The Lucky Ones

I liked The Lucky Ones and my mandatory post on it will explore some stuff my group talked about in class. This post is probably boring and you should stop reading here. I usually just glaze over all the mandatory posts other people make so don't feel bad.

So someone in my group said that they didn't understand why it was important that we watched this. Those are the questions I usually like to think about when considering a body of work. Does this have a meaning? Did I gain anything by viewing it? What does it teach us? I believe most things have some sort of meaning attached to it. Things have to try really hard to be completely devoid of meaning. Meet The Lucky Ones can teach us something.

So we analyzed Meet The Lucky Ones on the basis of it exemplifying the relation between Conflict and Resolution. Jesper killed Ashley's frog and as a way to resolve the issue he bought her a new one.

Thinking on it more I think the thing I took from Meet the Lucky Ones was a theme of Finality. Every conflict has a resolution be it good or bad. So of course every story had a sort of conflict and resolution to some degree. Alice was unhappy so she left Frank, Sharon felt guilty for not telling the truth so he gives back the car, Frank was petty, greedy and jealous and he lost everything he had. But finality in the videos runs deeper. The motiff of death presented by Bill and Estelle represents the ultimate finality or resolution.

This theme is nice and all and gives the work a tad more meaning but it doesn't really teach us anything we don't already know. Yes everything comes to an end we know that. But what we can learn is how our actions and choices determine what sort of end we will have. So we can further break apart the video into a musing on Atonement. The characters who atoned and faced their problems had a happy ending. Jesper bought Ashley a new frog and they remained friends, Sharon gave the car back and got rid of her guilt, Mike made more time for his family and saved his marriage. All these characters were miserable but fixed their problems in order to be happy. Those who didn't atone or learn from their conflict were doomed to be miserable. Frank was greedy and jealous but did nothing about it. Alan knew he was trying to run away with two married women but went with it. Initially after viewing Meet the Lucky Ones you might be surprised that it could teach you to be a better person.

Something is truly great when it is both thought provoking and entertaining.