Having Once Been Shown The Way, Maybe Now You Can Find It Again

Rating: 10/10 (11 June 2006)

I never did read the Dan Millman book from which this movie was made (but I do plan to read it now), but I have read several others wherein seekers pursuing physical achievements received powerful spiritual guidance from mysterious mentors, such as the Richard Bach books (aircraft piloting) and "The Legend of Bagger Vance" (golf), and others, and this movie quite well measures up to the requirements of the genre. Where this one is different is that from a purely materialistic, earth-based, egotistical perspective, this seeker already pretty much had good reason to feel that he was already "perfect," what with his great looks, smarts, Olympic-level prowess, and easy sexual achievements, he was not "broken" initially (like many who seek because they have failed, or they are alcoholics, or they have lost everything, or never had anything in the first place), but was already conscious of an impending dissatisfaction or imminent tragedy--he was being called from within to create for himself a skyhook, and while externally he felt he had it all made, internally he knew that he was made for something more.
I feel that Scott Mechlowicz was a great casting choice for this part, as his considerable physical beauty was magnificently metaphorical of this earth-based sense of perfection, while his acting performance perfectly foreshadowed that his life was going to require of him something more and that ultimately he would arrange it so that he would succeed in taking on a challenge that few would be willing to take on.
Being on an Olympic team, striving for a gold medal, must be an almost unbreakable ego addiction, for whereas a more ordinary member of the herd could be understood as wanting a way out, how does this apply to a person on the brink of being number ONE in the WORLD in something? This really demonstrates how, while few are called, even fewer would ever answer.
Nick Nolte's performance perfectly walked the razor's edge between compassion for his student and emotional detachment from him--he would train this student well, but the student had to come to HIM. And as the mentor, Nolte never wavered, never doubted, never succumbed to a game of clashing egos, but quietly demonstrated the authenticity of his mastery.
To me Nolte's character seemed to exemplify the strength, awareness, and control of an aikido master, the existence of which is not a fiction but something that can be genuinely experienced. There really are people out there in the world like this, ready and able to help those who choose them. I particularly appreciated Socrates's line, "I didn't choose you, you chose me," for that is how it must work and does work.
Dan Millman said that this story was based on true events, although the actual novel, itself, is a fiction. This is true and not a paradox, as these things do genuinely happen all the time. Maybe not in everybody's life, of course, that is obvious. But those who truly WANT it, their mentors will come.
There was a quality to this film that pierced right through the veil of the screen and shot consciousness into a realm of hyper-reality. Millman's nightmares were almost unbearable to watch and experience from the audience seats, but tension was relieved by extremely powerful and effective camera work that demonstrated the stopping of time and experiencing the NOW. Perhaps this is how the story changes lives--it grabs the bull by the horns and MAKES the book reader or movie viewer actually EXPERIENCE this state of consciousness. And once having been shown the way, maybe now they can find it again.
This is definitely a movie to be experienced, but perhaps only few will really benefit from it.