Inspirational Popular Movies
Four Uplifting Hollywood Films To Brighten Any Mood
When you're feeling down, a good story can help you feel better. Here are four movies that reduce stress, transform despair into hope, and restore your perspective.
For all of the superficiality and blatant materialism of most Hollywood movies, there are a number of gems that appeal to our better nature. They may not be the films you’d expect to inspire you, but when you are feeling down in the dumps, these films do wonders for the soul, no matter what’s got you down.
Feeling like a Failure? Watch Elizabethtown
Cameron Crowe’s homecoming tale puts everything into perspective. When boy-wonder Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) creates a new shoe that makes him the laughingstock of his industry, he loses his job and goes home to kill himself, only to learn that his father has died in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Charged with making the funeral arrangements, Drew returns to his roots, reconnecting with his large, loving family and discovering just how little he knew about a man that was so adored by those he left behind. Elizabethtown shows us the value of a life well-lived. If you’re not inspired by Drew’s tale, his climactic drive home across the heartland of America will definitely give you perspective on how lucky you really are to be alive.
Sinking under the Stress? Watch Cast Away
In case you really were on a deserted island in 2000, Tom Hanks’ modern take on the castaway story took the world by storm. Time is everything as energetic FedEx supervisor Chuck Noland (Hanks) leaves on Christmas Eve for an assignment in Malaysia, only to crash on the South Pacific and wash up on a lonely island. Now with all the time in the world, Chuck learns to survive. Much of the film contains no dialogue, but you are captivated as you watch Chuck confront basic obstacles from finding shelter to building fire. Removed from the stresses of civilization, Chuck surrenders to time and tide. Cast Away slows you down and takes you back to basics, offering a wonderful escape from your hectic routine.
Think Your Life is Meaningless? Watch Mr Holland’s Opus
When you first encounter Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss), he is an aspiring musician who takes up teaching to pay the bills. Frequently frustrated by his inability to work on his own creations, Mr. Holland turns his talents towards inspiring his students to love music the way he does. Throughout the years, Mr. Holland experiences many challenges and setbacks to his own art, feeling at times that he has wasted his life, only to discover how much of a legacy he has left for hundreds of his students. Watch Mr. Holland’s Opus if you believe that you haven’t fulfilled your destiny. You will learn how much one person matters, no matter how life turns out for them.
Giving into despair? Watch The Lord of the Rings
All three parts of Peter Jackson’s epic embody J.R.R. Tolkien’s central theme of hope. Whether it is the touching scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where Sam (Sean Astin) vows never to leave his friend Frodo (Elijah Wood), or Aragorn’s (Viggo Mortensen) rousing speech to the doomed Men of Middle Earth in The Return of the King, these films teach us that no matter how dark our lives get, dawn is just around the corner. They teach us never to give up, that, as Sam says in The Two Towers, “there’s some good in this world…and it’s worth fighting for”. While your despair may not be as epic, watching these films can help you restore your faith and feel hopeful that everything has a happy ending.
Source: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (DVD)
