ONLY THE GOOD: THE LIFE OF CHUCK
A Life-Affirming Journey Through One Man's Mind
A New Weekly Article by Travis
INTRO:
Do you also watch hours of YouTube video essays and film critiques? Have you noticed they tend towards the negative? You are not alone. I love a good film critique essay and I even love the ones that are a little bit on the harsh side, but I have noticed a trend towards this harshness that frankly grows tiring. In an attempt to combat this negativity I will be bringing you a weekly article on ONLY THE GOOD (I will try to stick to every Friday, but no promises).
THIS WEEK’S GEM: THE LIFE OF CHUCK DIRECTED BY MIKE FLANAGAN
A Movie Devoid of Cynicism:
I have grown up in an era of cynical art. Satire, social commentary, and trope subversion have been the name of the filmmaking game for quite sometime. Though these stories have their place when they are always the flavor of the week I believe people start to crave something a little different. Well, look no further, THE LIFE OF CHUCK directed by Mike Flanagan is an optimistic journey through the mind of Chuck Krantz. The story doesn’t start there, however, the audience doesn’t know at first exactly what is going on. Spoilers ahead, and for the reader who hasn’t seen the movie yet, I highly suggest going in without watching a single trailer.
The Life of Chuck is a ‘three act’ story that starts in act three. We begin at the end which is a story telling method that is by no means new, but works here with incredibly efficiency. Before we ever meet Chuck, we meet Felicia and Marty, two exes at the end of the world. Literally. The beginning of the movie follows this divorced couple as they separately watch California crumble into the ocean, the mid-west light on fire, and Florida be taken by hurricanes and floods. The world is ending and they are just trying to figure out why.
Seems like a ripe scenario for cynicism yeah? Not so much. The two realize they want to find their way back to each other. They have conversations with several characters about the meaning of everything around them, and throughout the opening part of the story we get the sense that people need people. We are all drawn to loving relationship, conversation, and companionship. I found it beautiful and it became more beautiful when the big reveal happened. This wasn’t the end of THE WORLD this was the end of CHUCK’S WORLD.
A Walt Whitman Metaphor in Movie Form
The actual story-beats of this film are not the most important part. The Life of Chuck frequently quotes Walt Whitman’s line from the poem Song of Myself, 51: “I am large, I contain multitudes”. The movie is making a case for the dignity and importance of human life. Within Chuck’s mind is a whole other world, a universe made of all the experiences and people he has ever encountered. We later even see all these characters from Act Three somewhere present in Chuck’s actual adult life and childhood.
Why is one individual life worth celebrating? Because that life contains a world of its own. This is the first theme I really appreciated about the life of Chuck and it bears some interesting theological discussion.
Is it Hindu or is it Christian?
I saw two theological possibilities emerge from this movie. The first (the one I would not agree with) is a Hinduism interpretation. Hinduism, for those who may not know, is the western name given to the incredibly complex system of spiritual beliefs at the foundation of the Indus Valley. Everything I am about to say about Hindu themes in the Life of Chuck is a simplification of a much more complex idea of spiritual belief that one could make a living out of studying.
All that aside, the ‘Hindu’ idea I see in this film is that of the universe being a dream of Brahma. Brahma is one of the three primary god’s of the Hindu system of belief. He is known as the creator god. There are some sayings in Hindu writing that reality is Brahma’s dream, and when he wakes we will simply cease to be since the creator god is no longer dreaming.
This idea can definitely be exposited from the Life of Chuck, though it would function in reverse. Chuck has a universe in his mind. An entire world has been created through the thoughts and experiences of Chuck and when he dies it is snuffed out like a candle because the creator, Chuck in this case, is no longer creating.
I had this thought through a good portion of the movie, but I think there is a more fitting motif.
The second possibility, is from the Judeo-Christian perspective. Ultimately, I saw this movie as a story about the importance of human life, but more so about the human life as an imperfect imitation of the creator or capital “G” God.
There is a concept in Christian thinking that God the creator instilled in each of us an imitation of His creative power. Human beings cannot make ‘new’ anything that hasn’t already been made, but we create using what God has given us. This is how I saw Chuck. Chuck has a creative capacity to build in his own mind a universe made up of all the things he has experienced in the actual universe. We do this everyday without realizing we are doing it. Just as we are created beings with a particularly advanced logic and imaginative capacity, we also make stories and creations within our minds, a theme Whitman was clearly pointing to.
St. Athanasius famously wrote: “God became man so that man might become God.” The Life of Chuck makes the audience see the human person with this high level of value that has always traced through the Judeo-Christian tradition. Even for the non-religious, I think it is a delightfully optimistic thing to see on screen that human beings are walking around with their little inner creative universes and those experiences and universes matter a great deal.
There is a beautiful scene in the middle of the film where Chuck begins to spontaneously dance to a busker drumming. The narrator (Nick Offerman lending his incredible voice) tells us this was a moment Chuck would remember as he was nearing the end of his life. It is a simple idea that is often repeated, but just as often I don’t think it is given the weight it deserves. Our lives aren’t a series of checkpoints and goals. They are the human experiences we file away for those inner creative parts. What matters at the end of the day? How you live as a human being. How you treat others. How you honor the gift of life you were given even when it doesn’t seem like a gift.
A Really Good View of Teachers
The final praise I will sing for The Life of Chuck is incredibly biased. I am a teacher and this movie really seems to LOVE teachers. There are several characters throughout the film whether actual teachers, coaches, or parental figures acting as teachers and each of them brings exactly what I try to emulate in my own classroom: a genuine love for the job.
At the beginning of the movie while the world is ending the character of Marty is having parent-teacher conferences and keeps trying to bring the focus of the parents away from what is happening in current events and towards the well-being of their children.
In the last section of the film covering Chuck's childhood, his English teacher introduces him to Whitman’s poem which changes his perspective on life. He then joins an after school dance club where his instructor helps him realize the importance of finding something to be passionate about.
The one ‘teaching’ scene that I want to gush about, however is with his grandfather played by Mark Hamill. His grandfather is an accountant, the job we as the audience know Chuck will eventually do himself. In one scene he is telling young Chuck how talented the boy is with numbers. Chuck responds as many people do that math is ‘boring’ and he would rather dance.
Chuck’s grandfather begins to talk about math as an art, as a passion, as something that is in all of the universe and all of creation. He speaks about math with the same light in his eyes people have talking about their favorite book or piece of art and Chuck’s eyes light up with his grandfather’s. This is teaching. As instructors we are not supposed to ‘tell’ students exactly what to think. We are supposed to gaze at the beauty of the world and invite them to gaze with us.
The scene doesn’t stop there, however. In a moment of brilliant direction from Flanagan, Hamill stops his beautiful monologue on the wonders of mathematics to take a strong drink of his whiskey. After he drinks, his speech becomes more about how dancing can never be a career and Chuck should focus on mathematics because it is ‘needed’ not just ‘loved’. The scene so deliberately shows how the alcohol poisons the wonder. There is a truth in both statements but the boy didn’t need to hear the second half of his grandfather’s speech. He was already hooked on the idea of math just from seeing the passion his father figure had for it. This was a brilliant display of how tedious it can be to truly, earnestly teach. We teachers always want to push the lesson a step further but sometimes its best to take a step back and let the student’s mind do the work.
Overall I would give The Life of Chuck a solid 5/5 stars. It is a delightful and incredibly positive film that had me smiling from ear to ear even through scenes of tragedy.