Near the end of Tom and Summer's 500 days together, they go to a matinee of The Graduate, and as they watch the final scene (Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross in the back of the bus, staring numbly ahead), Summer weeps miserably, while Tom appears transported by the romance of it all. With impressive economy, that image captures the gulf between these two characters' experience of love; he sees only the promise of togetherness, and she sees only the inevitability of loss.when I was little I loved a movie about a boy who would fly...dont ask me how I discovered it or how my parents felt it was ok to show me a movie (repeatedly) about a couple that in the end nearly commit suicide at school... but I saw it..a lot...like A LOT...this had a tie with "never ending story"...so in order to get the moral orel of it all I need to tell you about the flick in case you (the reader...whoever you are) haven't seen it...
so this family moves to a new house (mom, daughter Milly...the protagonist...her kid brother played by a pre "wonder years" Fred savage and a dog) the father had commuted suicide post a bout with cancer (which btw just makes it more fucked up when the mom witnesses her daughter jump off a building RIGHT in front of her...more on that later). They need a fresh start and they move in next to an alcoholic (herman Munster dude) and the titular character...Eric...
Eric is in a state of perpetual shock due to his parents dying in a plane crash as his uncle explains that was when he "started trying to fly" he'd go to the roof and extend his arms to the heavens..trying to fly as if he wanted to save them...
now to the movie buff ...this was an attempt at cashing in on the whole "superman" hype of the 80s (it's basically a huge "can you read my mind" send up)...but to a kid like me it was amazing..but see I wanted a "happy ending".
Ok see Eric had a ball hit his head because he couldn't catch it and he just wasn't there...Milly tried to break on through but wasn't able to. Milly and Eric end up running through the school trying to escape officials including cops, teachers, a psychologist..all while this town fair is happening...Milly and Eric wind up on the roof where Milly confirms with Eric that he can fly...and they leap off the building as her mother screams in horror below (they swoop over her) they fly home...share a tender moment and Eric flies off....
now as a kid I envisioned an ending where Eric snapped out of his shock..and was just well.."normal." don't knock the kid part of me as not having progressive ideas...but chew on this...we're taught that love can cure the fractured....a kiss can wake someone up from a coma, a kiss can turn a beast into a handsome prince etc etc etc.
we're taught that love can cure all. See there's this cat Stevens song "moon shadow" about how the individual singing the song (and by extension all of us) are being followed by a "moon shadow"...a metaphor of course for the inevitable entropy we will experience as living flesh...so if our ideas of love are based on this idea that love will inevitably save us...i can't be as blamed for growing up with this fractured idea...
at it's core "The boy who could fly" is about meeting someone as fucked up and fragile as you are..someone who's lie reflects yours etc..and finding some sort of Zen together. In the end nothing changes...sure Erics uncle hugo stops boozing, pre Kevin Arnold beats the bullies with a water gun of piss, mom learns computers...but the world is still fucked. Dad doesn't come walking through the door cancer free and not dead...but maybe the moral orel of it all is that in the end wishing for a better ending is all we have ...because of that pesky moon shadow...till then our happy endings are never finite but momentary. You can't want to change someone you can only work with what's there I later learned. We just all have to be our own happy endings...a series of daily happy endings. Every happy ending being a wish for the best.
after Eric and Milly flew in front of the entire town, Eric flies away, never to be seen again]
Milly: [narrating] That night, I found out why Eric flew away. Our house was crawling with people who wanted to see Eric Gibb, the boy who could fly. There were scientists and doctors and TV reporters. When they couldn't find Eric, they did tests on me, because I flew with him. They did tests on Uncle Hugo, too, because he was a relative and had the same genes. Then they took everything out of his room and sent it to some laboratory. I guess Eric was afraid they'd do the same to him. Everyone had a theory on how Eric was able to fly. But there was one I liked the best.
Mrs. Sherman: [on TV] Well, Eric always dreamed of flying, so maybe if you wish hard enough and love long enough, anything is possible.
Milly: [narrating] Mrs. Sherman was right. Eric made us believe that anything is possible if you really try.
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