"Big Fish"

You know when watching a Tim Burton film, it's going to be different, strange, and slightly odd. But I have not yet found myself not enjoying one of his movies. And this film, Big Fish, very well might be my favorite. If you have never seen this movie, I would highly recommend it, but do have some tissues nearby. It is a beautiful story, of a father and son's estranged relationship, and a son finally seeing who his father really is. The son goes through life struggling with the tall tales his dad always shares. He just wants to know the truth, he tells his father, he wants the facts. To which his father replies that he's been giving him the facts all his life. The son starts to see that while his father's stories may not be 100 percent accurate, there's more truth to them then he realized. And in the end, the son learns to be what his father needs, at the most important moment.

This is a story of a man's life, who is finding himself at the end of his life. It's about death. But the wonderful thing is, it doesn't paint death as a fearful and frightening thing. It shows it as another adventure. When I first saw this movie, it made me cry, and that was before I experienced the loss of my sister, who died almost two years ago from cancer at the age of 22. Watching it now, it hits me even more, just thinking about how important it is to celebrate one's life, during and after, no matter what age. My sister did that. She lived her life, as short as it was, to the fullest, and continues to be an inspiration to me and to many others. And she believed, as I do, that the adventure doesn't end when we die.

Big Fish reminds us to value and love those closest to us, to treasure the stories, the memories. To pass them on and to remember. As the son says near the end, by the passing on of his father's stories, his father becomes immortal. No matter what spiritual or religious beliefs you may have, I believe this story has a beautiful message that can teach us all how to love, and to be more than we think we can be, at the moments when it is needed most.

-Bethany

As quoted by Glenn Whipp of the Los Angeles Daily News on the cover of the DVD case...."Big Fish Is Tim Burton's Masterpiece."  This film truly is a masterpiece of film, and most certainly the best film that Tim Burton has directed which is saying quite a lot, as I really enjoy most of his films.  Big Fish evokes just about every known human emotion in two hours and five minutes.  We laugh with Edward Bloom as he works for the circus, we hold our breaths as he parachutes into the Korean War, we smile seeing the way he wins over his bride, and we cry as we bear witness to one mans attempt to be remembered.

Big Fish is a beautiful collection of stories, myths, legends, half truths, and enchantment all rolled into the tale of the life of one man, Edward Bloom.  The stories that he tells about his life are what makes this movie so much fun.  I had an Great Uncle who very much reminded me of Blooms character.  Several generations of nieces, nephews, children, grandchildren enjoyed being tucked in by my Great Uncle Vincent and going to bed with one of his stories which always started with "well sir....."  (fill in story from here!)  I don't know where he got the inspiration for all of his stories, but I will always remember them very fondly.

In Big Fish however, Bloom's son although once enthralled by his father's tall tales, finds himself now upstaged, embarrassed, and angered by his father's frequent storytelling tangents.  What his son has to learn in the course of the film, is that these stories are not solely for entertainment, nor is it even important that the story is true or untrue.  What is important is that the stories that Bloom tells are beautiful, and memorable.  As Bloom faces his last days, an entire lifetime of storytelling is all that he has to keep him alive forever, and in the end, it falls to his son to carry on that legacy.  I could write probably for pages about what parts of the movie is allegory, how to interpret that allegory, and how to see the stories Bloom tells as windows into our own lives.  But to tell the truth, while such a conversation might be interesting, I think it stifles what Bloom would want us to take away from the story of Big Fish.....the pleasure and memory of a good story.

-David