Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Tip#732: What’s Your Headline? - The Shipping News

As I wrote in tip#730, I am always inspired by people, like Nelson Mandela, who are able to forgive those who had inflicted pain upon them. They are able to re-write their attitude from being the victim to taking leadership in their own lives.

They end up creating a new story that is more positive, optimistic and empowering from the hurtful experience they went through. They chose the half-glass full point of view instead of half-glass empty.

 The Shipping News (2001)

The drama film, The Shipping News, is about a man named Quoyle (Kevin Spacey) who has been a victim all his life and finds redemption and his inner strengths when he goes home to Newfoundland. The story includes other characters who experienced childhood traumas and spousal abuse and how a sense of family and friendship can help heal the wounds. See: movie trailer 

There is a mystical air that permeates the beautiful vistas of Newfoundland contributing to the healing energy for Quoyle and others (Judi Dench and Julianne Moore). The film is also inspiring in how Quoyle discovers his hidden talents as a writer for the local newspaper which leads to rebuilding his self-confidence and self-esteem.

The metaphors for his transformation come in the form of headlines he is learning to create for his column but are narrating his life. For example...

“Headline: Blundering Idiot Stuns Crowd… For a Change”
“Headline: Deadly Storm Takes House, Leaves Excellent View”

This film is a great example of a movie hero who finds the strength to break free from his painful past experiences by re-writing his life’s headlines. This is also an exercise you can do for yourself. For example mine would be…

Old headline: “Mid-Life Crisis Leaves Man Depressed, Broke & Lost”
New headline: “Man Learns Empowering Methods To Overcome Mid-Life Crisis”

 So what’s your headline?

Remember How Movies Can Help You: 
A) Entertain & Escape 
B) Re-energize & Release 
C) Insights, Epiphanies & AHA moments 

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“Movies for Motivation: How To Stay Strong in Your Life & Career”
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Emmanuel Lopez-Motivatorman
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Providing Inspiring Movies to Empower Your Work & Life!
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© Emmanuel Lopez 2014

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

One of my all-time favourite movies with a stellar cast (I didn’t even recognize Cate Blanchet as Petal!)

The book is also stunning, and uses a wonderful literary conceit of depicting/defining different types of sailor’s knots/mariner terms at the beginning of each chapter; here’s the first, which explains Quoyle’s name: http://books.google.ca/books?id=jHp8VHqgCmQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Day Merrill