And the reason why I am writing this post is because of 'Silver Linings Playbook' .
On the face of it, the movie is a rom-com but perched on a razor's edge between comedy and psychological drama. This movie gives a simple but life-changing lesson - Positive decisions can be made in the face of imperfection, desperation, and the desolate wasteland of your world in pieces.
For me one dialogue summed it all - “You gotta pay attention to signs. When life reaches out with a moment like this it's a sin if you don't reach back.”
So whether you are sad, angry or just plain disgusted...instead of whining it's much better to figure out the solution. Remember every maze has a solution. Solution never comes out of outer space. It's always there. We just need to look around with wide open eyes.
Now let me tell you a real life story on how a person made adversity his best opportunity.
Don't know how many of you would have seen Blade Runner.
Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, depicting a dystopic Los Angeles in November 2019.
Though I am not a huge fan of sci-fi movies but the reason why I am writing about this movie is not that I loved it but I loved the background story behind it that makes it so special.
Blade Runner is based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The first script was written by Hampton Fancher, a television actor. A friend of his told Fancher, “I think science fiction is going to happen,” and suggested Dick’s novel. Fancher came up with the idea of a detective who chases androids. Producer Michael Deeley (The Deer Hunter, The Italian Job [1969]), read both the book and Fancher’s script ideas and didn't like either very much. He wrote his own script and approached Ridley Scott to direct it but Scott rejected the idea.
After some time, due to tough financial condition Ridley Scott decided to take on the project with Michael Deeley. Initially the project was financed by Filmways Pictures, but the company was small and having financial difficulties, the group sought out new financing. The film was eventually financed partially by Warner Brothers and other investment groups.
When Ridley Scott finally got the financing to make Blade Runner it wasn't as much money as he wanted. The Hollywood studio were skeptical about the project. So they tried to cut costs. Ridley wanted to build a futuristic Los Angeles set for the movie. But all the studio would give him was a part of a generic 1920s town they had built ages ago. An unused set where they used to shoot gangster movies. All set in prohibition times. Because gangster movies had fallen out of fashion the buildings and streets in the set were decayed and peeling.
Looking at the sorry state of the available set Ridley wondered what to do. Obviously he felt insulted. Obviously the studio didn't take his film seriously. He pondered over the options available to him. The most obvious option was he could tell the studio to shove it. But if he did, that would almost certainly be the end of the movie. And probably the end of his film career in Hollywood too. So what could he do? It seemed impossible to shoot a futuristic science-fiction film about mutant robots in a set designed for black and white films about gangsters.
Ridley spent nights over nights on what could be the best solution. And guess what his problem gave him his solution.
He thought, the future is never devoid of past. The future isn't just brand new buildings, and brand new cars, and brand-new everything. The future is always about the latest things, overlaid on what came before. He decided to use the set as the past and overlay the future on it. To give a sci-fi image (which didn't exist that time) he added shiny aluminium piping to the outside of the buildings. And he added neon signs to the outside of the buildings. And people in modern, plastic clothes, with neon umbrellas. And travelling airships with massive outdoor TV screens. And all these futuristic props overlaid on the grungy old buildings just emphasised how the future always elbows the past aside.
But these props turned out to be much more important than they were initially thought of. Because neon shows up better at night, Ridley decided to shoot the movie at night. But it would also throw all the buildings into the background. Giving it the feel of a deserted and bypassed planet earth. Which was perfect for a story about returning mutant robots looking for their history. The cumulative effect gave the entire movie an all-pervading dark, ominous, threatening, sinister mood. This short-on-budget movie was truly craft out of waste. It played a pivotal role in Hollywood cinema. It launched an entirely new genre of film-making. Noir Science Fiction.
Over the years since its release, it has won nearly forty awards worldwide. It has been reissued in seven different versions. Blade Runner is considered a masterpiece. Ridley Scott’s Hollywood career took off. He went on to make many massively successful movies and featured among the important Directors. Many documentaries, novels, comics, video games and television series have been made on this movie.
So what is the moral of the story?
Take the problem head on and turn it into an opportunity.
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