On Sunday evening Ross and I along with my daughter-in-law and one of my grandsons went to see the movie Bohemian Rhapsody.
Now if I’d taken note of the reviews I would have thought it wasn’t really worth the effort and would most likely be a waste of money.
But I really wanted to see it, and knowing from past experience — what the critics write about movies and what the movie is actually like are often very different things. So we went anyway. And thoroughly enjoyed the whole deal. I tapped my feet in time to the music, rocked along with Queen and Freddy Mercury. I cried too, as it was rather sad, and I have a lot of admiration for their achievements. Of course I realise that they glossed over some of the more unsavoury bits, but in general it was a really enjoyable night.
I wasn’t the only one to think so. At the end when the movie had finished — people stood and clapped! A small number of people left the cinema but most of us stayed to hear one more song whilst we watched the credits rolling.
To my way of thinking — that is a movie worth seeing. I enjoyed the Abba movie too, but nobody got up and clapped at the end.
So why is it that other peoples opinions are so vital to us that we seek them before we do something like going to watch a new movie. We look at the reviews and decide then if it is worth seeing or not. How many amazing movies have been unsuccessful because of a lukewarm review?
I’ve never really understood that anyway as we each have different ideas and your idea of a good movie might be a violent horror movie whilst mine is a good story where I can have a cry and talk about it for ages afterward. In short I was entertained despite other peoples opinions not being high.
So how many of us go through life waiting for confirmation that what we are doing is good and that other people have sanctioned it? Why do we not operate from our instincts and go on that way?
Perhaps it is because we are worried that we will be laughed at, or our ideas criticised as being not good enough. We tend to go about looking for GOOP — The Good Opinion of Other People — when really we should be listening to our gut feeling and going with our instincts.
It takes a bit of practise — a some courage to go with your gut or your instincts but often (when I’ve actually done it) it turns out all right.