Can someone get me an Antikythera mechanism? The ancient astronomical prediction machine is the Dial of Destiny in the new Indiana Jones movie. In the movie, it has time travel power. Which is always attractive to this multiverse hopeful. And the moment when Indy meets Archimedes! Wow! Tear inducing emotional moment. And they had just been to his tomb and retrieved the other half of the mechanism from the remains. Now to see the man in person. I am not sure if age has anything to do with my reaction. Time. The passing of time. The ability to stop its movement, even for a few minutes, the ability to travel through different time periods, places, worlds, past, present, future. The possibilities. And you never die!
I love it when they show time travel in movies. And in this one, when they show the late sixties, that is the moon landing time, in New York, those scenes could really make me feel I was a part of it. That I was in it! Amazing power of this thing called movies!
On the way out of the movie theater, I was thinking which time period would I like to visit, or live in for a little time or longer? The romanticized version of the Middle Ages? At Taxila or the later Nalanda? During the Indus Valley civilization? On the Silk road? Which figure in history would I like to meet? The Buddha? Bronte sisters? Dracula? Just random names. But now I know whoever it is, those people may not choose to meet me! Or if they did, maybe I will not think it as special as I may have imagined! I came to the conclusion that I would want to live it all! Travel through all times, all places, be all people, be each person! Impossible? Shouldn’t be. What if I am already doing it? How can you or I tell if I am not?
Before going to the movie, I had read a few reviews about it. One reviewer was miffed about Indy getting old and having to be rescued by a girl, even as he acknowledged the passing of the torch to the young. That latter part, yes, but did not feel that Indy was being weak, or that he was “rescued” by a girl. I thought he still held his own. And it is more of an equal opportunity thing. Maybe some do not like that. Also, Indy is more philosophical, which is usually what happens as we get older. We learn from our experiences, from the world around us. And I totally understand the character wanting to stay in that other world. What else to do if we don’t have anything to come back to?
And you will be philosophical if you see the world through the lens of history. Nothing has changed much, on many levels. Wars, for instance. The movie begins with World War II. It ends in the Battle of Syracuse between Greeks and Romans in 213 BC. Now that doesn’t mean you cannot try and make the world a better place for everyone or that you shouldn’t live a good life, but it is as it is. There are moon landings and parades and loving and laughing in between, as then, as now. “Life” is something else, all right!
No comments:
Post a Comment