Do You Have a Bucket List?
I finally got around to seeing The Bucket List this evening.
Having read a number of reviews panning the movie…
The message of the film is a sentimental homily you might read in a greeting card; its tone felt patronising and potentially rather offensive to people actually enduring the painful, humiliating process of dying. (Times Online)
Saddest of all, the professed spiritual goals on the pair’s checklist of things to do — “laugh till you cry,” “witness something majestic” — are the kind of pallid bromides found in the pages of a quickie self-help book: “I’m Not O.K., and Neither Are You.” (New York Times
Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play a pair of old men with cancer who go in search of adventure. The results are deceitful and nauseating. (The Telegraph)
…I thought that it might just be a waste of time.
I was wrong.
The Bucket List is definitely a movie worth seeing.
Not for the acting - both Nicholson and Freeman seemed to be on autopilot.
Not for the dialogue. It was predictable.
Not even for the scenery, amazing though it was.
The Bucket list is worth seeing because, despite all it’s faults, the movie brings two questions into play:
- If you had only a short time to live, would you want to know?
- If you knew you had only a short time to live, what would your Bucket List be?
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POSTED IN: Health, Misc., Morning News
4 opinions for Do You Have a Bucket List?
Liberty
Apr 4, 2008 at 8:21 am
This is a great post, Liz, because ever since the movie came out (which I haven’t seen yet - no time!), I have been thinking about this whole Bucket List concept. I’ve been dying to make one, but alas, I have no time.
Um….maybe I’ve stumbled across the first item that belongs on my list…to make more time…for myself!!
Liz
Apr 6, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Yeah, time really is an issue…I’m all for lists but not so good at making them.
Of course, it’s probably better to get all these things done before you reach the stage of needing a bucket list.
José A. Grullón
Apr 7, 2008 at 5:39 am
I saw that movie, and I consider it was great, precisely because of the message it gives, which relates to the two questions you correctly identified in this entry.
I don’t have a Bucket List, mainly for the reason that, with just 20 years old, I’ve practically done everything I would like to do in a lifetime. I’ve lived intensely, with passion. I’ve gone through good and bad times, and faced the joy of being with friends, and the dilemmas of loneliness. I’ve learned from mistakes, and I’ve lived to help others.
The concept, then, is not on doing extraordinary things (some say that, instead of doing extraordinary things, it’s better to do small things in an extraordinary way). I am already satisfied with what I have lived so far, and it goes back to the fact that I have lived as a human being, richly blessed by the hand of my loving Father.
I still have many aspirations and dreams, though, but if I die today, I’ll day happy.
Liz
Apr 8, 2008 at 5:19 am
Hi Jose, sounds like you got the right idea…life should be lived every day, not just when you realize that it might not continue.
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