The Big White

So I just finished watching a movie called The Big White. It has Robin Williams in it and the lady who played Elastigirl in The Incredibles and a bunch of other really talented people.

Now, I don't usually like dark comedies (odd, seeing as I'm in one...), but this one was really good. It was about this guy (Robin William's character) who finds a dead body and tries to pass it off as his brother in order to collect on the life insurance. The insurance agent is trying to figure all this out because he knows something's fishy. Meanwhile, the guys that killed the body in the first place kidnap his wife until they get the body back. Like every dark comedy, there is a point where everything is bad. Yes, the characters do funny things, but it's still very... dark.

What I liked about the movie was that it had a happy ending. Yes, there were some messed up things, but there was a sense of balance. Everything would be okay. I talk about this for two reasons: 1) The story element, and 2) Life.

1) The story element. I feel like all good stories have to end with a sense of balance, or at least a purposeful imbalance. The best thing I have to contrast The Big White with is American Beauty. That movie, to me, is the epitome of sad endings. (Okay, maybe not, but it is a very sad ending.) Nothing is okay. And nothing is going to be okay. There is no real closure for any of the characters. The Big White ends with all of the characters achieving something. They have met a goal or found contentment.

Now, I'm not saying that stories that end unbalanced are inherently bad. But I do think that there must be purpose in it. Obviously, American Beauty had a purpose behind its purposelessness (What exactly that purpose was is up for debate. I'd need Mike Coon in on that discussion...). This is good. It gets people thinking and wondering and questioning and coming to their own convictions about life. And for a movie, that is okay.

Movies are a great medium. We spend 2 hours or so in the world of the story and then we come out as different people. As a (hopefully, Lord willing,) future game designer, I watch stories for the sake of understanding how better to tell them. So here goes: I think video games should not end unbalanced. Audiences only spend 2 hours in the world of a movie. They develop deep relationships with the characters, building sympathies and apathies for characters depending on their actions (or suggested actions) in that 2 hours. Video games are entirely different (at least, that's the hope...). In video games, the player identifies with the characters in the story over a period of 10 - 40 or possibly more hours, depending on the genre. Though I think video games are slightly less emotively evoking than film (a quality that could change), their sheer length hopefully leaves a stronger connection between player and character.

Here it comes, the point I've been rambling on about: With a stronger connection between audience and story, the storyteller (designer, writer, director, whoever) cannot leave a video game story unfulfilled. The player will feel cheated. They have just spent days of their life (not to mention $50 - 60) playing through this story, allowing themselves to be drawn into a world of your creation. It is betraying that trust to leave them empty after so long. I think it is better to make thought provoking, possible empty, points earlier in the game. Though really, I suppose this could all be my Christianity talking (not a bad thing).

What a smashing transition!

2) I can't stand the thought of the bad guy winning. Mainly because I don't believe he will. In real life, there are times when it seems as if nothing will ever be right. There are times when American Beauty's ending is all we see. But I believe that there will come a time when every ending has balance to it. That's what I see in Revelation 21 (I think that's the reference). Sometimes, it's all I can do to cling to that hope. I listen to some songs and they seem to be pregnant with the future hope of everything being okay, when I'll be sitting in heaven/The New Earth (thank you Michael Wittmer), hanging out with the people that I love (Days, from Turn A Gundam seems to be the only one coming to mind right now. Ask me and I'll play it for you sometime.)

Anyway, I want my life to point to and be a part of the bad guy losing. Whether that be through fighting something bad or bringing light to some place that's dark, I want the good guys to win. And they will, thanks to Jesus. (Insert Sunday School lesson here.)

I don't really want to end on a cliche, but I really do believe that Christ got rid of darkness. The whole "already but not yet" eschatology kind of sucks, but it will be okay.

I can't wait.