~Movie Review: Peaceful Warrior

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.

SUZUKI-ROSHI

Last night I watched the special screening of Peaceful Warrior here in the Emerald City along with some cool SeattleIntegral souls. First of, let me say that I haven't read the book or any of the reviews before watching this film. My only exposure to it are the trailers. After seeing the trailer I had a feeling that this movie is going to be a decent movie. Well, it turned out that the movie is not only decent, it was actually a well-made movie. The pacing, the action, the humor, the cinematography, the acting, the screenplay, and the direction were all top-notch for an independent film.

The cast captured the essence of the film: Nick Nolte did a great Socrates, Scott Mechlowicz's performance was memorable, Amy Smart added feeling and aesthetics, and the rest of the cast did their part well. Unfortunately since the book had been published 20 years ago, the ideas and philosophy presented in the film had already been hashed and rehashed by countless self-help and spiritual books, not to mention that the Karate Kid already had also spawned a number of copy cats, so it was hard to shake off the cliches (e.g. be here now, it's the journey not the destination, etc...). However, where the film shines is its skillful way of presenting these not-so novel ideas by combining humor, suspense, visuals, and good acting.

All in all I enjoyed the movie. But I feel that some people will label this film as New Agey because of its theme. I think those people are the ones who will miss the point. The ideas and philosophy in The Peaceful Warrior have nothing to do with New Age. There's nothing new about these ideas. These ideas and philosophy have been perennially present since humanity started sharing ideas. We can find those ideas in ancient Greece, in the Gita, in most religious texts, and we can hear them from classic stories told and re-told over generations.

Peaceful Warrior is a good reminder that acceptance of serendipity will always trump grasping and control. It teaches us how to take out our trash and to live in the moment so we can enjoy and keep on learning from this Kosmic eternal grooving.

I give this film four fluffy z@@@@dz.

P.S. The Peaceful Village: After the screening the audience was given the opportunity to interact with the Cast, Filmmakers, Producers, and the author Dan Millman via a video conference that connected all the six cities where the special screening were held. Even Tony Robbins was there hooked up from Fiji. At first the technical difficulties made the video conference more like a "one big dysfunctional family" (in Scott's words), but everything turned out fine. The people behind the film shared their experiences in the making of the movie and the audience got to ask them questions. The Peaceful Village was very cool experiment in capturing instant feedback from audiences and getting them involved in marketing the film. It was a fun experiment in elevating the message of the film and taking it to a whole new level of interaction.

P.P.S. Check out some of the photos I took before and after the screening: tagged in Flickr with "Peaceful Warrior".

P.P.S. UPDATE: 06/06/2006 -  Ebert and Roeper reviewed Peaceful Warrior. They gave it two thumbs down. Oh well, you can't win them all.