You're listening to the Mind Mastery Podcast with Scott Patton and Doug Beren. Hey Doug, how you doing today? Good Scott, excellent. This is a movie. Yeah, this is a special movie review edition. We're going to talk about some of our favorite movies and maybe some things about those movies that you didn't realize. Yeah, you know, watching the people watching the movie, and of course, the movies are great. I mean, first of all, they're actually the fabulous way to learn if you know what to look for in the movie. And some of the movies we will discuss are very popular movies, chances are you've seen them. And some of the movies are a little less known and have great, great messages and are well worth watching just to learn from. And we touched on, in previous ones, we touched on seven days. No, one week. One week, I'm sorry, one week. This is a Canadian movie about a guy who has cancer and ends up traveling on a motorcycle and learning all kinds of things about himself. But also, the messages and how he impacts other people's lives. And what we talked about in the last podcast was how you are having impact on other people's lives long after you've gone. Yeah, he didn't know about the impact that he had. And one of the other ones we touched on was, of course, the massive surprise hit, the indie hit that won a bunch of Oscars, which was, of course, Slumdog Millionaire. Yeah, yeah, we just touched on that. Yeah, who wants to be a millionaire? Yeah, all right. And it was a profound film, I know it. A lot of things in that movie upset a lot of people, too, because, of course, there's a lot of indication and direct viewing of child abuse, abusive behavior towards children. And of course, it's horribly sad. And there's a lot of weird messages. Yeah, and the saddest part is it's true. Yeah, it's very, very true. But again, it brings a win, so a lot of people don't want to have a win. That's what brings a win. But one of the things I just jumped in with the Slumdog Millionaire that struck me the most was trust in that, you know, here's that show host, right? And he's feeding him like the wrong answers, right? And how, just think of the personality required to not pick B, when the guy has basically told you the answers, B, right? Yeah. You know, and then, of course, the two-faced part of it, he's, you know, patting him on the back and happy and everything else when he gets the right answer. Yeah. It's a very cool movie. I mean, if you haven't seen it, you do highly recommend it to you. Anyway, if it makes you a little bit squeamish in parts. But there's a piece in that movie that I want to talk about, two, well, two messages, but one piece first, and that is this. If you don't know the movie, it's about kids who grew up in the Slums in India. And a lot of it is retrospective from a young man who was probably around 20 years old looking back 20 years very little. And there's a scene in the movie which really, for me, personifies how people become successful. And when I say successful, I'm not talking about money, although that is part of it. Because in the movie, we see two characters, we see the two brothers. Yeah. And one who wants success and goes about it in a criminal way, and is willing to do absolutely anything, and really puts his morality to the side. And really puts his soul into recession, as we were saying. Yeah. And the other one who has this undeniable commitment to do whatever it takes without abandoning his soul, without abandoning his morality, without abandoning his higher values. And that is the juxtaposition throughout the film that's really important to see, is that we can all reach some level of success, but how are you going to retain it? Right. Right. And the scene is kept taking his steps. You just kept going one foot in front of the other, and this is the key. You know, gets knocked on his ass a million times, but keeps getting up, as I talked about in previous podcasts, just keeps getting up. And this kid early on, and very early on in the movie, won't give away the scene, but there's a scene where he is locked in a toilet. And he wants the autograph of a famous person, and what he is willing to do to get that autograph is quite shocking. I almost bought it because I haven't seen it, but to me it was a great example of what are you willing to do to get what you need, to get what you want. And all too often, we are quitters. We just go, "Well, there's nothing I can do. There's no way out. I'm stuck in here. That's it." And I know a lot of people are going through that. They're feeling that right now. They're feeling like there's nothing I can do. And I would challenge you, if you haven't seen that movie, and you're in that position right now, where you're feeling like there's nothing you can do, go back and watch that movie. Even if you've seen it before, go back, watch that movie again with that in mind, and think about how that young man had the determination of every time he got knocked down, he was going to come back. Let that be a driving force for you. He kept his eye on his goal the whole time. Never lost it. Throughout the entire movie, actually, as things go on, but that one scene is powerful. So, that... Thumb up on that one? Yeah. Thumb's up with Slum Dog Millionaire. It's an amazing film, very well done, but with a lot of profound messages, very profound messages. Another movie I would like to talk about is one that, again, it's kind of a little bit obscure. You may be able to get it. It's quite older, and it's called "Defending Your Life." Go to that? No. See, I know some strange ones. "Defending Your Life" with one of my favorite actors, directors, producers, which is Albert Brooks. Albert Brooks is a kind of obscure kind of out of that guy. He usually writes, directs, and performs in his own movies, and "Defending Your Life" apparently was made after he had a dream about what happens after you die. And the whole movie is a great insight because it really starts about one minute before he dies, and then where he goes to. And he goes to a place called "Judgment City," which is this place between life and death, or between life and the next life, or between life and heaven and hell, or whatever it is. And it's a place where you go and you meet with your lawyer and you defend your life. And they look at pieces of your life and you defend it. And what it all boils down to, and this is the key, is what it all boils down to, is whether you advance in life or not. Depends on how much you lived in fear when you were on Earth. And it's very funny, because Albert Brooks movies are very funny, very dry, satirical humor, but it's a great message of what will it take to get you to step out of fear. What will it take for you, and he's got all these arguments that he did this, and they're showing that no one was out of fear. No, no, I didn't for this reason. But it was fear. And he had this great point where one of the lawyers says to him, "When you were on Earth, when you were alive on Earth, did your friends have summer pains?" And he says, "All of them, all of them." And he said, "That's fear. That's fear, the fear and the stomach." That was not interesting, because in the previous podcast we had talked about the bioimmunology. Yes. And the mind affects, and the feelings affect the body. And here it is in this movie. In this movie. Same thing. It's great, great insights in this film. Meryl Streep is in it, Riptorn is in it, and even Shirley McLean is a little piece, which is very cool. It's a fabulous film, well worth watching. It's called Defending Your Life. It's an Albert Brooks movie. Not that easy to get a whole not if you might be able to get it online, but very, very, very good insights into what it is that's driving us on a day-to-day basis, and how much of life we're missing. You have another one that's a favorite? Well, I do. Actually, it's an Indiana Jones movie. Oh, yeah? The last crusade that had Sean Connery in with him. Oh, yeah, his dad. With his dad, right? And there's a scene in it that, to me, has a lot of meaning and a lot of teaching, and that's when they found the lost city that they're looking for. And unfortunately, the Germans, or the bad guys, are there, and his father has this book, and in the book is everything about the Holy Grail and how to get it and everything else. And the German is there, and he says, "Okay, you know, I've got the book, and Dr. Jones, you're going to get me the Grail." And he says, "No, I'm not." And he says, "Yes, you are." And he shoots Sean Connery, right? So all of a sudden, Sean Connery is shot mortally wounded. He's going to be dying. He's dying. He's bleeding. He's dying. And it's now like, "Get the Holy Grail or your dad dies." So now he's motivated. There's no question now he's going to get it, right? So he takes the book and he starts walking, and it's something about the breath of God. There's three challenges, right? The breath of God is the first challenge, and it's interesting because Sean Connery is laying on his back, talking about the breath of God and the breath of God. And Harrison Ford's walking, Indiana Jones walking through, and three people have already tried to walk through this passage, and they've all been beheaded, right? And at the last second, he kneels before the breath, kneels, and he kneels, and this thing just swishes over his head and misses him, right? You know? And then he comes to the next challenge, and it's all these stones with letters on them, right? And there's another clue, and it's something about stepping through the name of God, or something like that, and his name of God, Yahweh, right? And of course, the first he steps on the why, and almost falls to his death, where he goes, "Idiot!" And in Hebrew, Yahweh starts with an "I" or something, right? So he almost has this misstep, and he gets through, and he comes to the last clue, and he's unfortunately at this cliff. And you can see there's a little cave on the other side, but he's going, "Is it possible?" Nobody can jump this. Totally impossible. And Qashan Connery is supporting the sign, but it can't be heard, right? And all of a sudden, there's this groan, because the pain for Qashan is worse. And in the end, I've got very little time now, obviously, and he's looking, and there's this image of how he's supposed to cross, and everything else, and it's a leap of faith. And just kind of goes, "Oh, like the worst possible thing, right? I have to believe!" And he puts his foot out, and he cons himself, and he knows that he's going to step out and fall a thousand feet to his death, right? And he steps forward, forward, and then he starts falling, and what you couldn't see was this land bridge across. There was just under there, because it was all made to look exactly like the wall on the other side. So, he takes this leap of faith, and unknown to him, there was a way across. He didn't know, and so he walks across. Yeah, and then he's there, and gets the holy grail, and it was just like, "Oh!" But how often do we need to take a leap of faith, and say, "No, I guess I can't," right? And that community is just like, "Oh!" But again, there's a great lesson, isn't it? It's another example of where do you think, like I talked about the scene in Sundark, how often do you think there's no way out? Yeah, that's right. And the truth is, there's no way out in the way you're looking at it. That's the key. Yeah. No, there's no way out. Wherever it is, whatever it is you think you're stuck in right now, whatever it is, how about you just understand, there's no way out looking at it the way you're looking at it, right? Yeah. In the words of Einstein, we cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking in which we got into the problem, right? And you're looking at it from the same eyes. You need a new set of eyes. You need to look at it in a new way. And when you do that, everything changes. And this is what I keep saying. I keep engraining this with people, is every curse carries a blessing. Yeah. Right? You've got to be willing to find the blessing. There's some way of looking at this that is magnificent for you. Yeah. How many of us cried and bald and thought we were going to die a breakup only to discover that, thank God we broke up in a person so that I can end up with a person in my dreams. That's right. All right. But at the time, it was devastating. Right? Yeah. At the time, how many people were whipped into hospital with a massive autotack who came out and suddenly discovered that, "Hey, yeah, I do have a family." And suddenly, you know, a set of relationships was important. Yeah. So the key is that, just like in that leap of faith, is you cannot see yet. There's a wonderful saying you heard me say before about the master takes the student to the edge of the cliff and says, "Jump." And they said, "No, we'll fall." This is jump anyway. They say, "No, we'll fall." And he shoves them. And as they go off the edge, they sprout wings and fly. Right? Right? And how many of us have wings we don't know about yet? Well, since we're talking about movies, I want to ask you what you think of this idea for a movie. Mm-hmm. And this person is born. Has no problem when he's born. Has a really nice childhood. And everybody's nice to him. He gets an education. He gets a job that pays the bills. And he finds this woman. He kind of likes her. And they have kids. And the kids have kids. And, you know, he's got a couple sports he likes to play on the weekend. Did you watch the movie? No, no. And eventually, you know, he dies. And, you know, that was it. Now, nobody would go see a movie on that. Because we love people crashing and getting to the bottom and then climbing out of the pit and going to the top of Mount Everest. And we love that challenge. And that's the roller coaster of life that, I mean, can you imagine going to see that? Well, we see those movies because they inspire us. They give us permission to get up our ass and stop saying, "I'm a loser." And say, "Okay, what will it take if Rocky can come back from punching me in the freezer and become the world champion, I can do it." I mean, that's why, you know, Rocky, you know, it doesn't matter what you think, it's the only thing about Rocky. The first Rocky movie won an Oscar. That's right. Right? It was brilliant because it was the classic story of the downtrodden who come back. Exactly. Right? And all those films are fantastic. I'll tell you another movie. Tell me another movie. The Game. The Game. Older movie. Michael Douglas. Michael Sean Penn. Yeah? He's the loop. Yeah. Most people go rent it again. I'm going to have to. Fantastic. You are on the edge of your seat the entire time and it's about how people value life. What is important in life? And it's a lesson in what it is. It's a personal development company who set up a game. Oh, yeah. And he wants to get out and he can't. You can't get out of the game. And it is fantastic. Brilliant film. I'm actually not going to say any more about it than that, but it's a brilliant film because it really brings us back to what is important. And when, as this guy is challenged with, when your finances are gone, when all your status is gone, who are you? Yeah. Who's left? That is a great film for making you really question things. I saw the Watchman. You see, yes. The new movie? The Watchman? That's it. I liked it. I would think it might be a little more violent than it needed to be. Well, it's violent because it's a graphic novel converted over to a movie. Yeah. And I have the graphic novel. Right. And it's kind of violent. And apparently the movie is pretty true to the graphic novel. It is. But what I like about it, and what I tend to like about some movies that are good, is when they blow the lines between the black and the white. The ego mind likes to make everything black, white, right, wrong. That's how we like to operate. It's safe that way. We're right. They're wrong. We're good. They're bad. And that is a mentality that really is a massive hindrance to our evolution, spiritually, mentally, at every possible level. And that movie blew the lines. I won't give it away, but there is a moral question of sacrificing a certain amount of life for a certain amount of other amount of life, from what's right and what's wrong. And that takes me to a movie called Sereana. Did you see Sereana? No. But I want to comment on what I did. I want to comment on the Watchmen first, because there's one character there who is totally committed to his values. Whether you agree with the values or not. And I just thought that it was interesting that it was almost like he knew that he was wrong. It didn't matter. I'm going to continue to do what my values say are right, like he was not at all flexible. But it's the same thing. It's not a moral question. So like Sereana did the same thing. Sereana with George Clooney, fantastic film, particularly in this political climate that we live in, which has made the Middle East in person potentially dangerous. And Sereana is actually based around a real CIA agent. I actually read a book by the guy who actually goes to the English plane. I didn't know that. It's actually fascinating. And we've got this idea, and we've been fed by the media, that these Middle East and fundamentalist are all crazy. And this movie has a look at the other perspective, has a look at the other side, has a look at the understanding of who are these people. Are they motivated by what we told them motivated by, or they motivated by something else? And who are the good guys? And who are the bad guys? And we see that those lines are severely fuzzy. They're not black and white clear as we'd like to think they are, which gives us a sense of safety. You start seeing these ideas. It really helps us. And it's also important to see movies that you don't agree with, because they challenge you to look at something else. Yes. Here's one I'm going to push a button here. And this might lose a few listeners, but his one is called Jesus Camp. Okay, I haven't seen that one. Documentary. Documentary about a group of people who put a bunch of kids and they put them in "Jesus Camp". And it's a camp for fundamentalist Christians and kids to go to. It's like a summer camp. And it has a lot of, you know, Bible classes and all that, which is all fine. But the level of indoctrination that goes on. You know, if you flash across and look at these ideas, you know, we've seen this mass media idea of these kids who are indoctrinated and were fundamentalists. It's Muslim faith and, you know, and the infidels must be killed and blah, blah, blah. Well, you watch Jesus Camp and you see a very strong parallel, right, of this absolute black and white, right, wrong, which is dangerous. Absolutely dangerous, because it makes us make other people our enemy. And we can't afford that. We can't afford to not look at a bigger picture of that nobody, I don't care who you are, is absolutely black or white. But he's absolutely right or wrong. I don't have all the answers. I am an expert, one of the topics was in my field. I don't have all the answers. And some things I've been completely wrong on, found out and gone, "Okay, I've got to give that one up, change my mind." Right, and that's part of the challenges that people are holding on. And when you watch a movie like that, it challenges you. Yeah, and another one that certainly would challenge a lot of our American listeners is called Shay, from Shay here. Shagulara. Guevara. I was going to say it's a documentary, it's not a documentary, but it's a reenactment of his life. And when he's there in Fidel Castro and they're taking over Cuba... Well, we should background, most people don't know her, even though I think most people wouldn't even know who Shay Guevara is. Okay, well, who is he? Shay Guevara was the revolutionary who led the revolution against what was going on in Cuba. And in fact, really empowered Fidel Castro to come into position, because the country was being really raped and in a big way by the Americans. It was really being massively taken advantage over, and Shay Guevara was a great revolutionary who wanted to give the country back to the people. And my age, I actually remember as a kid, people who were in their teens wearing Shay Guevara t-shirts. I had a Shay Guevara poster in my bedroom without knowing who he was, not really understanding the political implications of the man. Right. But he was made as an absolute hero and an absolute demon. That's right. Talk about black and white. Yeah. And so it was very interesting watching this, because of course it's from his perspective. I'm sorry. A sympathetic perspective. Yep. And it's a long movie, it's like four hours. But it's very, very interesting to watch, you know, what they were, you know, because you can look at Cuba now and say, "Oh, they're this, and they're this, and they're poor, and they're all, you know, all the rest of it." But you have to understand where they were before. And because of what happened then, you know, I mean, if they'd had a good relationship with the United States, they would be fine, just like the other Caribbean countries, right? Yeah. But because you've got that embargo and all the rest of that sort of going on, it makes for a very difficult economy. Yeah. I mean, a lot of those, you know, we're going to go off onto the political side here. And again, you know that that's another area to study from here. We just suddenly go down that road. But a lot of those middle Americans and South American countries, what we're told about what they are and what they actually are, is dramatically different. Yeah. Dramatically different. And a lot of those countries have been raped by first world economies and just robbed of everything that they have without any caring of their country. I mean, you know, the amount of oil in South America is astronomical, but most of it has been taken away. And the local people have none of it. None of it. They have no -- it doesn't benefit them at all. Yeah. Same in Africa. Yeah, absolutely. These countries have all been robbed. And so any of those movies that -- well, I guess what we're trying to do is have you, you know, a movie review here is -- have you explore not only like with some dark million, what it is that motivates you and what it is and challenges you to move forward and go for what it is you want, not only that, as you saw with defending your life, whether you're living your life in fear or not, but also question some of your beliefs. And what I mean by that is some of the things you've made absolutely true are absolutely right or absolutely wrong. Watching movies like "Shay," "Shay Guevara," "Watching Movies," like another one is Munich. Munich is a brilliant film, superb acting. But again, blows the lines and helps us to understand what was really going on when we see terrorist attacks. What is it really all about? That's Siriana. These movies don't make you question. A really good documentary was the corporation. Yeah, I can't remember. He's not a few. I'm trying to think about a couple of the other ones. But the corporation was really amazing because it looked at, you know, kind of this impersonal entity that we created that we gave the same power as a human being to. And what happens when you have an immortal? Right. Because the corporation says, "Well, we want to change this law." And it's like, "No." Ten years later, they lobby to change it. "No." Fifty years later, they lobby to change. Well, maybe 70 years later, they get it changed. So they can wait. Because, yeah, well, they can keep going. The purpose of the corporation doesn't change and the desire for the change doesn't change. But the lawmakers have died off and the people have changed and the culture is a little bit different and makes life change. Well, it's not so bad now to do that. And of course, that may or may not be the case. Yeah, there's so many good things to watch. I mean, like for instance, one of my favorite documentaries is Bowling for Columbine, which really addresses the use of the availability of guns in the United States. And one of the things that's made very clear in that is, you know, it's one of the... Is it the second amendment? The rights of bare arms? Yeah. The second amendment rights of bare arms? And is that good? And, you know, I personally would have said no in the past. But knowing what I know now, sure, I don't think we're only owning the guns. And particularly Bowling for Columbine makes a very good point. There are people with guns in Canada and there are people with guns in the US. However, the rate of death from gunfire is much, much less even on a per capita basis in places like Spain or England or Canada compared to the United States. And so it's not the gun. And again, this is, you know, black and white again. Our guns bad. No, guns are neutral. They don't do a damn thing. It's what the present picks them up and doesn't. And one of the things they point out in that was, it's the fear. The fear factor, how much we've fed with fear in the United States that has people shooting at people and doing all kinds of crazy stuff that just doesn't happen. And in that movie, the best pieces are very short interview with a man who is quite brilliant, who most people would write off. And they write him off because he's created an image. And his image is a marketing position, that's all it is. And his name is Marilyn Manson. Okay. Marilyn Manson is a marketing machine. He's created something to market himself. Yeah, yeah. But because he understands and he's a good thinker. And one of the things he says in there, he says, "When Columbine happened, they wanted to blame me because of my concept was coming up and I'm supposedly using negative lyric." He goes, "But it doesn't matter that on this same day, President Clinton dropped more bombs in a single day than anybody had ever done in the history of all mankind." But apparently that has less effect than my music. He says, "You've got to think about these things because the whole idea is keep you scared and if you're fearful, you'll buy more. If you're scared and you buy a lecture, you'll be safe for yourselves." So it's this whole mechanism. And what we're trying to get you to do is to think about things. Think about things beyond your reality. I think that the biggest challenge we have is not our economy. It's not. The economy got the way it is because of the biggest challenge. And the biggest challenge is people have been asleep too long. And if the recession wakes people up, then I am cheering for the recession. So one more movie, you just reminded me, "The Fervin Data." Excellent. Yeah, and that was an incredible... You should watch it. And the thing that... There's a couple things in that movie that really changed my mind about a lot of things. And one was the government propaganda. And there's all this government propaganda that's on the news and they show all these different people in the public. And all these different people in the pub at home watching, none of them believing lies. And I just thought, "Oh, you know." And then... But you need to take actions, right? Yeah. And that's the point of that movie. People... Nobody believes the lies. They all understand this bullshit that the government's treating them. But nobody does a damn thing about it. That's right. But the lead protagonist is willing to take action. And what does he say? People shouldn't fear the government. The government should fear the people. It's a great line. Yeah. And, you know, again, all these movies to try and get you to think. Again, leave us your comments. Leave us your comments right there on freemindmasterypodcast.com. Leave us your comments there. Let us know what some of your most moving movies are. Yeah. Tell us about your fluffy ones. Tell us about the ones that made you think. The ones that made you think. Because the ones that made you think, I think you'd be surprised, even in the feedback we gave back, is that what it was in a certain film that made something go, "Wow!" Because, I'm telling you, we just touched a few. My list is enormous. Yeah. There's so many great movies out there. I mean, of course, we've not touched The Matrix and many others, but there's so many even old, old movies that we've not developed from the '30s. We get in all the episode, a whole episode just on The Matrix, I'm sure. Yeah. But, you know, there's movies even from the '30s and the '40s and the '50s that were profound. The movie Fountainhead, which was out of Andran's book. Brilliant stuff. Movies like that, The Razor's Edge. Tyrone Power. Late '40s movie. Brilliant. Great insightful movie. But, many people have never even heard of these movies. Well worth watching. So, until next time, leave us your comments. If you want to know more about me, dog Baron, you can go to dogbarron.com. D-O-V-B-A-R-O-N.com. And that's my blog. You can read all kinds of cool stuff on there. You can also go to my main corporate site, which is barronmastery.com. B-A-R-O-N-M-A-S-T-E-R-Y.com. Baronmastery.com. That's the main site. There's all kinds of cool stuff on there, videos, audios. And you can find out about the programs that we teach, the workshops that we teach. And, of course, take a look at barronmasteryuniversity.com, which is a new place where all kinds of cool stuff are going to happen very, very soon. Until next time, thanks, Scott. It's been great. We'll see you all next time, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Bye-bye. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-suiteradio.com. (chimes)
