Temple Grandin (2010)

Entertainment Rating: A

This was a great movie following the life of Temple Grandin who had autism and helped the world understand how to help those with autism succeed like she did.

Orson Scott Card summed up our feelings well:

“Last year might have been financially good for the movies, and films like ALICE IN WONDERLAND and holdover AVATAR might rule the box office this year. Films by directors whose hands are always distractingly visible might win the accolades of the cognoscenti. But TEMPLE GRANDIN is, without pretension, the finest artistic achievement in filmmaking I've seen in years; it easily elbowed its way into my lifetime top ten movie list.

It's an emotional rollercoaster, this movie. I laughed and cried so often I thought I had lived an extra year by watching it. Yet this was not because manipulative filmmakers juiced things up; on the contrary, the writers, director, and performers used amazing restraint. This movie never bludgeons us with something that can be conveyed through nuance alone.”

Moral Rating: 5

A lot can be learned from this depiction of the life of Temple Grandin. Even though her autism made her different (not less) than the average person, she learned how to exercise self control, how to hone her skills and apply them productively, and she wasn’t afraid to share her knowledge with those around her.

Her method of giving herself a hug was rather interesting, but demonstrated her desire to exercise control over her emotions and ultimately over her autism. We should all exerted the same effort to control our own emotions, instead of looking for ways to victimize ourselves and complain to or at others.

With the help of a loving family and her school teacher, Temple was able to realize what her strengths were and actively pursued avenues that enabled her to ultimately change the world: She re-engineered the cattle industry and opened up the eyes of the world to autism.

Go out of your way to check this film out.

Terminator

Entertainment Value

Rating: C

Kind of a cool story, a lot creepier than I had imagined. I recorded this show because of it's notoriety, but was rather underwhelmed. If you've never seen it, it might be worth a view, but don't expect much.

Moral Value - Failure to Communicate?

Rating: 2

"In the few hours we had together we loved a lifetime's worth." What kind of a line is that?

Gulliver's Travels

Rating: 5

I started reading the book and ended up getting about three-fourths of the way through it.  I can't remember why, I just felt like it was taking an eternity to finish it, so I set it down.  After watching the movie again, I think I have enough desire to pick the book up again and if nothing else, at least finish the last quarter of it.

This story has tons of lessons through it.  Most of them are political, as that was Jonathan Swift's purpose in writing it (as far as we know), but I think the comparison's he made to humanity several hundred years ago are still quite applicable today.  Human nature doesn't seem to change much, just the circumstances in which it exists.

After watching this I have a greater desire to be involved with what is going on in the political world, since that's the group that tends to run things in our lives.  The movie accurately portrays the type of resistance that we can expect from trying to discover errors in current processes and that it really takes the faith of a child to penetrate the clouded intellect of grown men.