Walk Out

I think I have walked out of one movie my whole life.

Tonight made it two.

I had seen a movie previously about women in prison and it talked about their life and what got them there and I thought this would be a similar kind of movie. I remember I really enjoyed the other movie as it talks about a way of life I knew nothing about and bad things happening to good people is a story we can all relate to.

This movie was basically interviews with people who had been in jail for long periods. It was basically divided into three sections, the first being asking all the people to relate their stories of their time in jail. And really, no expense was spared. I can see the director asking "Can you elaborate more? When you talk about knifing him in the kidney, can you describe more graphically how his kidney looked when it was hanging outside of his body?" Disgusting.

Part two was where the people describe their crimes. Now no one seemed to show remorse for any of these crimes, at one point the director asked "Did you ever think of the victim?" and the woman laughed and laughed, saying no, she hadn't. Again the most vivid, lose-your-lunch detail you can manage.

Then part three, which lasted about 30 minutes before I left, was for the people to tell everything bad that had ever happened to them in their childhood. And it was so disgusting I had to leave.

A few of the people in the film talked about how they found Jesus when in prison and the movie kind of reminded me about when I was at the hostel in Amsterdam and the woman got up during dinner to sell us Jesus. It was the same kind of thing where she tried to be as graphic and gruesome as possible, laying it on as thick as she could. All about how her life was out of control and she was on drugs and suicidal and a prostitute.

And I was thinking when I was cycling home, what the heck? Here I am on vacation in Amsterdam, my life is good. If your life was a puddle of crap, it seems it's not now, and good for you, but mine is fine. Why are you trying to bring me down? It does clearly sound like you needed something in your life but I don't, so why are you trying to push this on me?

It seems like there's a point where you come to terms with your past, who you are, your life, or you don't and you wallow in the filth for the rest of your existence. Sure this woman claims to have found Jesus, but by reliving being drugged and suicidal 5 times a week for a live audience, how can she claim to have moved on, to be in a better place?

This kind of dinner theatre, where people trot out the dog and pony show of every hurt they're experienced in their lives, *now with each story more violent than the last!*, I can do without.