The following essay is supposed to be a model for this essay. Note the anecdote opening, the allusions, and the use of specifics.

I will try to use the following outline

Intro

Vision of one artist

One heart for all.

The bad movie

Last Saturday, I left the Gaslight Cinema after seeing the movie “Good Will Hunting.” Both Syd and I were still babbling the lines from the film and recalling our favorite scenes. My favorite occured when Damon told Minnie Driver that he didn’t love her. Syd really liked the scene with Robin Williams in the Public Gardens. As we crossed Main Street, we were both picking a moment when we could watch the film again.

“Good Will Hunting” differs from the vast majority of movies on the multiplexes of America. Most of the “blockbusters” released by Hollywood have been sanitized for the majority’s approval. These movies are the most democratic of creations. Their creators shape their works to reaffirm their audience. Everyone walks out with a nice glow. Any element that may risk offense or discomfort is softened and distorted. We never had any doubt that Jerry Maguire would get back in the money, that James Bond would thwart another enemy, or George would hit another tree. The characters can be contained in a sentence, the plots in a matchbook, and their emotions in a shotglass. Formed in focus groups, these movies live in malls and die in Blockbusters.

On the other hand, some movies have been forged by the conscience of their creators and aim at an audience of one. Where a blockbuster has been shaped by a consensus of marketing focus groups, these have been created by the tyranny of one. These movies defy convention; lovers do not get married, good guys do not win, and heroes do not live. The public, when they go to these movies, leave the film in tears or disturbed. Yet, these are the films that go on to earn hundreds of millions of dollars, win platoons of Oscars, and shape the culture of the country.

Emerson wrote that a genius is someone who “believes what is true in his heart is true in everyone’s.”(Self-Reliance). The tyrants are the real geniuses. The genius of “Gone With the Wind”, then, is to go against expectations and have Rhett leave Scarlett, not because it will make the movie more popular but because it resonates in the iron string of the author’s heart. This movie, and others like it, aim at individuals and their souls. “George of the Jungle” and the other blockbusters aim at the group mind. As a result, the blockbusters disappear beneath the waves, while the others form continents. Unfortunately, the majority of directors prefer the intellectual and emotional ease of the blockbuster.

Which is a pity, since the goal of every artist should be jolt the heart of every viewer, reader, or audience member. If our beliefs are merely affirmed, our hearts are only stroked. We leave the theater numb and pleased, but we have not examined the murky and mucky depths of our hearts. If we are jolted, then we leave the theater thoughtful, charged, and changed. We must go tramping through the muck to finally see ourselves at our core.