The Soporific Warrior

It's too late for me; save yourself! Two hours, anyway. Don't watch “Peaceful Warrior.”

I wanted to like this movie. Arthur and I were watching it during the day. My kids were away at school, it had the potential for being a great, romantic and spiritual afternoon. Alas, it was a complete disappointment. When a regular movie is a disappointment, I can let go immediately. But when it's supposed to be transformational, it really galls me. What a complete waste of time and energy for all involved.

Let's start with the casting. Oy. I like Nick Nolte as much as the next gal, right? The bad-boy thing, the craggy sexy face, etc. But as a wise old man? Uh, no. This guy hasn't learned anything in the last 50 years, and it shows. He's still out there getting arrested for shit, and I'm supposed to believe him as an enlightened teacher? He plays the part like he was duped into it and is holding a grudge. There was not one inspiring moment in his performance, and he's a really good actor. My conclusion: the director is a complete hack. And the script, what a bloody mess. Cinematography? Holy shit, could there be any more cliches?

The character who supposedly goes on to be Millman's wife is the very worst characterization of a woman on film that I've seen in 20 years. Seriously. She has no voice of her own. We don't know what she does with her time, except to run, literally, into the film whenever Dan, The Most Important Dork Alive, needs help. (Again, with the shitty casting! He's so unlikely to attract this woman who is supposed to be so wonderful [though we are never told why], much less all the blonde bombshells who preceded her.)

OK, I really must go on a rant, now. Our Hero is seen in the first part of the movie fucking his friend's girlfriend and anyone else who mysteriously wants into his bed. He treats them like shit. Then this woman comes along who won't even kiss him and he's worshipping her. I mean, seriously. I thought the whole madonna-whore thing was old, like, a hundred years ago. But she's held up as this sort of ideal fantasy woman. Oh, god, I think I'm going to vomit right now. Yep. I'll be right back.

Phew.

Ok, so back to the cinematography. You know how we know that Danny Boy is going to fall in love with Gormless Woman? She walks into her first scene in slow motion. I kid you not. I laughed out loud, it was so stupid. She walks into a gas station in slow motion. It hurts to even write that sentence.

So, ok, if they were going to fictionalize someone's life story, couldn't they have, you know, made it interesting? No. They tossed in a few scenes where Nick Nolte as Socrates is able to get to very high places by some sort of magic. And some dream sequences, I think. That's it. The rest has to be completely true, because it's so dull, it makes me want to relive high school.

There was one good scene in this entire movie. Socrates unceremoniously tosses Dan into a river. That felt good. I could throw that kid into a river, easily. His body double who did the gymnastic scenes was built, but he was a skinny wanker. (Note to director: baggy clothes do not make a skinny actor look buff) More unintentional hilarity.

Ok, I'm done.

Liz

Re: The Soporific Warrior

Liz,

nice rip job.  I have a three ding rule.  I was up to four in 15 minutes and yanked it while looking at my son Peter, who had a complicit look on his face.  Nick Nolte gives me a pain.  Worse, I have “friends” who highly reccommended the film.  What do you say to them?

Re: The Soporific Warrior

Thanks for the hilarious review, Liz.  I almost watched it last weekend but didn't get an opportunity.  Now, I'll save myself the dollars and the time.

Re: The Soporific Warrior

Liz,

Why don’t you say what you really think?

Thanks for the review - I’ll save my money too.

Frans

Re: The Soporific Warrior

Dang, now I feel so dirty and lowbrow. I really enjoyed the movie!

But I like disco, too. What can you do.

:-)

Mary

(and p.s., lol – Grey's Anatomy season premier is tonight!)

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Oh, Mary. You are brave indeed to say you like that movie in public. What was it that roped you in? The depth of the characters, the connections between the “men” on the team”? No, wait. It must have been the inspirational coach. Or the musical score. Yes, that must be it.

No, wait. None of those things were any good at all. Hmph. I'm stumped.

Perhaps it was the unorthodox method of teaching meditation by sitting on an old car. Gosh, that really dug to the depths of my soul!

Ptui. You must have been hitting that crack pipe again, ho!

Liz

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Oh, and Michael: with friends like that…well, you know the rest.

Re: The Soporific Warrior

Oh, Mary. You are brave indeed to say you like that movie in public. What was it that roped you in?

Weeelllll …. underneath the scraggly Nolte and the dork-boyish slow-mo silliness and all, it was a kind of magical-realist tale about facing one's own egoic arrogance, insecurity, and vainglory.

Thass mah story and I'm stickin to it,

~The Soporific Ho …… rear  (half-assed attempt to rhyme with “warrior”)

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Nice review, Liz.

I have to admit that I didn't hate it. I expected a really bad movie, considering the friend who recommended it, so I was pleased that it didn't totally make want to break this disc. In fact, it wasn't a bad way to zone out for two hours and not have to think, without feeling guilty about watching bad TV.

But then, I may have been high on crack, I can't recall.

Peace,
Bill

Re: The Soporific Warrior

“it wasn't a bad way to zone out for two hours”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, you have to admit. I think you could find better ways to spend two hours, now, couldn't you, Bill? Meditating, gardening, writing poetry…all things I hate to do that I would do before watching this movie again.

You need a vacation, buddy!

Liz

Re: The Soporific Warrior

Agreed, I do need a vacation.

Fortunately, I'm going to an Internal Family Systems conference next weekend. On the first day, there's a seminar on Big Mind/Big Heart and IFS, and another on IFS within an integral context, focusing on Wilber and Kegan.

I'm about as excited as a six year old who gets to go to Disneyland.

Peace,
Bill

Re: The Soporific Warrior

See, I knew you had better things to do!

This is something I've never heard of. I'll go back and read more. How did you get involved in this?

(This is my thread, so I can go off-topic if I want to. The rest of you, go to Mary's and watch bad movies.)

Liz

Re: The Soporific Warrior

I've been interested in subpersonality theory since first seeing Wilber mention it briefly in Integral Psychology. IFS is one of the most developed models, with intensive clinical use over the last 20 years. Schwartz's work developed out of working with bulimics who often talked about “parts” of themselves that took over during binges, other parts that hated their bodies, and so on.

His work draws on the work of many other people who have been working with subs (such as The Watson's ”Ego States,” among others), but is highly original in some important ways – especially, the need for the therapist to be self-led in therapy, able to recognize his/her own parts but not be hijacked by them. When he uses the term “self,” he is thinking of a higher self, a buddhanature, a core self, what Wilber might call the witness.

Schwartz has a book (Internal Family Systems) and the conference is building on the rapidly increasing interest in his model.

It's a cool model for therapy (and personal growth). My PhD will probably reference his work a lot as I try to create an integral model for working with supersonalities in a clinical setting.

Peace,
Bill

Re: The Soporific Warrior

Yeah, what I read seems very much like the process of Big Mind, yet puts more emphasis on the person defining their own subpersonalities. It seems more organic and individualized, no?

I've seen this in myself when I do that witnessing of whatever is driving me crazy. But I like his process of the Self being compassionate towards the subpersonality. I'm now looking at my own impatience with my subpersonalities and realizing that that is not the self I was identifying with. God, that's a bad sentence! But you see what I mean, right? That “self” is not my true self, but another subpersonality. I can see the real practical application of this and why you're drawn to it. It's nearly bullshit-free, as far as I can tell. I love that.

Liz

Re: The Soporific Warrior

Big Mind actually grew out of Genpo Roshi's work with Hal and Sidra Stone back in the 1980s, I believe. The Stones come from more of a Jungian background, and were the first to widely write about sub work (Embacing Our Selves).

Schwartz's system is pretty BS free, which is one of the reasons I like it. But yes, it also has that compassionate element in dealing with subs. He advocates recognizing that subs arose in the first place to help us in some way (usually as children). And rather than trying to do away with them, which some approaches emphasize, he favors trying to discover their true value and making them a part of our psychic community.

His idea of being Self-led really emphasizes the compassion element. It's real easy to be frustrated with subs that act up, rather than being empathic to what their real concerns might be. This was a hard lesson for me in dealing with my inner critic.

My IOC blog has a lot of posts in the sidebar about my work with subs.

Peace,
Bill

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A P.S. to my last comment.

Yes, IFS is highly individual. Each person will have a different collection of managers, firefighters and exiles depending on their life experience.

I posted a personal example of how IFS works to explain a chapter in my own life: Internal Family Systems in Action.

Bill

Re: The Soporific Warrior

Thanks for pointing me to that blog. This method really resonates with me. I feel like a kid with a new toy.

Liz

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Happy to share useful tools.

:)

Bill