Frank and The Bucket List

I saw The Bucket List and thought it was really good. It's a little hard to give a spoiler, because, you guessed it, they die in the end.

On the surface, it looked like an Odd Couple like buddy movie, but it's not really. The movie really is spiritual.

Morgan Freeman's character Carter Chambers is a smart man, who kind of likes to show it. He was just starting on his way to getting a degree in History, with the goal of becoming a professor, when his wife became pregnant. He dropped out and became a mechanic, never to return. Years later his three children and grandchildren are successful professionals, and his granddaugher, I believe, is an accomplished violinist. He's felt a gap in his life, more acute when he faces terminal illness.

Jack Nicholson is an obnoxious, thrice married and divorced rich man Edward Cole, who can get whatever he wants, except a good diagnosis. So the movie's all about him learning from Carter, right? Family, not money is what's really important, right? Don't be materialist, because you can't take all your money and posessions when you go, right? Edward just needs to appreciate what he has, right? Not quite. The movie goes beyond all of this to the deeper truth.

In modern times there is a temptation to think of yourself as "spiritual", but it's in the Hallmark store knicknack, rose-smelling kind of way. ( I remember a chain email supposedly started by the Dalai Lama that included recommendations like, "Pursue cooking with reckless abandon!" ) That is, it's the error of not being materialistic, and establishing a false dichotomy between the spiritual and materialistic. It's the error of replacing materialism with "experience-ism" for lack of a better word. You know - accumulate as many experiences as possible before you die, get the T-shirts, and sing Frank Sinatra's "My Way" on your deathbed.

It's really not like that. No, the Frank in the title of this post is Frank Capra, the director of "It's a Wonderful Life". I'm not well acquainted with his work but here's a great essay about his spirituality. In The Bucket List, Carter is a modern day George Bailey, and his encounter with Edward affirms his life, as George Bailey's encounter with the angel affirms George's life. In fact, Edward is a more demon than angel - he tempts Carter a few times, and through weathering the temptation Carter comes out stronger and sees things more clearly. Carter realizes that in emptying himself through humble self-sacrifice, he has lived a full life. Thanks to his encounter with Carter, Edward achieves some clarity, and dies with peace.

At the end of our lives, we'll have no satisfaction if we "did it My Way". The way to live is His Way - through humble self sacrifice that is fruitful in ways we can't predict or maybe will never even know, but ways God plans.

By the way the Assistant Director is Frank Capra III.

Thanks to Rod Bennet, because I wouldn't have gotten as much out of the movie if I hadn't read his essay some time ago.