Every Movie Has a Lesson

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GUEST COLUMN: 10 Inspirational Movies with Important Life Lessons

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10 Inspirational Movies With Important Life Lessons To Learn

by Carola Tucker

Some movies are meant to bring more than just entertainment. Such films inspire viewers, make them stop for a moment and think about their own personalities, choices in life, and the world we live in. Are you looking forward to watching a complicated movie that makes the audience reflect on the nature of things? Do you want to learn important life lessons while sitting behind the silver screen? Then this article is for you.


Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Sometimes life can be like a computer game where you are still a newbie. You don’t know about the game’s benefits like csgobets in Counter-Strike, or what your character is capable of. The main heroine Susanna founds herself in a similar situation. She has a nervous breakdown and is undergoing treatment at a mental facility. The girl is confused and disoriented. In a hospital, she meets another patient named Lisa Rowe. Lisa is a charismatic sociopath and Susanna’s new roommate. Girls quickly become friends, but friendship lasts till Susanna stays in the shadow. When she makes the first step to recovery, Lisa directs her anger on a new friend.

The lesson to learn: Play footsie with madness or come to terms with the realities? The choice is yours.


The House Of The Spirits (1993)

The story takes place in the house of the Trueba family. Its members are people with opposite characters and spirits. Mother and wife Clara del Valle (Meryl Streep) is a sensitive person with a delicate character and psychic powers. Husband and father Esteban Trueba (Jeremy Irons) is a strict conservative and overbearing man. Daughter Blanca Trueba (Winona Ryder) has a freedom-loving character and wants to make her own choices in life.

How will they manage to live under one roof, in the house of such different spirits?

The lesson to learn: Relatives can be very different personalities, and it can cause difficulties, but in the end, love conquers all.


The Painted Veil (2006)

It’s the early 20s. Young London socialite Kitty Garstin gets married to the doctor Walter Fane. Kitty thinks of her husband as a cold and meticulous man. Soon after the marriage, she is giving in to passion and cheats on Walter. When doctor Fane founds it out, he makes Kitty accompany him to a small village in China where he will fight the cholera epidemic.

When a woman observes how her husband treats ill people and how kind and caring person he is. Kitty understands how passionate Walter is about his work and how selfless he can be. She starts to see him in a new light. Will that be enough for a happy end?

Lesson to learn: It takes time, attention, and effort to know what real love is.


I, Origins (2014)

Every person on Earth has a unique pair of eyes. Microbiologist Ian Gray knows a lot about it. He doesn’t believe in "intelligent design", and wants to fill in the steps of the evolution of the eye. One day he meets a model Sophie who he falls in love with. She has opposite worldview and wonders why Ian is working so hard to disprove God. What would he do if something spiritual disproves his scientific beliefs?

The lesson to learn: Maybe not everything in this world can be explained logically, and eyes really are some kind of window to the soul.


Lucy (2014)

One more mind-opening and inspirational movie on the list. The main character Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is forced into transporting new drugs. An unpleasant accident happens, and dangerous powder fuses with her blood. It changes Lucy’s brain, and now she can use 28% of cerebral capacity when other human beings can access only 10%. What happens when she reaches 100%?

The lesson to learn: Human capabilities are unlimited, and the purpose of knowledge is to pass it on to others.


Waking Life (2001)

Waking Life is an experimental philosophical adult animated docu-fiction movie. More precisely, the film is witty and mind-expanding head-trip of the main character (Wiley Wiggins). He meets different people and holds philosophical discussions that later coalesce around issues of consciousness, free will, the meaning of life, and the nature of sleep. Wiley understands that he is inside the dream but can’t wake up.

The lesson to learn: Your life is yours to create.


Midnight in Paris (2011)

Screenwriter Gil Pender is a reckless dreamer, in love with the 1920s. He goes to Paris with his materialistic fiancée Inez to see her parents. Gil’s passion for the era of Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway only grows when his nightly walks lead him inexplicably back in time. When he tries to tell Inez about his adventures, she thinks he is crazy. After all, Gil understands that all romantics tend to romanticize the past, and it’s better to appreciate the present.

The lesson to learn: Appreciate the present.


Shutter Island (2010)

This neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese is one of the most complicated and exciting movies in our top-10. At the beginning of the story, we see two U.S. Marshals Edward "Teddy" Daniels and Chuck Aule. They go to the mental hospital situated on Shutter Island. The aim of the trip is the investigation into the patient’s Rachel Solando disappearance.  Shutter Island is all about atmosphere and ominous warnings. It's a thriller and a crime story rolled into one.

The lesson to learn:  Fear can do awful things to people’s minds. It owns and rusts it.


Intern (2015)

Seventy-year-old widower Ben Whittaker (DeNiro) employs as an intern at the e-commerce fashion startup. All the company workers are young and don’t know how to behave around the new colleague. Eventually, it turns out that life experience, wisdom, and gallantry are always in demand.

The lesson to learn: Experience never gets old.


The Pursuit Of Happyness (2006)

Chris Gardner was doing his best, but it wasn’t enough. In one day, a man loses his job and is left destitute. Chris’ wife leaves him, and now he has to start over. He has no money, no roof over his head, and should somehow feed his little son. The only way out is to get a better job. Will he be able to handle such a difficult situation and what will it take to do that?

The lesson to learn: Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carola Richter is a professional esports journalist who reviews the esports events and trends in the industry. Recently, she's decided to create the blog csgo-bets.org where she could share her passion with the readers interested in the topic.