What is a MacGuffin?

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Director: James Mangold

It is nostalgia that drew us, who were lucky enough to be blown away by the very first offering of the Indiana Jones franchise, i.e., before it was a trilogy and is now in its fifth instalment. Intriguingly, the same actor appears in all five films over 42 years. 

It is not fun seeing an 80-year-old man swashbuckling and manoeuvring his way through the busy streets, dodging baddies and bullets. As we know the story's outcome, where the crooks will lose, and the truth will prevail, there is nothing more to look forward to.

The idea of a Time Machine dating back to the time of Archimedes is refreshing, though. The backstory behind the 'Dial of Destiny' is more fascinating than how Indy and his side kicks, as always, outwink his nemesis. This time around, part of an ancient find piqued the interest of remnant Nazis, now, in 1969, is in NASA. While the whole of the USA is rejoicing in the return of its first trio of astronauts from the Moon, Indy has to don his signature hat and whip to hunt part of an ancient Greek dial, fabled to have existed since Archimedes. 

The Dial is found to have been found in ship wreckage off the shores of a Mediterranean island named Antikythera in the early 1900s, hence its name, Antikythera Dial. It is said to be the world's first hand-held analogue computer. It is a device to calculate solar position and predict solar eclipses. 

Harping on the mystery surrounding its time of invention, which, by all accounts, was way ahead of its time, the moviemakers decided to bend the facts a bit. Even though most studies date the Dial as being invented around 100-150 BCE, newer research dates it at maybe 200-250 BCE, coinciding with Archimedes (of the Eureka and the nude run from the bathtub fame!). The scriptwriters also tweaked the power of the Dial to enable time travel. The ex-Nazis wanted to go back to WW2 to alter the outcome of the war. Archimedes had allegedly wanted help from the future to fight the Romans. It said Archimedes died during the Roman Siege of Syracuse in 212 BC.

P.S. Another new word learnt -MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is an object, idea, person, or goal that the characters are either in pursuit of or which serves as motivation for their actions. In this film, the Antikythera Dial is the MacGuffin.

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The superpower within...

Glass (2019)

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Is having superpower abilities real, or is it merely a construct of our creative mind? We have grown up looking at comics and movies, yearning to be invincible people who could fly like a plane and jump buildings in a single bound.

We longed secretly to have that single superpower, not to change the world, but to be better than the most intelligent guy in class; or the tallest, the strongest, the funniest, pick your pick.

In the annals of time, somehow, we lost interest in all this sorcery. The journey of life straddled us thus far. We look back at our lives and are happy with what we see. We cannot fathom how the heck we managed to achieve all of these. Given a chance to do it all again, we are sure we would not have made it. The hard knocks that life had to offer pushed us to achieve the impossible. Perhaps they awoke the sleeping superbeing within us to fight our inner demons to come out tops. Sometimes we marvel at our achievements and ask ourselves how we did all the things we did - that public exams, that marathon, that earth-defying feat. We doubt we could reproduce such results if we were to do them all over again.

In other words, we have powers within us waiting to be harnessed. We need not go around looking high and low for that push. No beam of light will shine from above to give it extraordinary powers. Still, all have us have that feared Kryptonite that may ruin us. Stay away!

In a convoluted way, this is the subtle message this film is trying to impart. Three characters with superpowers within their own rights - David Dunn (Overseer), Kevin Crumb (with multiple identities, including the Beast) and Elijah Price (Mr Glass).

The Overseer, the unassuming middle-aged man with incredible strength, with the help of with adult son, manages to capture the Beast, who is high on alert for kidnapping four teenage girls. But both Overseer and Crumb are captured and held in a high-security infirmary. Within the facility, the apparently catatonic Glass is also kept. The doctor in charge of them is part of a secret organisation out on a crusade to tell the world that there are no superheroes but disillusioned individuals with delusions of grandeur. In their defence come Glass' mother, Dunn's son and Casey Cooke, the victim who escaped Beast's clutches in the second offering of this trilogy, Split (2017).

Glass plans an elaborate escape route to announce to the world that they indeed have superpowers.

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Hypnotised to conform?

Old Boy (Korean; 2003)
Director: Park Chan-wook

It looks like we are walking around like hypnotised beings, doing what is taught to us. We were coached to hold specific values close to our hearts because that seems the only correct way to live our lives. Again and again, we are drilled with these ideas to give a sacrosanct feel to it. In a way, we are all zombies walking around doing things expected of us. The funny thing is that nobody knows what is expected from our existence. We are told that, unlike other creations, humans are given that unique sense called consciousness that puts us apart from animals. Hence, there is a need to follow specific rules.

Living life by preset man-made rules must be difficult. Failure to conform carries a baggage load of guilt, and the results may not be most welcoming. Anger toward one's own self may cause malady of the mind. Anger towards others will invoke the very primitive primal desires that we kept suppressed as we become more 'civilised'. That act is Revenge. This film is the second offering of the director's trilogy on Revenge - the first being 'The Sympathy for Mr Vengeance' (2002) and the last being 'Lady Vengeance' (2005).

This story is about the annoying drunk Oh Dae-su, who is caught by the police for unruly behaviour. He is bailed out by his friend. Dae-su soon goes missing afterwards. In fact, he is imprisoned in a hotel for 15 years, where his only contact with the outside world is a TV. He soon realises that he is wanted for killing his wife. Confused with the whole arrangement, he is released one day. Dae-su tries to find his captor and the real reason behind his incarceration.

The convoluted movie deals with many unpleasant subjects like incest and suicide. A thought-provoking one, though. 4.5/5.

(It seems that the 1998 Asian Economic Crisis was a turning point for Korean cinema. When all other industries were down, the government decided to give incentives to its film industry. Pretty soon, the world started seeing quality Korean miniseries and soap operas. Way before 'Paradise' won the Oscars, there were already in existence many avant-garde Korean films which pushed the boundaries of film-making.)

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Not the love of one's life but love of life itself!

Before Trilogy
Before Sunrise (1995)
Before Sunset (2004)
Before Midnight (2013)

Director: Richard Linklater


This must surely be a very ambitious project. In a way, it is real-life experimentation. It tells about how life treats two individuals over a span of 18 years. It shows how two 23-year-olds look all doe-eyed at life and again at 32 and 41. At each time, we get an idea of how they see life is ahead. They embrace it with so much zest, thinking that they know why their elders get it all wrong. They thought they had discovered the secret why so many from the generation before were so miserable and vowed never to repeat their mistakes. They could see as plain as day what and where they went wrong. They knew they would never prey to these situational demands.

Jesse, an American student, met Celine, a French lass, aboard a Eurail train heading to Paris. Striking a conversation, they clicked as they shared similar values. They made an unscheduled stop at Vienna and spent the whole evening talking and talking about everything under the star. Literally under the stars as they spent the night in the park. The morning after, they parted ways, promising to meet at the exact station in 6 months. That was in 1994.

Their second meet happened nine years later, in 2003. The earlier scheduled date did not materialise as Celine had to partake in her grandmother's funeral. It was a time before people had instant messaging. Both had made it a point not to exchange contact numbers anyway. Jesse is now an accomplished author on a book tour in Paris. He is now married with a child back home in New York, whilst Celine is still wandering around wondering what to make of life. She finds relationships too complicated but finds solace in caring for the environment and social courses. She works with an environmental NGO. Their few hours of tête-à-tête before the flight ended up with Jesse wilfully missing the flight. 

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in all three films.

Another nine years later, Jesse sends off his firstborn home at the airport in the third film. Jesse's son is leaving after spending summer with his father. Yes, Jesse has divorced his first wife and decided to marry Celine and settle in Paris. They have a pair of twin girls. As they reach the tail end of their summer vacation, their otherwise blissful union hits a bump. Celine is contemplating a career change. She has to choose between a French Government post and a higher paying one in Chicago. Jesse wishes that she chooses Chicago as the job is in tune with her life ambition. Celine thinks Jesse chooses Chicago as he wants to be staying close to his son and possibly work towards custody of his son. That is when the battle started. It spiralled into a feminism war and equality, etcetera.

The irony of it all is that they end as the very similar couple that they vowed they would not be in their later years.

At the end of the day, it's not the love of the
other person matters. It's the love of life.

A few lessons of life are learnt here. Invariably love turns sour. Couples have to invest time and effort to be in love as the default button says go out and spread the love. Life is no fairy tale for that someone special to morph from nowhere to assume the role of Prince Charming. Fairy tales are grim satires of life, not an imagined utopia.

The thought of someone complementing and completing the (better) other is ludicrous. The speech 'You complete me' is a subtle invitation to indulge in the act of experimenting with the lock-and-key mechanism. It is a biological process, not a transcendental one.

Life in modern times is stressful. With so many societal expectations to meet, one lifetime is not enough. If surviving through the hard knocks of life is not challenging enough, there are gender roles to be fulfilled. Conversely, there is a push for gender empowerment as well. With all these boxes to be checked, to say that the modern man is stressed is an understatement. With all these swords of Damocles hanging over our heads, how will one attain peace at heart and mind? Only when there is peace in oneself can one find a genuine connection with others.

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In the mood?

In the Mood for Love (Cantonese; 2000)
Director: Wong Kar-wai

This film must surely be a fruit of a labour of love. It is such a joyful experience to watch as the viewers are cradled back to a Shanghainese community's claustrophobic surroundings in 1962 Hong Kong.

It is a story of a close-knit group tenant, specifically of two couples, in an apartment building. Two spouses who are often left alone by their busy working partners end up developing feelings for each other. The busy partners in real fact are embroiled in an affair, between themselves. The scorned spouses discover a common interest, create a platonic relationship but soon realise it is romantic. They resist the temptations to be as low as their partners, despite the circumstances of time and the lure of their biological attractions.

The theme of this story segues nicely into a discussion I had with my friends recently. What is this thing about marriage? Is it a mere a public declaration of a property much like when Vasco da Gama hoisted his flag in the shores of a particularly cold Christmas morning to claim Natal as the property of the Portuguese King Emmanuel?  Is it an injunction to limit his sexual prowess to a single named party? Is it a decree to ensure the union's earning member's responsibility to provide for the economic and biological needs?

Believe it or not, the Hindu scriptures have looked at marriages as the souls' union rather than physical bodies. It is a continuum of their karmic evolution. Sex does not come in the equation. It is perfectly normal to have a sexless marriage. Polygamy and polyandry were accepted in ancient Bharat but not accepted in the modern legal system. My research shows that various dharmic texts like the Manu-Smriti and Vedas have classified marriages into eight forms - Brahmana, Daiva, Rishis, Prajapati, Asuras, Gandharva, Rakshasa and Pisaka. The first four forms of marriages are done with the blessings of a father figure. The Asura type is a form of bride selling. Lovers in 'love marriages' would make secret pacts of their union utilise the Gandharva rite, using an animate object or a person as proof. Rakshaha and Pisaka marriages are frowned upon and are deemed criminal. It is equivalent to the bride abduction and 'date-rape' in a modern setting.

The decision of union of the individuals and matrimony is all about an individual's perception. Sometimes we decide on life matters and feel it is warranted to satisfy our inner desires and personal intent. Whether copulation is a mere biological act or a divine cosmic dance of the feminine and masculine forces is a personal preference.

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