Pierced to the Heart

"You can't measure the success of a [film] on how many tickets it sells. You can only measure it in how many hearts it changes." — Hayao Miyazaki …more »»

Pierced to the Heart gets a new home!

Over time, we will be moving content from this site to a new web address: Life Love Illusion (lifeloveillusion.com). The new name and format support a broader range of exploration. During the (long) transition, you will be automatically redirected for articles we’ve moved. Other articles will remain available here.

What’s the deal here?

Have you ever had a blinding flash of clarity about a better life or a better world? A moment where you thought, “Hey, maybe there’s life before death”? It can change you, and it can start with a moment in a movie.

That’s what is about: finding life through film. Whether a film is old or new, we turn things around: We spend less time critiquing a film and more time asking if the film can critique us. With any film, we:

Focus first on how a film embodies the best in life — good, true, beautiful things — even if its filmcraft falls short.
Tone down (but don’t ignore) our critique of a film’s failings.
Allow a film to show ugly sides of life if, by doing so, it might help us see the best in life more clearly.

Why? Because life is better when the world’s a better place, and that starts with us. Whether on DVD or in a theater, we have a good time with film and we want movies to help us get better. Other bits you’ll find on the site:

The latest film talks
The three parts of a film talk
Good books and quotes
How to learn more about it

A angle on film is about how we change from the inside out and how film can help us do that. It works like this:

Change from the inside out

Heart. On the inside, in our hearts, is who we really are. A film can show us the best things in life and move us toward loving them.
Beauty. Our hearts move with Beauty — good, true, pleasing things. A film can help us feel the joy of real Beauty or the pain of Beauty's absence.
Love. As a film moves us toward Beauty, we can find and live love and relationship with those around us.

Be thoughtful about film

Find a film's heart. Seeing a film, we want more than the fun of the moment. We also want the film's heart to move us toward the best in life.
Take care with content. We see films that dive deep into ugly issues of this life, and thus show ugly things, but we don't want to enjoy ugly content for its own sake.
Consider what to watch. We see a broad range of films, yet we aim to choose better films that enrich our lives with Beauty in the moment and that also help us get better.

I hope you'll join us.

Randy Heffner
organizer

Talk about great films: The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)

Before viewing talk
The legends, mystery, and characters in The Secret of Roan Inish beautifully embody our innate longing for home and how we deal with that longing. The Irish waterscape and the life within it becomes a character, being both lovely and treacherous, passive and with its own active agenda. …more »»

After viewing talk
After seeing The Secret of Roan Inish, I sat back and wondered how often I, like Tess (the grandmother), repress my longing for home. I wondered how often … more »»

…more »»

Before viewing talks

Before viewing

More in-depth talks about great films

Wit (2001)

Before viewing talk
In the context of a life and death scenario, Wit intensely explores issues of life before death by juxtaposing the emotional sterility of the typical health care process, the purpose of academic rigor, simple human caring, the power of art, and the value and dignity of a human. …more »»

After viewing talk
Having seen Wit, I want to take life more seriously. What I mean is that I want to take living life fully more seriously. I tend to think that living seriously … more »»

Gran Torino (2008)

Before viewing talk
One could say that Gran Torino explores racism, but really racism is almost a red herring in the film’s exploration of alienation, sacrifice, caring, gratitude, and giving. Some praise the film, and some have derided …more »»

After viewing talk
By putting our judgments of others in the context of responsibility and maturity, Gran Torino encourages me toward a nuanced understanding of my judgments … more »»

Doubt (2008)

Before viewing talk
The simple title Doubt captures the film’s exploration well. The story deals with certainty and doubt around certain events, but the film evokes an exploration of doubt that runs deeper than the story. But, whether one engages at the story level or …more »»

After viewing talk
Doubt reinforced for me the dangers of prematurely moving into a position of certainty. In the film, the core issue of doubt versus certainty revolves … more »»

Smoke Signals (1998)

Before viewing talk
Made by Indians about Indians (we can say “Indians” rather than “Native Americans” because they themselves say it that way in the film), Smoke Signals creatively mixes humor from multiple angles (about Indians, about reservations, about how others see Indians, about the history of Indian relations with the USA, etc.) with …more »»

After viewing talk
Watching Smoke Signals affected me in two distinct ways. The first comes from seeing Victor struggle with his father's failings and offenses. Victor starts … more »»

August 3, 2009, 15:41 UTC (updated July 22, 2020, 12:24 UTC)
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