was my 'leap of faith' moment.....He's a 6 ft Texan so if you can imagine when i got off that plane he towered over most Germans with his Stetson cowboy hat and boots and a dozen roses... It hasn't all been a bed of roses but i wouldn't have missed it for the world..
ReplyDeleteLife is full of choices. My daughter just took a leap of a choice. She packed up her car and moved to NYC yesterday. She had decided her life was stagnate and wanted something new. She's 24 and of course I couldn't tell her not to go. I tried mightily not to cry when she left (I wasn't too successful), but I thought to myself, well, this is fork in her road. She talked to me today and she's managed to navigate the subway and has a job interview tomorrow. I am proud of her, but she is missed. Thanks for your post, as it got me to think of my daughter and the exciting choices coming her way.
ReplyDeleteLeaps of faith we all need sometimes
DeleteI would love to meet you one day , to talk, to laugh and to toast our choices over a beer or three x
Oh, that music and that scene...beautiful. I don't know about fate/choices. Just lately I have been trying to be kinder and letting people make their own choices and respecting that. It has been rather freeing.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. XO
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nlight.org.ua/?p=173001
ReplyDelete