Weed Lifestyle

Great Movies While High: The Giver, Source: http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/the-giver.jpeg?width=980&height=652The Giver was released this past August with lead actors Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift. Adapted from Lois Lowry’s 1993 Newbery Medal winning novel and masterfully scored by Marco Beltrami, this film is sure to thrill any weedist. As someone who read and loved the book in my childhood, I can happily say the film did not disappoint.

Set in a dystopian society in the year 2048, society has rid itself of all illness, pain, pleasure and emotion. The members of the community cannot even see color (don’t worry it’s not a black-and-white film). Human life as we know it, is a thing of the past. Children are assigned to families after they are born in the societies futuristic “Nurturing Center.” All members of the community are assigned to their field of labor which they stoically accept.

Great Movies While High: The Giver, Source: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm594136320/tt0435651?ref_=ttmi_mi_all_sf_4#Jonas, the films protagonist, discovers he is to become the communities new Receiver of Memory, the most important job in the community. Jonas begins his training under the mentorship of the previous receiver, the Giver, where he receives memories of the past world: music, laughter, color, pain, war and love. As Jonas begins to learn what it is like to feel emotion, he stops taking the emotion dulling shots which all community members receive daily, and begins to question the life his societies leaders have chosen for the people.

Great Movies While High: The Giver, Source: http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/the-giver.jpeg

The original novel, The Giver, was published in 1993.

Ultimately Jonas decides that the lives the people of his community are living are merely shadows of what life should be. Even with the threat of pain and suffering, he decides life simply isn’t worth living without emotions. Jonas then hatches a plot to travel to the forbidden Elsewhere outside of the community, in order to return the memories and emotions of the past back to society.

The film received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes website states, “Phillip Noyce directs The Giver with visual grace, but the movie doesn’t dig deep enough into the classic source material’s thought-provoking ideas.” Which is basically saying the same mantra from most of this generation of filmgoers, “The book was way better” – duh. (It’s kind of hard for a 97 minute film to go as deep as a nearly 200 page novel, just saying). But don’t pay attention to naysayers – the film adaption, although not highbrow enough for some critics, is a beautiful piece of art and a fitting tribute to the book.

What makes the Giver perfect to watch after lighting up is the magnificent imagery featuring the joys of human life. The film is all about the beauty of human emotion and love. The Giver captures just how extraordinary life can be by exploring the simple things that make us human, and make life worth living. To quote Jonas from the film, “If you can’t feel… what’s the point?”

Check out other posts from Weedist’s Great Movies While High series!