Saving Mr Banks – Forgiveness Scene

 

Saving Mr Banks – Forgiveness Scene

PAMELA - You've come to change my mind, haven’t you? To beat me into submission.

WALT - No, I've come because you misjudge me.

PAMELA - How do I misjudge you?

WALT - You look at me and you see some kind of Hollywood King Midas. You think I've built an empire and that I want to use your Mary Poppins as just another brick in my kingdom.

PAMELA - And don't you?

WALT - If that was all it was, would I have pursued a cranky, stubborn dame like you for twenty years? I'd've saved myself an ulcer! No, you expected me to disappoint you and so you made sure I did. You see, I think life disappoints you, Mrs Travers. I think it's done that a lot. Maybe Mary Poppins is the only person in your life who hasn't.

PAMELA - Mary Poppins isn't real.

WALT - Oh, no, no, no, that's not true. She's real as can be to my daughter's and to thousands of other children--adults too. She's been there as a nighttime comfort to a heck of alot of people.

PAMELA - Well, Where is she when I need her? Hm? I open the door to Mary Poppins and who should be standing there but Walt Disney!

WALT - Mrs Travers, I am so sorry. I hoped this would be a magical experience for you, for all of us. But I let you down-- and in doing so, I've broken a twenty year old promise to my girls. I've been wracking my brains, trying to figure out why this has been so hard for you and I--You see, I have my own Mr Banks. Mine you, he had a mustache.

PAMELA - Ah! Not true then that Disney created man in his own image?

WALT - But it is true that you created yourself in someone else's yes?

She doesn't answer.

WALT (CONT'D) - Ever been to Kansas City, Mrs Travers? Do you know Missouri at all?

PAMELA - Can't say I do.

WALT - It's mighty cold there in the winters. Bitter.

WALT (CONT'D - he pours out) - My dad, Elias Disney, he owned a newspaper delivery route there. Thousand papers. Twice daily. Morning and evening edition. Elias, he was a tough businessman. A save-a-penny anywhere you can type of fella so he wouldn't employ any delivery boys, he just used me and my big brother Roy. I was eight years old. Like I said, those winters were harsh and old Elias didn't believe in new shoes until the old ones were worn right through so-- Honestly, Mrs Travers, the snow drifts would be way over my head--

WALT (CONT'D) - We'd push through that snow like it was molasses. And the cold and the wet would be seeping through the shoes and the skin would be peeling from our faces-- and sometimes I'd find myself sunk down in the snow, waking up, cuz I must've passed out for a moment-- I dunno. Then school, too cold to figure out equations and things. And back into the snow so by the time we got home it'd be just getting dark, and every part of you would sting like crazy as it slowly came back to life in the warmth. My mother would feed us dinner and then it'd be time to go out again for the evening edition.

Best be quick Walt, best be quick or poppa's gonna show you the buckle end again boy.

WALT (CONT'D) - Now, I don't tell you all this to make you sad Mrs Travers, I don't. I love my life - it's a miracle. And I loved my daddy, boy I loved him. But, there rare is a day where I don't think of that little boy in the snow and old Elias with his fist and strap and I'm just so tired-- I'm tired of remembering it that way. Aren't you tired Mrs Travers? We all have our tales but don't you want to find a way to finish the story? Let it all go and have a life that isn't dictated by a past?

It's not the children she comes to save. It's their father. It's your father--? Travers Goff.

PAMELA - I don't know what you think you know about me Walter--

WALT - You must've loved and admired him a lot to take his name--

PAMELA - I--

WALT - Mrs. Travers. It's all about him isn't it? All of this. Everything.

Pamela looks at her hands, they're shaking.

WALT (CONT'D) - Forgiveness, Mrs Travers, it's what I learned from your books.

PAMELA - I don't need to forgive my father. He was a wonderful man.

WALT - No, you need to forgive Helen Goff. Life is a harsh sentence to lay down for yourself.

WALT (CONT'D) - Give her to me, Mrs Travers. Trust me with your precious Mary Poppins. I won't disappoint you. I swear that every time a person goes into a movie house - from Leicester to Kansas City, they will see George Banks being saved. They will love him and his kids, they will weep for his cares, and wring their hands when he loses his job. And when he flies that kite, oh! They will rejoice, they will sing. In every movie house, all over the world, in the eyes and the hearts of my kids, and other kids and their mothers and fathers for generations to come, George Banks will be honored. George Banks will be redeemed. George Banks and all he stands for will be saved. Maybe not in life, but in imagination. Because that's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope, again and again and again. Trust me, Mrs Travers. Let me prove it to you. I give you my word.

Contact - I Had an Experience...I Wish i Could Share It

 ELLIE

I had... an experience.  I can't

prove it.  I can't even explain it.

All I can tell you is that

everything I know as a human being,

everything I am -- tells me that it

was real.

The room grows quiet.

ELLIE

  (softly)

I was given something wonderful.

Something that changed me.  A vision

of the universe that made it

overwhelmingly clear just how tiny

and insignificant -- and at the same

time how rare and precious we all

are.  A vision... that tells us we

belong to something greater than

ourselves... that we're not -- that

none of us -- is alone.

JOSS

Moved beyond words.

ELLIE

Softly:

ELLIE

I wish I could share it.  I wish

everyone, if only for a moment --

could feel that sense of awe, and

humility... and hope.  That

continues to be my wish.

Opportunity to be Patient

Enjoy this video clip from the movie, Evan Almighty, where the waiter, Al Mighty, played by Morgan Freeman, explains prayer as, 'God providing opportunities'. What are we going to do with the opportunities in our life?

·         Joan: Excuse me. Can I get a refill please? 

 

·         God: Coming right up. 

 

·         Joan: Thank you. 

 

·         God: Excuse me. Are you alright? 

 

·         Joan: Yeah. (God looks at her unconvinced.) No. It’s a long story. 

 

·         God: Well, I like stories. I’m considered a bit of a storyteller myself. 

 

·         Joan: My husband… Have you heard of New York’s Noah? 

 

·         God: (Chuckling) The guy who’s building the ark. 

 

·         Joan: That’s him. 

 

·         God: I love that story, Noah and the Ark. You know, a lot of people miss the point of that story. They think it’s about God’s wrath and anger. They love it when God gets angry. 

 

·         Joan: What is the story about, then? The ark? 

 

·         God: Well, I think it’s a love story about believing in each other. You know, the animals showed up in pairs. They stood by each other, side by side, just like Noah and his family. Everybody entered the ark side by side. 

 

·         Joan: But my husband says God told him to do it. What do you do with that? 

 

·         God: Sounds like an opportunity. Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does he give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other? Well, I got to run, a lot of people to serve. Enjoy. 

Collateral Beauty - What is truth, you ask? No idle questions answered here!

When I saw the movie "Collateral Beauty" nearly 2 years ago it jumped right up into my list of favorites. A devastating story being told by someone hit hard by life and refusing platitudes and the conventional quick fix answers from friends, society, church and religions.

Throughout the movie I found instances where we are invited to enter into the drama of life - the drama of suffering, which, when you think about it, is what we do as we participate in the mass of the passion of Christ each Sunday at church. 

The post: "The Beautiful Truth of Collateral Beauty" from Jeff Hual at Mockingbird peels away all the cloudiness, distortions and relativism of the world as it says: 

... Collateral Beauty goes straight to the heart of the matter, diagnosing the human condition.  The movie begins with Will Smith portraying an advertising executive named Howard, a guru in his field, who is addressing his associates. Howard asks the question that is most likely at the heart of our burning questions today:

What is your why? Why did you even get out of the bed this morning? Why did you eat what you ate? Why did you wear what you wore? Why did you come here? We’re here to connect, so how are we supposed to do that?

Love, time, death. These three abstractions connect every single human being on earth, everything that we covet, everything that we fear not having, everything that we ultimately end up buying, is because, at the end of the day, we long for love, we wish we had more time, and we fear death. Love, time, death. Let’s begin there.

I don’t know if the writer of these words is a Christian, but I can think of no better description of the human condition. In the absence of Christ, humanity is forever trapped in an insoluble situation. We live always with the fear of death; we can’t do a single thing to gain more time; and real love can be ephemeral, elusive. So we go to church on Good Friday seeking an answer to our insoluble problem, one that rings true, and brings comfort into our situation. 

Jeff goes on in the review to explain the supernatural turn of the movie when Christ through Love, Time and Death, in the form of three actual people, enter into the drama of Howard's life. He goes on to challenge each of us to delve deeper in our faith by asking those most vital and hard pressing questions that only come to us when we are struck down by life and find out at that moment that the only way out is through God's love. And for me, I throw the challenge out, if we are not the one struck down, but rather the one nearby, we are commissioned by way of our baptism, to be present with them in that suffering so they can feel that they are not alone and perhaps feel the truth of the situation which is always, always, always that Christ is in it with them.

Coming Alive - The results are transforming and contagious

In the movie Chef, when Chef Carl Casper suddenly quits his job after refusing to compromise his creative integrity, he finds himself lost and as he allows or rather surrenders to the advise of his ex-wife, he goes back to his roots re-igniting his passion. In the movie we witness not only his transformation, his "coming alive", but how all of his relationships are set ablaze with joy and wonder -- exploding in a new zest for life and love.

One of the most dramatic "coming alive" true stories is that of Helen Keller.  This clip (see link below) from The Miracle Worker and the excerpt from her autobiography, Helen Keller: The Story of My Life illustrate the connection between simply a word learned only by rote and when suddenly one's eyes are opened to the much larger meaning the symbol represents - one is opened up to the thing itself... Where the Word Comes Alive.

Check out Helen Keller's awesome story HERE.

Watching someone "come alive," like in the movie Chef or reading Keller's words or viewing the dramatization in The Miracle Worker is at one level motivating as we witness the transforming power generated by someone's coming alive. And yet the effect is not limited to one coming alive, but to all others who are touched by this person. 

A favorite quote of mine is by Howard Thurman 

Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. 

[This quote is in Gil Bailie's Violence Unveiled, p. xv, where he attributes the quotation to a conversation he had with Thurman.]

In spiritual direction a primary emphasis is placed on overcoming roadblocks that may hinder coming alive.