MovieChat Forums > Smoke (1995) Discussion > You'll never get it -

You'll never get it -

posted 16 years ago by LudwigVanGoldfish
9 replies | jump to latest

If You don't slow down my friend.

What do you mean?

I mean you're going too fast, you're hardly even looking at the pictures.

They're all the same.

They're all the same, but each one is different from every other one. You got your bright mornings, your dark mornings, you got your summer light and your autumn light. You got your weekdays and your weekends. You got your people in overcoats and golashes and you got your people in T-shirts and shorts.
Sometimes the same people, sometimes different ones. Sometimes the different ones become the same and the same ones disappear. The Earth revolves around the sun and every day the light from the sun hits the Earth at a different angle.

Slow down, huh?

That's what I would recommend.

You know how it is -

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, Time keeps on its petty pace.

[–] TheFabulousThomasJ 16 years ago

[–] LudwigVanGoldfish 16 years ago

It's a great film isn't it?

What do the stories told by Paul Benjamin (William Hurt) make you think? Or maybe, what do you see?

Colorful Captain of the terrorbubble crew of the SallieG.

[–] sbortolo 16 years ago

I think the christmas story is the best. Make someone happy for no reason other than to do something nice. That old lady probably knew her grandson was a troublemaker. the last thing she needed was to hear about it on her lonely Christmas Holiday because the dead beat stiffed her. Thats my favorite and i when the movie was over i was happy and wanted to do something nice for someone.

[–] LudwigVanGoldfish 16 years ago

It was beautiful - people are beautiful!

There is an unseen side within this film...

Remember how the movie began with a story? The story was about weighing smoke.

"You can't weigh smoke..." I admit, it's a strange notion - but - ...

William Hurt then reveals how smoke was weighed after it had drifted away in silence.

If you can, play that black and white story again and watch the elderly blind lady. It is all in her face. There was more going on in that forgotten apartment than Auggie cheering a lonely soul on a Christmas Day -

She didn't fall asleep. Like silent drifting smoke her spirit quietly left and her tired body died in peace and far from fear. And what's more Auggie did not steal that camera!

That camera was a gift from her spirit as she departed in joy!

Just imagine - once her spirit was freed she could see again!

Auggie was very clear in his memory - he didn't understand why he had to take the camera.

He never stole in his life. Never even thought about taking something that wasn't his. And that's why he said this is where things really got strange and things took a whole new direction -

It was her! He left the room as she was leaving her body and her spirit could be weighed (it's smoke-like presence confirmed) by what happened next - her spirit spoke to him saying, "Thank-you friend, take a camera, it's my Christmas present and I know that with this camera you will capture that which is unseen and essential - spirit!"

And so Auggie did.

[–] LudwigVanGoldfish 16 years ago

There are other ways to know this was what happened as well -

It's the poetry of the film. The slow moving elevated train passing over the city we see twice...

She was blind, and who would value the gift of sight more than someone that lost it? And so she gave Auggie what to her would be the greatest gift of all -

An eye on the world.

Auggie took that eye (the camera) and brought it to "His corner." That's his home, his place in this universe. He focuses it carefully on each new dawning morning and he sees beauty.

He catalogs each blink of that eye and talks of light. When he shares the light others begin to see and the gift of sight is passed on and becomes eternal.

The smoke was weighed, her spirit was weighed, Auggie's spirit was being weighed, and all people everywhere are connected.

And in the music are lyrics about dancing through the graveyard, how we are innocent when we dream, and how we make promises to our love that we will stay together forever.

[–] yadda1 12 years ago

I just watched again--this has always been my favorite movie. My favorite thing to do after watching a movie is to come to these boards. Thank you so much for this beautiful thread. I've seen the movie so many times, and this notion never occurred to me. Makes me love the movie even more.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] lalehan 16 years ago

waoww- thank you ! I was just looking for these lines =) During watching the movie I was fascinated by those for a while when I heard. They're so fabulous and in the movie, even more fabulous =))

[–] LudwigVanGoldfish 16 years ago

Thank-you!