Issue 24 Towards HealingBlog | Films to preach about Stories that heal
Films to preach about Stories that heal
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 12.09.20
During this remarkably strange year, we’ve grown a renewed appreciation for the healers in our society: the people who care not only for our bodies, but for our minds and souls. Among them, surely, must be the storytellers.
Our favourite films and television have been a breath of fresh air during the claustrophobia of recent months, allowing us to escape, however temporarily, to somewhere different. Beyond relieving boredom or distracting us from the difficulty of our real-life circumstances, these stories can offer something more substantial. At its best, film helps bring us through our own anxiety and pain, inviting us to imagine a better future.
There’s no film studio more notorious for tugging on the heartstrings than Pixar. And there’s no sequence in a Pixar film more likely to induce tears than the opening of Up (2009) which, over the course of ten dialogue-free minutes, charts the lifelong romance between Carl and Ellie. It’s a short form animated masterpiece, condensing the joys and sorrows of friendship, marriage and old age, ending as Carl is widowed.
As the film continues Carl isolates himself, withdrawing from the world and obsessing over his planned journey to Paradise Falls – a place he always meant to visit with Ellie. But his healing will eventually come not through the success of this plan, but through all the ways in which it goes awry. The element of chaos enters his life in the form of overenthusiastic boy scout Russell and adoring golden retriever Dug, who between them embody the sense of wonder that Carl has lost. As he gradually opens his heart to these unlikely new friends, the old man learns to let go of his grief and live again.
Up is able to truly uplift because, though it’s a family film, it doesn’t shy from exploring the reality of grief. The same is true of two more recent Pixar offerings, Coco (2017) and Onward (2020), which tell stories about life after loss in colourful, imaginative ways. From children encountering these ideas for the first time to adults who know grief all too well, there’s catharsis and comfort to be found.
