Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
La Vida Que Te Espera – The Morals of the Story
Filed under: Depression, Family, Health, Life, Love, Movies, Relationships, Writing | Tags: Ángeles González Sinde, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón
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Rating: 3 out of 4 stars
Writer: Ángeles González Sinde and Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón
Director: Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón
La Vida Que Te Espera Plot Summary In A Sentence:
After a man attacks and imprisons his neighbor’s daughter, the man is murdered; Police investigate the murder, the daughter falls in love with the man’s estranged son, and each person tries to figure who was the murderer and who should they trust.
The Morals of the Story:
If you treat women like cattle, they will not enjoy your company and they may turn and leave you.
To the degree you order women around like cattle, your chances of making mistakes increases.
If you beat your children like you beat your livestock, they will likely leave you.
A cow goes where it wants to go.
If you are sick, go to a doctor.
Some people die because they don’t make the right decisions, and that leads them to an early death. We should consider forgiving them for that.
Sometimes we would rather cry than talk.
You will be defined by the things you choose to require yourself to do every day.
If a person (or a cow) won’t give you what you want, consider playing music for them or giving them the art they want, and watch how that improves their mood and productivity. (Val and her cow Vanessa)
There often is something in your family’s history that you don’t know anything about that would redefine your interpretations and understandings of everything you think you know.
What goes unsaid gets undone.
Humorous Highlights:
See all the “cow” morals listed above.
When dating the son of the man who beat you, tied you up, and put a cow collar on you (after that same man has been murdered), you might want to wait having sex with the son in the hay on your first date.
Clichés and Assumptions The Story Challenged:
People are as stupid as you think.
Your intuition and the evidence you know will lead you to determine the truth accurately most of the time.
A Question For You Is:
What other moral, humorous, or innovative ideas did you find in this story?
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Saving Private Ryan – The Morals of the Story
Filed under: Art, Depression, Family, Friends, Life, Movies, Relationships, Reviews, Screenwriting, Writing | Tags: Robert Rodat, Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg
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Rating: 4 out of 4 stars
Writer: Robert Rodat
Director: Steven Spielberg
Saving Private Ryan Plot Summary In A Sentence:
A group of eight World War II soldiers re-evaluate and define their definitions of duty, honor, and sacrifice as they are sent on a combat mission to recover one soldier (Private Ryan) because his three brothers have been killed.
The Morals of the Story:
Soldiers may not talk much about their experiences in war, but that does not mean they have forgotten them.
Ordinary men choose to become soldiers.
In war, very few things proceed as planned.
Wars often create injuries, physical and mental, that often cannot be healed.
Poor and dumb decisions in war cost many men their lives. (The infantry landing craft front-opening design).
Failure to prepare for likely contingencies will lead to increased casualties. (Boats and soldiers sinking, unable to float or weighted down with too much gear.)
War involves learning to adapt and overcome the unanticipated conflicts.
Sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.
In war, sometimes men are inhumane to other men in persuit of creating a world where all will more likely be humane to each other.
Soldiers do not often have the luxury of making moral choices for themselves. In choosing to be a soldier, they often supplant that choice in order to follow orders.
If you become a soldier, you will be required to kill men who individually did not deserve to die, soldiers for the opposing army, who like yourself chose to fight for moral and dutiful reasons.
Many soldiers choose to try to forget their horrific memories, not necessarily out of convenience or a sense of guilt, but rather as a means to promote their sanity. Some injuries from war are so real and grotesque that they are cruel, nauseating, and difficult to remember with clarity.
In war, bullets and bombs do not choose their targets based on character.
There were soldiers with honor, duty and mercy on all sides of the war.
Soldiers fought so that we might enjoy liberties and freedoms.
All sides of war will tend to use their religious beliefs to support their actions.
Fairness tends to be one of the first casualties of violent conflicts.
If you perform well under pressure in real conflicts that matter, you will likely be asked to do more of the same.
In combat, there is no position that is out of harm’s way.
War is not the story of one soldier, it is the story of every soldier.
The forces of nature are indiscriminate in war.
Men often show their character through their actions more than their words. But they are not silent, and in times of need, they lead by saying well chosen words.
Some men don’t tell their stories because they have experienced too much pain losing contact with the stories of their past, and they don’t want others to experience the same pain.
In war, if you choose to do a more decent action, you may increase the personal risks to yourself, your company, and your causes. (Carparzo choosing to save the young girl. Or choosing to take out the bunkered German machine gunner at the radar station. Or the army choosing to send eight men to save one.)
History will not care very much about the fate of any specific man or nation in any particular conflict. History will care about what ideas won out and came to prominence as a result of the conflict.
War historians will care about the tactics and movements of armies. More people will care about the individual human dramas.
In war, with each person’s death, a lifetime of good deeds, innovative ideas, and ability to solve problems is prematurely lost in an instant.
Every person can choose whether or not to find ways to be decent in indecent and insane circumstances.
No person does anything on their own. No one succeeds on their own. Any success achieved is on the shoulders of others who fought so you would have the opportunity and ability to succeed. (“Angels on our shoulders”)
You should consider working hard and smart everyday to make the sacrifices of others worthwhile. Everyone should consider what more than can do to make the most of the oppurtunities others’ sacrificed to provide for them.
For many people, the consequences of war never end.
It is important to deliver the final words and stories men choose to tell. (Medic Wade rewriting Carpazo’s blood-stained letter to his dad. Captain Miller carrying the same message after Wade is killed. Reiben taking the same note from Captain Miller when he dies.)
It may be important and therapeutic for soldiers to tell other soldiers their stories. (“I just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel.” – Captain Miller)
If you are ever given a second chance to do the right thing, do it.
Having the better ideas on how to solve a problem is not enough. You must also have the personnel, equipment, time and courage to execute the plan to fruition. (Sticky sock bombs versus tanks)
You never know the last time you will see someone you love. (Private Ryan telling the story of his last night with all of his brothers)
Humorous Highlights:
In the midst of mortal fear, soldiers can find solace in each other by sharing humorous stories of their past experiences.
FUBAR – Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition
Clichés and Assumptions The Story Challenged:
You can’t create a moral and patriotic war story where the protagonist soldiers question and disobey orders.
A Question For You Is:
What other moral, humorous, or innovative ideas did you find in this story?
Saving Private Ryan on Wikipedia
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Out of Africa – The Morals of the Story
Filed under: Health, Life, Love, Movies, Relationships, Romance, Screenwriting, Writing | Tags: Morals, Out of Africa, Sydney Pollack
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Rating: 4 out of 4 stars
Writers: Karen Blixen, Judith Thurman, Errol Trzebinski, Kurt Luedtke
Director: Sydney Pollack
Out of Africa Plot Summary In A Sentence:
A European woman, who moves to Africa to marry for social standing, recounts her experiences and romantic relationships in Africa and moving out of Africa.
The Morals of the Story:
If you’ve experienced a glimpse of real love with another person, you will have trouble forgetting it.
Real love often does not fit into conventional expectations.
Real love is not easy to explain in a simple phrase or maxim. Sometimes it is better described through complex and well-composed stories.
As we grow old,some people tend to constantly and repeatedly focus and think abou the best lover we experienced.
Sometimes the great loves of our lives are those rare people who initially see most of our serious faults. Some are faults we think we have hidden and some are faults we don’t even realize about ourselves. And knowing these faults, they choose to take us on anyway.
“Out of Africa always something new.”
Any society with a “privileged class” usually requires a subservient “underprivileged class.”
If you define “white” as “better than,” then the other colors tend to be underappreciated.
You will sometimes be judged by the quality of your art. (Denys’ book collection)
Regardless of your country or culture, if you do not pick an enterprise that can become profitable for everyone involved, you put everyone at risk. (Brandauer’s decision to grow coffee in a high climate instead of running a dairy)
Unfair compensation systems will create opposition and resistance.
When you ignore the knowledge of local people because you define them as an underclass, ignoring their knowledge will likely reduce your chances of success. (Ignoring the local chief’s warning that coffee cannot grow in the high altitude)
We sometimes don’t profit from the property we “own and sell” as much as we profit from the property we treat well and make profitable.
Nature, if left unpruned and untutored, will go wild again.
When you believe your world is thoroughly defined, and when your activities and pursuits have long been routined and structured, a great love may show you new things you can become, things that are outside of your comfortable boundaries. A few of these things may be things you were always curious about and hoped for, but more often these things will be new and foreign, containing characteristics you never knew how much you would enjoy.
There is not only one proper way to love.
If lovers stop defiining each other as owned property, they may become more sympathetic to their spouses other love interests. (Denys’ “other woman” appearing at his funeral. “He brought us joy. And we loved him well. He was not ours. He was not mine.” – Karen at Denys’ funeral)
Great loves will support your efforts that defy convention and expand your activities outside of your supposedly “appropriate” gender, class, occupational, and cultural roles. (Denys supporting Karen’s decision to deliver military supplies to dangerous territory)
Great loves will not allow you to define yourself narrowly. They will encourage your expansions more than your presumptive limitations.
A great love will not necessarily take your hand and guide you every step of the way for as long as you want. Sometimes a great love will come and go at uncontrollable intervals, having already given you enough guidance, advice, and directions for you to travel on your own. (Denys gives Karen a compass when she is lost, so she can find her own way – instead of taking her personally to her destination)
The ability to read alone will not make you wise. You must also learn to think. (Chief says, “The British can read, and what good has it done them?”)
Some of the great companions of your life will not primarily converse with you about minor day to day problems. Instead, they will focus conversations on larger concerns. (“In the days and hours Denys was at home, we spoke of nothing ordinary. Not of my troubles with the farm. My notes due and my failing crop. Or of his, and his work . . . what he knew was happening to Africa. Or of anything at all that was small and real. We lived disconnected and apart from things.” – Karen)
A good friend and companion is someone who elicits your honesty. They do not discourage your candor. They do not encourage your silence.
Some people never understand others’ pains from being alone, because they’ve never personally experienced a love relationship with someone else that helped them understand the value of being together. Our definitions and experiences of “alone” are relative to the quality our personal experiences with being in love with someone else.
Life may give you a romance that gives you only one great opening sentence. And sometimes your lover will not stay with you or finish the story with you, and your difficult choice will be whether or not to continue on, and whether or not to write the rest of the story on your own. (Karen & Denys’ storytelling activity of Denys supplying the first sentence, and Karen creating a story from it)
When someone you love disappears from your life, you may discover value in their collected artworks, books, movies, photos, and artfully expressed writings & letters. Those objects and things recreate some of remaining glimpses of their love, a love that gave you reasons to live, to want, to share joy, and to create. (Karen Blixen sitting among Denys’ books after he has died)
“It’s alright to take a chance, as long as you’re the only one who will pay.” – Denys
Our home is not necessarily where we live or where we are from. Sometimes it is where our thoughts and memories are focused.
When someone says they don’t expect much out of life, it’s okay to doubt or question their assertion. (Karen does not believe Denys when he suggests he asks less of life)
No person owns another person. (Slavery and marriage are discussed in this light)
Your great loves will support your future development, your sanity, and your ability to pursue happiness.
There may be some people who you want to stay and love only you, but their nature is not to do so. You may have to decide whether being only a part of their life is still worthwhile. (Karen and Denys)
You may leave where you have been and never return to that place, but that does not mean that place, or the events that took place there, will ever leave you. (Karen moves out of Africa, but Africa does not move out of her)
Sometimes the best response to a statement you disagree with is not to state a counter argument, but rather to simply ask, “Why?”
If you want to understand someone, you will benefit from understanding more about all the people, ideas, and things that person loves, especially the other people.
Your name will not likely be remembered. But the effects of your actions may have a lasting effect.
As a woman, you may lose your ability to have children. But you may still find a love that promotes your abilities to love, to help others, to tell your story, and to create. (Karen loses her ability to have children, but supported by Denys’ ideas and insistent behaviors toward her, she becomes more creative and expressive. Denys gives Karen a fancy pen to write her stories down, commiting them to paper)
Your loves will sometimes take you out of your “homeland” perceptually, literally, or culturally. Sometimes your loves will redefine your roles, personal definitions, and priorities. It will be your choice whether to adapt or to incorporate these new (foreign) influences.
Our real lives do not always meet all the dreams we are pursuing. Sometimes storytelling creates and immerses us into expanded worlds more saturated to the degrees and depths of our dreams.
Humorous Highlights:
If you marry someone, knowing the are a gambler, philanderer, and spend thrift, don’t be surprised if in the end they turn out to be a gambler, philanderer, and spend thrift.
“Mentally travelling” costs less and has fewer real costs or consequences.
Before getting married, it’s good to discuss whether or not you want to have children.
If you marry someone and spend a lot of time with them, don’t blame anyone else if you end up having feelings for them and loving them.
If you want to marry a servant, don’t marry a woman. (“Tell Blix his wife is here.”)
Mozart can still woo women in the middle of safari.
Brandauer: “You might have asked, Denys.” (For his permission to have an affair with his wife Karen)
Denys: “I did. She said, ‘Yes.’ ”
Clichés and Assumptions The Story Challenged:
You can’t make an unforgettable and beautiful romantic film with a lead female who is a childless aristocrat who marries for money and social position and has an affair with another man.
A Question For You Is:
What other moral, humorous, or innovative ideas did you find in this story?
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Meet The Parents – The Morals of the Story
Filed under: Comedy, Entertainment, Family, Fun, Health, Humor, Life, Love, Movies, Relationships, Writing | Tags: Meet The Parents
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Rating: 4 out of 4 stars
Writers: Greg Glienna, Mary Ruth Clarke, Jim Herzfeld, and John Hamburg
Director: Jay Roach
Meet The Parents Plot Summary In A Sentence:
Gaylord Focker plans to ask his girlfriend to marry him, but first he spends a few days meeting her parents and trying to gain their approval.
The Morals of the Story:
In a comedy, consider inserting humor when it is not expected. (The lyrics sung while the Universal Studios and Dreamworks logos are shown)
There are beautiful glances, expressions, and personalities that your loves show you that they don’t show others. (The opening credit video montage)
Never put your engagement ring in checked baggage.
Sometimes a key to comedy is not playing along with stereotypes. Sometimes better comedy is found in showing the absurdity and errors made by people with stereotypical thinking.
When you are caught in a lie, sometimes it’s better to admit the lie than to fashion a fictional story that tries to support the lie. (Greg’s “Milking the cat” story)
Sometimes humor is found in taking the maxims others give you and taking them to their extreme application. (“Circle of Trust” and a friendly “competitive” pool volleyball)
In the short term, people tend to be close to your presumptions of them. In the long term, their true colors are revealed.
Always give your loved ones a chance to explain before abandoning them or calling them a liar.
There are good reasons to lie sometimes.
Give your loved ones the benefit of the doubt.
Humorous Highlights:
The comedy is consistently based on Ben Stiller’s character, Gaylord Focker, repeatedly trying to answer his father-in-laws questions in ways he thinks will please his father-in-law (rather than in the way he honestly believes) . . . only to discover he still keeps choosing the wrong answer.
People who follow the letter of the law, to the exclusion of common sense, are both funny and wrong. (The airline gate attendant who won’t let Greg board the plane because all rows 9 and higher are boarding, and he is in row 8 – when no one else is boarding the nearly empty plane.)
Clichés and Assumptions The Story Challenged:
“Comedies of manners” are no longer in demand in the 21st century.
A Question For You Is:
What other moral, humorous, or innovative ideas did you find in this story?
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Welcome To The Moral Of The Story Database
Filed under: Art, Books, Entertainment, Family, Health, Life, Literature, Love, Movies, Relationships, Religion, Writing |
Leave a comment This website lists and shows the connections between moral and innovative ideas from films, literature, and other stories.
If you are searching for more information on any particular moral topic or story, you can search for information by Keywords or Story Title using the search cell atop the right column. You can also browse or search this database through one of the two indexes. The Story Index lists stories by title. The Thumb Index lists stories by one of their common covers or posters.
This website database attempts to do something no other movie or story database online is currently doing. If you want a movie review, you can find many websites with excellent movie reviews. If you want to know who acted in or helped create a movie, there are exceptional online databases for that information. This website does not attempt to duplicate those efforts. This website is focused on questions, comparisons, and suggestions of what moral ideas may exist in popular stories.
This site is updated daily with new stories and new ideas. Visitors are encouraged to comment and to suggest additional ideas they have found in the stories discussed. All written comments become property of this site, and the comments are considered for inclusion into the story articles. A hope is that many voices will interact to provide insightful commentary and to create a valuable database of morals promoted in well known stories.
Star Wars. The Morals of the Story
Filed under: Art, Comedy, Entertainment, Family, Life, Love, Movies, Mythology, Reviews, Science Fiction, Screenwriting, Writing | Tags: George Lucas, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan Kenobi, Star Wars, The Force
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Rating: 4 out of 4 stars
Writer: George Lucas
Director: George Lucas
Star Wars Plot Summary In A Sentence:
Star Wars is the story of Luke Skywalker and his friends’ journeys to evaluate their personal histories, to define their motivations, and to promote forces of good to overcome evil.
The Morals of the Story:
There may be powers in the universe we can connect to that are larger than ourselves. (The Force)
“The Force is what gives the Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” – Obi-Wan Kenobi
“Kid, I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other, and I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff. But I’ve never seen anything to make me believe that there’s one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.” – Han Solo
When you have lost everything, you should still consider helping others. (Luke Skywalker)
You should trust your feelings. (Obi-Wan Kenobi)
There are good reasons to lie sometimes. (Obi-Wan to the Mos Eiseley Stormtroopers, Leia to Darth Vader, Leia to Grand Moff Tarkin, Han Solo to the Intercom in cell block THX-1138, C-3PO when discovered in the Death Star)
When someone is imminently threatening your life with a mortal weapon, you can use lethal force to stop them. (Han Solo and Greedo)
Unbalanced pursuits to “improve security” and consolidate power can mislead governments and individuals to do evil. (Darth Vader)
When political powers are corrupt, then protest and rebel against them. (The Rebellion)
Humorous Highlights:
When playing table games with a person who gets violent when they lose, sometimes you let them win. (C-3Po & Chewbacca)
When considering love interests, first make sure the person is not already related to you. (Luke & Leia)
Clichés and Assumptions The Story Challenged:
You can’t make a profitable movie about science fiction.
Sequel and merchandising rights are not very important.
The quality of movie sound doesn’t matter much to an audience.
Audiences don’t like fast movie editing progressions.
You can’t make believable and exciting space ship battles.
No one will care about monsters in costumes in a live action film.
One movie can’t change mythical understandings for all subsequent generations.
A Question For You Is:
What other moral, humorous, or innovative ideas did you find in this story?
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Curious George – The Morals of the Story
Filed under: Art, Artist, Books, Comedy, Depression, Entertainment, Fun, Health, Humor, Life, Relationships, Writing | Tags: Curious George, H. A. Rey
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Rating: 4 out of 4 stars
Writer: H. A. Rey
Curious George Plot Summary In A Sentence:
A man brings a curious monkey out of the jungle and into “civilization,” and the monkey and the man explore the new worlds and consequences created from those decisions.
Curiosity comes from a desire to find answers to questions and a want to learn.
It is not inherently bad to be curious. It is natural and normal to be curious.
Our sense of curiosity often supports our sense of playfulness.
Unmitigated and unexperienced actions to answer our curiosities can sometimes lead us into danger.
Young people (and young animals) can’t be expected to remember and follow all the warnings and instructions they have been given. They will make mistakes in exploration of their curiosities.
Sometimes when you try to do things beyond your aptitudes, you will fall, and others will be needed to rescue you. (Curious George trying to fly like a bird)
Don’t punish your children (or charges) for being curious. Reward and shape their curiosities.
Humorous Highlights:
When you are taken away from your home, community, and country by a strange man in a yellow hat, sometimes the best thing you can do is make friends and explore your curiosities.
If you give a monkey a pipe, he will smoke it.
If you give a monkey a phone, the odds are he will dial the fire department.
Monkeys and bright balloons = a high flying good time.
Clichés and Assumptions The Story Challenged:
Children have an evil nature and want to get into trouble.
Curiosity killed the cat.
You should punish people for exploring their curiosities.
A Question For You Is:
What other moral, humorous, or innovative ideas did you find in this story?
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The Moral of the Story 