And then, it saved me

A day that started with a sense of accomplishment, became an exercise in humiliation as it drew to its end. I made futile attempts to distract myself by trying to think why a multi-threading framework doesn't work with C++ STL lists and debating with my friends on how using statistics is a not that bad a way to approach NLP, inspite its futility. Nothing really worked, I was still restless. So i decided to retire early. A good night's sleep can cure almost anything.
So i retire back to my room and suddenly I get this random urge to look through my CD pack. I find this DVD which i had burnt months ago, and i randomly decide to watch this movie called "The man from earth". I am so glad that i did.
The concept is not very alien. A man who never dies, has lived now for 14000 years, not sure of how people around him would react to it, moving from one place to another, as soon as someone starts noticing that he isnt aging etc etc. Whats interesting is how it is approached resulting in carving an almost flawless screenplay. Of course bolstered by excellent acting performances by the actors.
The whole film is no more than an intellectual discourse between the 14,000-year-old Cro-Magnon and his professor and teacher friends at his farewell party. There is a biologist, an anthropologist, a historian, an acrhaelogist, a psychologist and a christian literalist. The protagonist of the movie, John Oldman, starts a plethora of thought processes by expressing a hypothesis - "What if a man, from the Upper Paleolithic survived until the present day?" , when his friends keep probing him for the reasons he has quit a job with a tenure and leaving almost clandestinely without even saying a goodbye to his friends he has known for 10 years. Listening to the hypothesis, the characters do, what academicians would do in such a situation--, ask questions. Basically all aspects of how a man who has seen 14000 years of mankind and society pass by would feel and think is covered with perfection. He talks about the things he had to unlearn, and then learn again, his intellectual capability which was a result of a rare opportunity he had, to understand whatever he had witnessed in the past with the help of the understanding of the present, how his views about religion slowly changed over that life span, how he faced problems getting in terms with his immortality on the personal fronts, everything expressed in succinct, yet profound replies. Also there is a touch of honesty around him, where he never gets too melodramatic about his immortality, never rants about how he wants to die as that is whats appropriate according to the laws of nature, he seems a little sad about he had to watch his loved ones age and perish, but all the extreme emotions seem to have settled into a cloak of stoicism., like the ripples in the water ultimately die out over a long period of time.
It also raises the question of how does one feel when the entire foundation of one's belief is shaken. If there is something that you believe blindly, and the next moment you see the evidence in front of your eyes that it was hogwash, does it feel like a free fall ? Does the human nature fights back with a sense of denial ? more than that, is it fair to shake someone's belief like that if its not doing any major harm to anyone else ? what is wisdom ? what is truth ?
All in all, it was a treat for the intellect. I liked a movie so much after a long time ! I was tempted to sms K and A 3a.m in the morning. Somehow decided against it. I finally slept off with a smile on my face.