High Plains Dhamma

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Who’d of thought that a Clint Eastwood movie would provide an excellent medium for teaching and exemplifying Right Livelihood and the consequences of Wrong Livelihood? It was probably not Eastwood’s intention when he made “High Plains Drifter,” but while watching the movie last night it struck me as excellently portraying what happens when we even tangentially are associated with Wrong Livelihood.

Consider the story line.

Operators of a mining company contract the murder of law enforcement official who discovers the mine lacks the proper permit for being located on federal land. Those hired to commit the murder are later framed as thieves to be sent off to prison.

While the original murder was fashioned by those directly affiliated with the mining company, everyone else in the town silently accepts it because their livelihood is dependent on the town continuing to thrive. Everyone from the barber to the storekeeper and saloonkeeper, even the church minister know that if the mine is closed, the town disappears, and so does their own livelihood.

As a result, the townspeople are suspicious of everyone and of each other. They blame “the stranger” for causing them to turn against one another, but it is their own doing. They’ve created their own Hell, which is so aptly shown when “the stranger,” Clint Eastwood, has them paint the entire town red and he rename’s the town.

Even a “proper” job or profession can be an example of Wrong Livelihood if one knowingly and willingly allows his or her income stream to be connected with another’s Wrong Livelihood. Folks can escape this, however: this is also shown in the movie with the innkeeper’s wife realizing and voicing her own doubts and desire to remove herself from all connections with the town’s kamma. It’s not a painless extraction, but it can be done.

If you’ve never watched the movie, I urge you to do so. And even if you have, do it again, but this time with your Dhamma eyes watching.

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It’s official, The Last Airbender sucks

Last March in one of my posts about racism and white privilege, I wrote about how the then-upcoming film “The Last Airbender” was another example of a whitewashed version of a popular cartoon populated mostly by Asian characters. The movie release had white actors playing roles that in the cartoon were clearly Asian. Despite the cartoon being hugely popular with kids of all races, Hollywood in its infinite wisdom decided that a movie with white actors would be more palatable with the public.

Fast forward to this weekend when “The Last Airbender” was recognized as the Worst Movie of 2010 by the Razzies. It was also honored as having the worst director and the worst screenplay.

In an Associated Press article, Razzies founder John Wilson said that many people who loved the television series “The Last Airbender,” including his own 14-year-old son, hated the movie.

What I wrote back in March – “The film industry has a long history – despite the diversity of those who work within that industry – of deliberately pandering to the prejudices and bigotry of its audiences” – remains true. “The Last Airbender” wasn’t a complete flop at the box office, which means the film’s creators won’t understand why the movie is being ridiculed.

That’s too bad. Because that means we will continue to be subjected to more films that pander to the ignorance of bigotry and racism. Particularly, it seems, when it comes to American films about Buddhism or Buddhists. There have been a few decent ones. But when Hollywood churns out crap like this, it gets a bit disheartening.