TO BE 'UNLEASHED': MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ? by
Brayd
I HAPPENED TO CATCH THE END OF MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 on some generic cable station, which turned out to be a good thing, because immediately following was some Jet Li martial arts film called "Unleashed." This film surprised me with its European "art-picture" style... please bear with me... the film made a surprising point to me....
It was an underground fighter picture about a brain-washed killing machine of a man (Li) in the dog-like service of a crime lord of sorts, who, when wearing his collar, was very docile and child-like. He spends most of his time in a cage, eating out of cans, with nothing but a teddy bear and an 'ABC' book.
The "wow" factor of the initial fight scenes (much better than MI:3's) soon gave way to an unexpected film with a heart, as this child-like brainwashed character walks away, bewildered, from an ambush that apparently claims the lives of his 'owner' and his posse.
Here is where it gets interesting: he is taken in off the streets by a blind piano tuner and his (adopted daughter?) And their kindness gradually begins to challenge the notion that he is an animal. He entusiastically responds to the daughter's attempts to show him how play piano, as he also has flashbacks of his mother playing a piano.
Soon enough, however, his previous life catches up to him, when it turns out that his "owner" survived the ambush and is back in business, and he has to choose between these two natures in himself... will he be the renowned and respected underworld killing machine, or will he begin his life over again as... as... a child who is dependent on the kindess of a family, and of a culture, where learning to play a piano has a very abstract relationship to survival?
This film's theme really hit home with me. Strength and honor versus vulnerability and humanity. I would like to think that this choice is clear, but, in my high school days, along side of painting and some music, I also had seven years of martial arts training and a black belt. This created a subtle division of myself. I can tell you that at some level, my fighting had SUBCONSCIOUSLY put me at odds with myself. I still wonder to this day about what kind of a world-concept I would be living in if I had taken dance lessons instead, where body strength and grace is used for cooperation with others instead of competition.
LATER IN MY LIFE, Spending hours at a piano was so difficult, because (according to my brain-stem,) piano lessons were not serving the purposes of 'survival,' and proper 'self protection' against the unexpected. Not that ninjas are waiting around every corner to jump on you, but that life is a series of subtle agressive events AGAINST YOU...and you need to spend your life being prepared for these unexpected "attacks." There are a hundred other things more 'practical' than piano that I could be doing. Studying, exercising, working on my resume, etc.. things that could help me get ahead. Skills that could be useful if "things go bad." Maybe if you have had highschool training as an athelete, or maybe just an agressive parent, you might know what I mean, here.
Which is my point. What do we need to protect ourselves from? It took me years of de-programming myself to get to the point where I realized that sitting (vulnerably) at my piano WAS the best line of defense for my soul in this culture. That the exercise of abstraction is the way to a better life in this modern society. There is no leap into the higher brain centers if your brain stem is always on alert, and that will keep us from trusting others, and prevent relationships that are not only emotionally rewarding, but more financially secure.
But it all starts with facing the gatekeeper: the brain stem and its constant fear of its possible deaths, physically and socially. Yes there are things to defend ourselves from...aren't there? But my life jumped to a whole new level a year or two after I dedicated myself to music. It took a good year to gently convince my brain stem that these hours NOT focusing on some fight was suicide. Now, I see it the other way around, because survival in this way is a mission: impossible.
Brayd is a self-taught musician and artist living in Pennsylvania but soon moving to Northern California. He has a B.A. in filmmaking, and draws inspiration from varied interests, most notably Jungian Psychology, Esoteric Spirituality, Peru, and Argentinian Tango.
Art by David Thomas http://www.davidthomaspaintings.com