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August 29, 2020,
You’ll never be at peace until you understand the underlying reasons.
Otherwise you could be just lying to yourself. Ultimately wasting time. Your time. An essential element that you only have so much of. Even less of it, if closing windows are a factor.
They almost always are.
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American psychological horror film directed by Jonathan Demme from a screenplay written by Ted Tally, adapted from Thomas Harris‘ 1988 novel of the same name.
The film stars Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee who is pulled out from her training to apprehend a serial killer, known only as “Buffalo Bill“, who skins his female victims’ corpses.
He’s really a nice guy if you’d only get to know him.
For this, she has to create a psychological profile and seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer.
Another nice guy but don’t get to know him especially at meal time.
The novel was Harris’ first and second respectively to feature the characters of Starling and Lecter, and was the second adaptation of a Harris novel to feature Lecter, preceded by the Michael Mann-directed Manhunter (1986).
Throughout the film we slowly find out what is really driving the relentless young female FBI agent.
The team at dramatica.com surmise, “The lambs are forever screaming. Innocents are forever victimized, and Clarice will never run out of people to save from criminals. If serial killers would stop victimizing innocents, and lambs were safe from men with knives, Clarice (and society) could sleep easy at night.”
Makes sense. Takes a little while to get there, but it was absolutely worth the wait.
If we truly understand the motivations for why we are doing things, could we reach our destination much faster?
Some of the analysis is fairly transparent.
The young recent college male graduate is sitting during a team interview with a major corporation. The interviewing manager asks him about his motivation. He answers he seeks more responsibility, wants to make more money and help starving children in Kentucky.
Why does he really, really want the job?
To make good money and pick up great looking young women at night clubs when he gives them his business card.
So much of what motivates us may be locked down deep in our subconscious which some feel is the true seat of motivation.
We once read a novel that absolutely fascinated us because it blew away the mist and examined uncomfortable subjects that haunt so many of us and speaks to the underlying motivations for our pursuits.
The great thinkers at thedrum.com analyze, “In 1974, Wilson Bryan Key wrote the book Subliminal Seduction. In it, Key discussed how subliminal cues in advertising drive our decision making and included a host of examples that convinced us that marketers were up to something. Other than helping us to recognize the word “sex” in an ice cube, it acknowledged that very often we make decisions about brands based on something below the surface.”
Why so cynical?
We found it to be much more perceptive and insightful than that.
It was the basis for so much of our thinking process that got us from point A to B in warp speed whereas before we traveled at 30 miles per hour.
While being mesmerized by the film Beauty Mark. We were content to travel below the speed limit to try and understand what was really motivating the desperate young mother involved.
Beauty Mark is a 2017 American drama film written and directed by Harris Doran.
Set in the Portland area of downtown Louisville, Kentucky, the film follows Angie Simms (Auden Thornton), a poverty-stricken young mother taking care of her three-year-old son Trey (Jameson Fowler) and her alcoholic mother (Catherine Curtin). She works at a convenience store which Lorraine (Laura Bell Bundy), a dancer at a local club, frequents. Lorraine insists the men “ain’t using me, I’m using them.”
Angie finds out the house her family is living in is condemned and they must move immediately. Out of options, she decides to try to sue Bruce (Jeff Kober) a man who abused her as a child, only to find out that at twenty-four, she is one year past the statute of limitations under Kentucky law.
The film explores the interconnected themes of abuse, cycles of abuse, systemic poverty, addiction, and race.
Beauty Mark won multiple awards including the Jury Prize for “Breakout Performance” for its star Auden Thornton at the Los Angeles Film Festival premiere, the Ultra Indie Film Award at Woodstock Film Festival for its director Harris Doran, and the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Austin Film Festival.
Well deserved.
As Angie approaches one victim after another, who were sexually abused by their attacker, a question looms large.
Why is she really doing this? What is her real motivation?
For justice?
The young women she approaches do not feel a comradery with her. Certainly it is not a club that you want to be a part of. Whatever club Angie is in, the other women do not seek membership. Why is she approaching them after so many long years? Why now?
When she finally does speak with them she asks them to team and form a lawsuit and reminds them that a previous victim got money out of him.
That sours them.
Her overriding message is not about outing him behind bars so he can’t harm others but instead to get a payday.
Yes, she has good reason to want compensation. He ruined her life.
Or was it her lazy, alcoholic, unkempt, over sleeping, delusional mother who continues to mooch off of her? Now if there is anyone who can ruin a child, its disability mom, who can have lots of sex and eat mac and cheese with the best of them. Ma Barker ain’t got nothin’ on her.
When Angie was three and wishing upon a star to grow to be a princess, this was not the queen she wanted for a mommy. She’s a queen alright only her kingdom is a little messy and funky.
Who ruined Angie? Our money is on crack mommy.
Ah, Grandma? Your grandson has just turned the gas on the stove up to full blast and he’s looking for a match to play with. Could you please wake up from your bourbon induced deep slumber?
Having to come up with $1,700 to rent a home for her child and dead beat mom, after losing her job at a convenience store where she was on the phone all the time while her customers waited with their cookies, candy, Cheetos and soda in their hands, Angie feels she has only one option left to make money.
Become a stripper.
Why didn’t we think of that?
Her new job became symbolic and prophetic. Guess who comes in for a lap dance? Yes, the man who molested her when she was a child. Soon?
We find out what her real motivation is.
Very revealing.
Though not easy, the real reason for discovering what our real motivation is, that is underlying and furiously driving our pursuits and behavior, as Angie eventually did, is that we reach a place of calm, peace and receive a sense of closure much sooner than if we didn’t.
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OPENING PHOTO grapplingstars.com, femcompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, fcielitecompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling2.com articles, Orion Pictures photo credit
https://dramatica.com/analysis/the-silence-of-the-lambs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_of_the_Lambs_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_Mark
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
