Work it Out #1: pick two good books/movies that present love as "giving," and two bad ones that show confusion of love as "using." Be creative and suggest ways the writers could fix the bad ones so that they are moral and more helpful to society. Alright! Let's do some movie reviews, starting with the two good ones: (and a big thank you to my family for suggestions!)
Frozen: this was the example I gave in class. It starts off with a great example of what love isn't: Anna, a princess who's been stuck in her own castle since she was a kid, falls in love with a handsome foreign prince named Hans. After a whirlwind courtship (pretty much one evening spent chatting) they decide to get married. Then there's some chaos, Anna's sister reveals that she has ice powers and goes on a rampage, and Anna has to put her plans on the side to go save her sister. On the way, she meets Kristoff, the example of real love in the story. They don't start off liking each other; actually, helping Anna find her sister almost costs Kristoff his life and livelihood. But slowly they develop a friendship, which reaches new heights when Anna has been wounded, and they need an "act of true love" to save her. Kristoff loves her, but he knows she prefers Hans, so he carries the weak princess all the way back to her castle and her lover, effectively sacrificing his chance at marrying her. Thankfully, the story doesn't end there, but this should be enough to show that Kristoff innately knows what real love is.
I Still Believe: this movie focuses around the teenage years of the Christian musician Jeremy Camp. While attending college, he comes to the heartbreaking realization that his girlfriend, Melissa, has terminal cancer. Instead of withdrawing (to protect himself from the heartbreak of losing her) he actually proposes to her, and stands by her and her family through their struggles. This movie made me cry so, so bad; it's such an incredible example of love and how God works through the pain in our lives.
Iron Man: yeah... there's a lot of things wrong with this movie. I wanted to focus on one key problem, though: Tony's relationship with Pepper Potts. Pep is the girl who's not only stood by him for years, but she's witnessed firsthand what a terrible person Tony can be. Yet she still sticks with him, and it helps him to become a better person. The problem? The first time Tony really noticed Pep was because she was wearing an immodest dress at a party. This was sad, after seeing how pure Pep had seemed compared to the other girls in his life. Creative fix: give Pep a better outfit. Have them fall in love because she's faithful and pure, good things for their future relationship.
The Little Mermaid (animated): once again, a lot of things wrong here. The story centers around Ariel the mermaid and her attempts to gain the love of the human prince Eric. However... it's hard to gain the real love of a person when you can't actually talk to them. So the problem is that Ariel is supposed to gain "love" by hanging out with the prince and acting pretty... yeah, not going to work. Actually, Ariel's overprotective dad is a better example of love: he's willing to give up his kingdom and power, just to save Ariel from the consequences of disobeying him. Creative fix: either totally rewrite the story (make the dad nicer too; no more dream-smashing), or just the ending. Maybe Ariel wins Eric's affection, but finds out later that it doesn't count as the love she needs to stay human. Then she has to think about what love is really like, perhaps remembering the example of her father. And then maybe real love will have to come into play during the final battle?
Sorry that this is so long! And thank you for reading!