Digger Isn’t Just About Oil. It’s About Who Gets to Tell the Story.
Stories capture even the most principled of souls.. that is their power. But whose story gets told?
Digger! A culture-changing and transforming film. The biggest Hollywood flop, potentially, of all time. But that doesn't matter - if anything, it adds to the poetry.
Because culture-changing films don't have to be popular. They just have to change the folks who see the film in such a dramatic way that they take the insight of the film out into the world around them. It doesn't matter what their field of work is - with their new perspective, they're empowered to push back on things that have been the same for a very long time indeed.
This film is that kind of film. This film represents the possibility of the most culturally transformative film of my lifetime. One that marks a giant shift in the way we see not only ourselves but the entire world around us. In other words:
This film begins the creation of a new philosophical outlook for the culture of the future!
Fitting, perhaps, for a film set in the future.
But the future it really points to isn't necessarily the one shown on screen - although there's a potential for that - it's the key lessons our culture will learn from this film and apply to other areas of culture too.
What are those lessons?
Well, the first of those lessons is perhaps key to the reason why this film is so groundbreaking, and it remains at the core of all the others:
Mythos over logos.
The ancient Greek understanding of the power of stories to sway us and be more powerful than the facts we tell ourselves.
Never have I seen or heard of a film that cuts so directly to the heart of this message. And it's an understanding that has been hidden from us, and its importance downplayed, for so long. It's been that way because there's a certain group of folks, and the power they serve, that would rather it not be that way. They've used an amoral metaphysics - which pretends that we are just objective people who see the world 'out there' as it truly is - to enable that denial.
Indeed, the power stories themselves have over us shapes our behaviour far more than most wish to believe. Smashing that illusion to pieces, this film clearly shows how stories capture even the most principled of souls… yet that's just the starting place of its beauty.
Because the power of stories also lies in their ability to shape our reality - and select what we see - out of an infinite number of facts. People like to pretend, thanks to our current metaphysics, that they see and experience everything 'as it truly is' rather than filtering everything through the stories they tell themselves.
This metaphysically enabled lie is also smashed to pieces during the film. It's shown not only through the different characters in the film, but also through the fictional audience's reaction to something in the film - and then the audience's reaction to the film itself.
All are being shaped by the stories they tell themselves, and the film beautifully points directly at those stories and shows them for what they are.
But perhaps most importantly for our time now - and why this film is such a masterpiece - considering this power of stories; this film is most directly about who holds the power.
Because all the other points show just how dramatically stories shape our behaviour, what we see, and the world around us. And if we accept that, then who exactly is able to tell stories, and why they tell them, becomes incredibly - vitally - important.
That is the main message of this film, and it does so beautifully.
That’s the real future this film points to: it is the first piece of art to begin transforming our shared culture into one that accepts all of these vital truths. Truths that are at the heart of our future metaphysics - The Metaphysics of Quality.
And for that, this is the most important film of our new century and I highly recommend you see it!
Yet one final important aspect of this film that I haven't directly addressed - and which the film itself deals with - is that audiences aren't going to see it.
Perhaps most charmingly, the film is in on the joke - and the joke is on itself. It appreciates that a general audience is tired of being lectured to, tired of being uncomfortable in art, and instead they just want to go to the cinemas for escape!
The director, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, tried to get around that problem, I believe, by casting the world's biggest film star as its protagonist. Yet, disappointingly, audiences have stayed away.
Yet another beauty of this film though - is that it shines a light on exactly that problem and most importantly at the causes of it too.
Goodness - this film is such an intelligent piece of art that is so perfect for its time. It's really hard to say enough good things about it. I've been on high about it for over a week!
Because on the surface it's a badly acted, over the top film, with an obvious ending and a jarring middle. But, if you pause for a moment, and think about it a bit more - there's so very much more within it indeed! It's such an incredibly hopeful and humanity affirming film. Go See This Film!
