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Sorry no movies here to download just information & trivia
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.....for the answer click here ! |
SPECIAL FEATURE: What Dreams May Come
!!! RECOMMENDED FILMS !!! |
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After life there is more. The end is just the beginning. Director:
Vincent Ward
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| "Sometimes
when you lose, you win"-- this seemingly contradictory phrase (which is
mentioned a few times in the film) expresses the theme of the film itself.
From one side, "What Dreams May Come" is a film about where you go when
you die-- to Heaven or to Hell. It gives you a very dramatic (and
expensive-- the film cost 80 million bucks to produce!) image of
what life is like in the spirit world and what you must have done to get
there. But from another side, its theme runs much deeper than that and
in the end makes a serious point about what true love in a marriage requires
-- sacrificing yourself for the other.
The film starts out introducing us to the two main characters, Chris and Annie Neilson. (played by Robin Williams and Annabella Sciorra) and giving us a quick glimpse of their happy life together and their beautiful family. But soon the film turns to tragedy as we see the death of their two teenaged children in a car accident and then later the death of Chris himself. Like in many other films (and I suppose like in reality itself) the hero first must overcome the shock and disbelief about his own death. After Chris sees his own funeral and realizes that no one sees or hears him, he must accept that he is dead. But then this film goes where no other film has gone before, it brings us to that spiritual world where Chris will live for the rest of his eternal life. (And in fact, where his children and friends are already waiting). Other films like "Ghost", "Always" or "Heart and Souls" were centered on the actions of “newly-dead” spirits who remained on Earth to try and fulfill something left incomplete by their death. These films ended with the spirits finally moving on to the next plane of their existence. But in "What Dreams..." that’s where the film begins, making it a pioneer in a idea that should be examined more often on the big screen-- where do we go when we die? Well our hero "lost" his life, but he "won" a place in Paradise. Surely, the place where Chris ends up could be called Paradise. It is a place of such great beauty, fantastic colors and sights as only exist in man's dreams. In fact, the exact design of his spiritual homeland is according to a dream shared by Chris and his wife -- a dream that Annie had expressed in a big mural in their home (she’s an artist). And this is also a place of great freedom. Just think about where you want to go and you're there. Think of who you’d like to see and they come. Flying in the air and walking on water (and even under-water) are all possible in the sprit world.
 But not everything can be joyful for Chris, even after meeting his lost children and oldest friend. Alone and ignorant of the reality of life after death, his wife could not bear the grief of losing her whole family. Annie had already suffered one time from extreme depression and tried to commit suicide after the death of their children. |
This time, Chris’s
death pushed her over the edge and she succeeded in killing herself. Unfortunately,
this did not succeed in bringing them closer together. Suicide is
an act which so seriously violates the laws of nature and is motivated
by such deep feelings of self-pity or self-hatred that his wife fell to
a dark and miserable place in Hell.
Here's where the real story of the film begins. How can Chris live with knowledge that his beloved wife is in this same spirit world but they cannot be together (or at least not for a long time)? He cannot, so that's why he decides to go down to Hell and bring her out. Of course, this includes many fantastic and fearful scenes and special effects but all that is just "decoration". The real story is about the power of love and how love requires sacrifice. Along the way to find her, first we learn that it is only Chris’s strong love for Annie that draws him to her. Otherwise, he'd never be able to find her among all the lost souls in Hell. Also, we see flashbacks to the time when Annie was hospitalized because of her severe depression and how Chris almost gave up on their marriage. He could not lift her out of her depression so instead of joining her, he decided to divorce her. But in that moment, Annie changed and they continued a happy life-- until his death. Now, Chris finds Annie alone at the bottom of Hell, depressed and torturing herself over the deaths of all those she loved most. Annie is so caught up by her own self-abusing image of reality that she cannot even recognize Chris when he comes. And again, he finds himself unable to lift her out-- but this time he determines to join her. Even though he has the right to live joyfully in the beauty of Paradise, Chris cannot bear to leave Annie to live and suffer alone in Hell. So, he decides to stay with her and endure that suffering together. He seems to have "lost" his life again, but actually he "won". The greatness of Chris’s sacrificial love moved Annie’s heart to have hope in life again and also moved the heart of God, so that they both could live together in Paradise. For those who are interested in knowing what is "life after death", this is not a perfect picture of it. There are some strange images and questionable ideas about “soul-mates”, reincarnation and spirits taking on the image of people other than themselves. But it is by far the best (and only?) picture of the spirit world ever shown on film. And for those who are interested in knowing what is "true love", this film IS a perfect picture of that and you'll want to watch it many times. **You may be interested to know that the film derives it’s story-line from a book of the same name written over twenty years ago by Richard Matheson. But the book is not entirely fiction. Of course, the characters and their lives are fictional but the depiction of life in the spirit world and the laws at work in our passage from this life to the next, is the result of much research. The author lists nearly 30 different books as sources for his novel. He made great effort to learn all he could about the reality of life after death and then share that knowledge with others in an artistic way. (Although, I think the film succeeds in that task better than his novel.) I’d also say (based on my personal research) that in its depiction of the spirit world, the film is about 75% accurate.**-- PFN |
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What
Dreams May Come
Here
and Hereafter
A
World Beyond
A
Wanderer in the Spirit Lands
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PERFECT FILMS:
INSPIRATIONAL:
SPIRITUAL:
(there's more but I'm still thinking) |