Welcome to the Movie Mystic! The films we discuss each month are not "reviewed" in the traditional sense of that word; rather, we look at metaphysical messages in films, both current and classic.

EMPEROR'S CLUB
13 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING

Happy New Year, everyone! As we begin 2003, I want to thank all of you again for making the first year of this column (2002) such a happy and exciting one.

Those of you who have joined me at one of our events know that I've been showing a clip from FAMILY MAN (Movie Mystic#10) as an example of how I believe that Spiritual Cinema has recently been looking at our societal value system. In that film, the main character realizes that love far outweighs all the trappings of material success that he had coveted so passionately.

Emperor's Club looks at a different kind of value: integrity. And it's a powerful and beautiful message.

For those of you who have put off seeing the film because you think it's just a rehash of Dead Poets Society -- so did I! When you see it, however, you realize that it explores a very different territory than that wonderful Peter Weir film did.

In Emperor's Club, Kevin Kline is at his very best (which says a lot because even his "mediocre" is awfully good) playing a career professor at an exclusive male High School Academy. He teaches the classics -- Rome and Greece -- with a great passion for that place in time where so many of our modern values were molded. The film's plot revolves around his encounters with a particularly troublesome student who just refuses to apply himself. In frustration, Kline pays a visit to the boy's father, a Senator in Washington, who seems totally unimpressed with the values that Kline so respects in that Greek/Roman era. Kline is indeed confronted with the root of his young student's problems: a father who has raised his son with the concept of expediency as God. Kline then has to try to determine a way to inspire his young student to break away from the code (or lack thereof) that he has been raised with his entire life. This desire to help his young student leads Kline himself to bend the rules of his own moral compass, with unfortunate and surprising results for both teacher and student.

The denouement of the film is chilling and poignant as Kline's career professor, who's "only" mark on the world is in the character of the minds he helps mold, is confronted with the specter of the prevailing values of "the end justifying the means."

The spiritual center of the film is that conflict of integrity and self-respect as it is faced with the challenges of "win at any cost." This is a powerful and perplexing issue that we face in the world today. The desire to win -- to succeed -- has been so deeply embedded in us that doing the right thing simply because it is indeed the right thing to do is looked upon by many as the foolish and naïve practice of "losers." This wonderful film directs a very bright spotlight on that attitude and exposes it as a shallow and unfortunate philosophy. I highly recommend Emperor's Club as an inspiring reminder of who we really are when we operate at our very best.

13 Conversations About the Same Thing is now out on video and, interestingly enough, explores some of the same region of integrity, but from a very different perspective. The plot weaves several seemingly unrelated incidents together to create a strong message about integrity and shows the consequences of crossing that line between integrity and expediency.

This film is also a great example of the "little" films that come and go somewhat quickly in current exhibition cycles. Their distributors send them as VHS/DVD copies to those of us in the Academy at this time of the year, hoping that something within them will perhaps create Academy Award nominations and give the film more visibility. In this case, it is notable for the extraordinary sequences in the film that feature Alan Arkin as an executive in an insurance office who has an employee who always, and I mean always!, sees the bright side of every situation. Ultimately, this eternal optimism annoys Arkin so much that he creates a situation wherein he is sure that he can expose his employee's cheerfulness as just a facade -- and, oh, is he wrong! Talk about attitude and intention creating reality! — this subplot alone is worth renting the video -- as is Arkin's performance which, if seen by enough Academy voters, could garner him an Academy Award nomination.

MovieMystic Chakra Rating for Emperor's Club

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Rating 4 4 4 4 4 5 4

A full explanation of this Chakra Rating system is available at MysticalMovies.com.