Life Lessons We Can Learn from Movies

Books, the World Wide Web and good old fashioned research all provide a number of life lessons, but have you ever considered movies to be a great source of enlightenment? From discovering what it’s like to work for an Editor in Chief at a fashion magazine (The Devil Wears Prada) to what happens when we lose our inhibitions (What Happens in Vegas) to how to game successfully (The Cincinnati Kid), we’ve listed a handful of our favourite movies, all of which we can learn something from...

The Family Man

Nicolas Cage plays the role of a high rolling investment banker in The Family Man. The film depicts a glimpse into his life, should he have chosen a different route 13 years ago. The moral of the story? Earning big bucks doesn’t always make you happy.

The Cincinnati Kid

This top rated movie serves as a typical example of one of the most significant lessons a newbie gamer must take on board - only bet what you have. The all time classic gives viewers an insight into what can go wrong in the gambling world, teaching us to never be overly confident, unduly sure of a hand and to research both the game and the promotions on offer, such as the high bonuses featured on non gamestop casinos. This big screen hit follows The Kid (Steve McQueen) in a head-to-head battle of Poker against Lancey Howard (Edward G. Robinson). The moral of the story - you can’t beat the odds.

The Bucket List

This American buddy comedy-drama follows Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson on an epic ‘final’ journey. The film tells the story of two terminally ill men who chance meet in hospital. Together they create a wish list of experiences they’d like to conquer before ‘kicking the bucket’. This feel good flick, written by Justin Zackham and directed and produced by Rob Reiner, really pulls on the heart strings. The lesson? You only live once.

21

Our journey to the casino follows Kevin Spacey, who plays Micky Rosa in Robert Luketic’s casino hit, 21, which focuses on a group of friends journeying to Vegas, brings us to our next life lesson – how to gamble successfully. This movie showcases card counting at its finest and highlights winning big isn’t solely down to chance. Unless you’re a mathematical genius, limiting the house’s advantage involves a great deal of strategy.

Yes Man

Jim Carrey earns laughs from the get-go in this hit comedy, featuring a banker who swaps saying no to everything to yes to anything after attending a motivational seminar. The lesson learnt here? Alway embrace new opportunities and experiences with open arms (maybe not quite as many as Carrey but you get the idea). The saying ‘you don’t regret the things you do, you regret the things you don’t do’ certainly rings true here.

Round up

Film entertains us, but it also educates us and when we don’t want to learn life lessons from websites, books and people, movies are a great source of inspiration. Many are based on true stories and the majority are written and directed by extremely accomplished people, take director, writer, animator and producer Tim Burton as a prime example, who has his own set of life lessons we can all learn from, including ‘don’t bear a grudge’, ‘face your fears’, ‘less is more’ and ‘fight for what you believe in’. As many of his titles have the ability to inspire, uplift, sadden, anger and impress us, often all at once, this makes us certain there’s lots of truth in his wisdom.