Thank you so much, Clare, for your kind and thoughtful reflections. I’m so glad the dialogue format worked for you--I had fun with it! If you’re interested, I’ve just posted a moderately revised version of the dialogue on my own Substack, The Comic Muse.
This imaginary dialogue was excellent! It reminded me strongly of Plato's dialogues, (which I'm sure your probably intended). The Aristotelian Stranger is in the role of Socrates asking questions to draw out the truth. Having watched several interviews with Tom Cruise, it was easy to imagine the way he would have said his lines. I found this so engaging! I really enjoy a good, thrilling action movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat. However, the more I have watched, the more I've noticed a feeling of emptiness and hollowness behind the protagonists. If they have no faith to motivate them, why are they heroes? Why are the decisions they make the right decisions? How do they develop their moral compass? How were their consciences formed? Which principles are most important to them and why? Such questions leave a feeling of incompletion and dissatisfaction for viewers who are actually trying to find something to contemplate in the film besides the thrilling aspects of it. I never really knew why I felt that way until I read this dialogue. All throughout our society we have seen that cutting God out of every doesn't make things simpler. On the contrary, it makes things so much more complicated. Thanks again for contributing this. I really enjoyed it.
Thank you so much, Clare, for your kind and thoughtful reflections. I’m so glad the dialogue format worked for you--I had fun with it! If you’re interested, I’ve just posted a moderately revised version of the dialogue on my own Substack, The Comic Muse.
This imaginary dialogue was excellent! It reminded me strongly of Plato's dialogues, (which I'm sure your probably intended). The Aristotelian Stranger is in the role of Socrates asking questions to draw out the truth. Having watched several interviews with Tom Cruise, it was easy to imagine the way he would have said his lines. I found this so engaging! I really enjoy a good, thrilling action movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat. However, the more I have watched, the more I've noticed a feeling of emptiness and hollowness behind the protagonists. If they have no faith to motivate them, why are they heroes? Why are the decisions they make the right decisions? How do they develop their moral compass? How were their consciences formed? Which principles are most important to them and why? Such questions leave a feeling of incompletion and dissatisfaction for viewers who are actually trying to find something to contemplate in the film besides the thrilling aspects of it. I never really knew why I felt that way until I read this dialogue. All throughout our society we have seen that cutting God out of every doesn't make things simpler. On the contrary, it makes things so much more complicated. Thanks again for contributing this. I really enjoyed it.