A Golf Course Runs Through It. You could think of director Robert Redford's newest film by that title instead of The Legend of Bagger Vance.

In the film A River Runs Through It (1992), based on Norman Maclean's autobiography, Redford presents the sport of fly-fishing as a metaphor for life. The art of fly-fishing represents becoming one with the rhythm of God.

"Eventually," says one of the movie's main characters, "all things merge into one, and a river runs through it."

In The Legend of Bagger Vance, based on Steven Pressfield's novel, Redford presents the sport of golf as a metaphor for life. The art of golf represents connecting with the rhythm of God.

"The rhythm of the game is just like the rhythm of life," says Bagger Vance," and remembering one's natural spiritual rhythm is finding one's true 'authentic swing' in life.

Bagger Vance (a perfectly understated Will Smith) is the mysterious caddy who appears to help former golf prodigy Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) regain his "authentic swing." That swing, his connective spark with the beauty and wonder of life, went out of Junuh in the trenches of World War I, and the story's beginning finds Junuh a broken man living the marginal life in Depression-era Savannah.

A golf tournament organized by Junuh's one-time sweetheart Adele Invergordon (Charlize Theron), however, gives Junuh an opportunity to reenter the games of golf and life. And, the Bible tells us, with God, all things are possible.

Enter God, then, in the persona of Bagger Vance. Viewers can quickly discern that Bagger Vance is not your ordinary caddy: He knows Junuh's thoughts and needs, he foretells the weather and the future, and he dispenses spiritual wisdom with the ease and authority of God Himself. The story draws its inspiration from the epic poem "Bhagavad-gita," the most revered of Hindu spiritual texts in which Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, offers instructions about life. Spirit's incarnation as Bagger Vance ostensibly gives Junuh advice about how to play better golf but actually advises him -- and all of us -- about how to live better, i.e., more spirit-centered, lives.

Bagger's work begins, though, only after belief, faith and willingness have entered the picture. Junuh's heart and mind are opened through others (especially the narrator) believing in him. Then, Junuh admits his condition ("I lost my swing," he says) and makes the decision to get out of his despair. This sequence of events reminds us that God needs a receptive heart and mind through which to work.

Through Bagger's instructions, Junuh begins coming to terms with his inner demons (personal fears and thoughts of alienation and limitation, derived from his war experiences and insecurities).

Patiently and calmly, Bagger directs Junuh to the spiritual calm at the center of his human storms. He says that Junuh's "authentic swing" or his life rhythm is somewhere in the harmony of all that was, is and will be. "Inside each and every one of us is one authentic swing," Bagger says, but often the world robs us of its memory and presence. When this happens, anyone, like Junuh, may become confused about who he or she really is -- at essence, a part of divine energy.

In responding to Junuh's cynicism, Bagger teaches an important lesson about the essential nature of life. Junuh declares that a person lives and dies and then is alone.

Bagger replies, "That's just about the dumbest thing I've heard" -- that a soul has everything when born and then loses it all. Bagger laughs softly to himself over the assertion that a part of God can ever stop being a part of God.

To see the totality of all being, to really feel that completeness, Bagger encourages Junuh to focus on the field of life, that point in consciousness when "everything that is becomes one . . . You've got to seek that place with your soul."

Such inner spiritual work is up to the individual and comes only through sincere searching and feeling. As Bagger tells Junuh, "I can't take you there," but can only help you find a way. In other words, so-called spiritual paths and teachers can only lead people to their own realizations of true Spirit.

The choice is with the individual -- a lesson that we keep getting over and over in the movies -- such as "You are who you choose to be" from The Iron Giant. "It's time for you to choose," Bagger tells Junuh. "I'm here with you. I've been here all along." Again, Spirit has always been within and with Junuh, but he has to call it forth; he has to remember his true spiritual identity and strength before they can manifest in his experiences. What Jesus did, we can all do. What Junuh does, we can all do. "Let yourself remember," Bagger says. "Remember your swing." Some viewers, thinking that the film's message is a bit heavy-handed, may feel as if they've been hit over the head with a spiritual golf club. Well, sometimes such a blow is needed as a wake-up call. Give Bagger's ideas a chance. Junuh does. And listen to the film's narrator -- he knows where the ultimate golf game leads.

*****

PAY IT FORWARD
(2000, 122 minutes, PG-13)

Apologies in advance to those who object to "dirty words" under any circumstances. But there's a question at the very heart of Pay It Forward that must be considered, and it involves such a word. The question, which comes up several times throughout the film, including from seventh-grader Trevor (Haley Joel Osment), is this: "Is the world just sh--?"

"No, it isn't," responds Trevor's social studies teacher, Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey), a disfigured loner on whom life has dumped plenty. Exactly why the world is not or need not be -- despite prevalent and strong evidence to the contrary -- is the crux of this extremely hard-hitting, realistic movie, written by Leslie Dixon and based on the novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde. By this time, you're probably aware that there is an emotionally powerful twist at the end of the film, one that some critics have dismissed as being either a cheap shot or proof that the answer to the above question is the affirmative.

When one takes the question and the theme of the movie to its ultimate (and, I feel, intended) level, however, the ending supports Mr. Simonet's answer to the question. To understand why, we must consider Trevor's "pay it forward" plan and take that plan to its logical spiritual conclusion. A sensitive child (played by Osment as if he indeed has a previously developed sixth sense), Trevor takes seriously Mr. Simonet's school assignment, designed to inspire the kids and start them thinking beyond their own spheres: "Think of an idea to change our world -- and put it into ACTION."

Trevor's idea, merely suggestive of the Random Acts of Kindness movement that has spread throughout our culture in recent years, is a "pay it forward" plan in which one person does something truly big for another person that the person can't do for himself or herself. The person done unto does not repay the kindness to the doer, but "pays it forward" to three other people. Each of those three people in turn "pays it forward," and so on. You can see that the plan, if followed to the max, could change the world.

What must be grasped about Trevor's plan, however, is that it is not a simple, touchy- feely, spread-a-little-happiness kind of idea. Trevor's plan, Mr. Simonet recognizes, "requires an extreme act of faith in the goodness of people." At its spiritual essence, "pay it forward" is based on the truth that the Christ, the spark of divinity, is within each person (often hidden perhaps but always there), and it is designed to change the world by igniting that spark into full view. Further, to "pay it forward" requires a person to give through total unselfishness and with unconditional love. It is giving of one's self from one's own Christ or Buddha nature, from the absolute, loftiest perspective of the Golden Rule, a version of which is found in many spiritual paths: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Trevor puts his "pay it forward" plan at work on his alcoholic mother (Helen Hunt); on Mr. Simonet, a victim of an abusive father; and on a friend, a target of discrimination and bullies. Steeped in unselfishness and unconditional love, Trevor's plan is designed to tackle life's most difficult problems, and that's how Trevor applies the plan. "Pay it forward," Trevor realizes better than anyone else, is not about the individual, but about others. It is truly about doing to and for others to improve their lives and the entire world. In its truest sense, "pay it forward" is seeing the interconnectedness of all life so that giving unto others is actually giving unto one's self. In such a giving, there can be no loss to self, no matter what happens to an individual. Doing unto and for others may require what the world calls sacrifices, but in the cosmic scheme of things, in the Big Picture of oneness and unconditional love, there is no sacrifice or separation.

The film challenges us to take Trevor's "pay it forward" idea to such a dimension. It is in taking and living "pay it forward" at such a dimension that the plan really does have the potential to change the world. Sure, there are scoffers to any such plan of pure altruism -- be it performing random acts of kindnesses or paying good deeds forward -- just as people have for centuries resisted putting into practice the intentions of the Golden Rule. Mr. Simonet even refers to Trevor's "overly utopian idea" (to which Trevor in childlike innocence and determination responds, "So?") The world's cynicism is epitomized in the film by the Los Angeles reporter who is a recipient of an amazing display of generosity as the "pay it forward" movement spreads from Trevor's home in Las Vegas.

Significantly, however, the purity behind the "pay it forward" idea even sways the jaded journalist's outlook -- an indication that major change is possible. In commenting upon his idea, which he painfully discovers is not always easy to implement despite the best of intentions, Trevor says, "I just wanted to see if the world would really change." He does find out, but he also learns that changing can be difficult and that sometimes people are too scared to change and thus they give up. When that happens, he says, "everybody loses."

In his youthful wisdom, Trevor says that people can't always see what it is they really need. Sometimes others must see it for them, others must hold the vision of the goodness inside them, others must believe that the world is better than it often appears -- others must "pay it forward" with unconditional love to help them see the divine possibilities of life. This is not always an easy movie to watch. "Pay it forward" isn't always an easy concept to practice. Life sometimes does seems like "sh--." But Trevor wants us to take life to another dimension and to see that there's goodness at the heart of existence. If nothing else, pay that idea forward.

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