“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?” ― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
On the journey from Sydney to Paris I watched Cloud Atlas. Actually I watched it twice. And I still don’t get it.
The film is six stories from six times that weave in and out of one another, with actors and actresses playing characters within the different times.
It is terribly confusing, but a clear picture emerges. A distinct pattern that repeats throughout the human story – a tension between oppression and resistance, of cowardliness and courage, of the contribution of individuals in causing violence and pursuing justice.
The movie resonated deeply with me. I share the struggle of some of the characters, and I suppose of Mitchell, in “trying to understand why we keep making the same mistakes over and over…”
My take home message (or take on holiday message, as it was) is captured in this quote:
“Our lives are not our own, we are bound to others, past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”
We may be only a drop in the ocean, but the ocean is maintained and changed by each and every drop.
Furthermore:
This might be a useful map (from wikipedia) for when I watch it for a third time:
| Actor | “The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing” (1849) | “Letters from Zedelghem” (1936) | “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery” (1973) | “The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish” (2012) | “An Orison of Sonmi~451” (2144) | “Sloosha’s Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After” (2321) |
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Picture comes from this site, with further breakdown of characters: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Cloud-Atlas-Infographic-Explains-Karmic-Journeys-Movie-Characters-33823.html
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