Sacrifice

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2009)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is no doubt one of the best movies of this decade, but most of the film's viewers seem to be missing the big picture. This film has a number of different popular themes; "youth is not wasted on the young"; "the human spirit knows no age"; and the list goes on. One of the central themes of this film is sacrifice. Benjamin Button is heroic in the fact that his life was not wasted or misspent due to his ailments. He is heroic because nothing stopped him from experiencing extraordinary life experiences. However, I feel that the film is more about sacrifice for the ones that you love. Benjamin gave up everything because of his love for his wife and daughter. He knew that his condition would so complicated and so difficult to understand for his wife and daughter. He left them to spare them the emotional turmoil that would ensue had he stayed. This story is more of a story of sacrifice than of triumph of the human spirit, and it illustrates the limitless possibilities of things that people will do for the ones they love. The point of this post is not to point out that people are wrong in their assessments of the film. All of the observations are correct, however, I just don't want people to be lost on the more obscure points of the film. I loved this film when I saw it, and knew that it would be special for a long time to come.