’’The Terminal’’
Hmm, when was the last time I ran across that title in a work of fiction?Too long ago, and I think it was in a pre Star Trek Sci Fi adventure teleseries that I loved as a kid called ’’Blakes Seven’’, I remember it now, it was an episode about a planet which is about to die, and its inhabitants, develop a strange tranporting device that allows them to reach heaven.And this was in 1978, long before Contact.
The poster depicted a man in a suit with an a plane in the background.Something in that poster persuaded me to watch this movie.Maybe it was because the man in the suit is the actor Tom Hanks, the man who taught us how fragile , but still strong, we all are, (Cast Away possibly also about to star in the DaVinci code) or maybe it was just that I have too many memories associated with Airports.
In I went to the Theatre hoping to view another Sci Fi film about an airplane at a weird time travelling Terminal.Out I came with a new view of the Cosmos having been inside a Terminal, not a Theatre:).The movie had nothing to do with inter cosmic transporters, and yet, the movie itself is a terminal, for it flies you to where few men have been before.Into a real good person’s heart, just trying to make his way into the cold heartless world that he inhabits.Good work Steven Spielberg!
Tom Hanks plays the part of Victor Navorski, a simple Cyrillic accented man, from the fictional Republic of Cracausia, who lands at JFK Airport, New York, not as an illegal immigrant trying to sneak in for material gains, not as a migrant, or a student , but as a tourist on a very special mission, to do a small deed, in fact, to fulfil his Father’s dreams.Unfortunately, war breaks out in his home country, as he finds out at the Airport, and Mr. Navorski is stranded at John Fitzegerald Kennedy Airport, as according to US immigration laws, he cannot be issued a tourist Visa and as a result he is denied entry to the United States territory.
But as a heartbroken Novorski follows the violence in his home country on Television , he gets to learn that he cannot be deported back to Cracausia either, and is thus effectively, imprisoned inside the vast JFK Airport.
Now, the really intelligent amongst you must be thinking, what a stupid story, who follows the letter of the law, that bad, well here is news: The story is in fact based on a real story.I will not give you the details, but as the Globetrotters amongst you might know, not too long ago, there was a lonely man one could see at CDG Airport, Paris, who was stranded there for similar reasons.
Therein lies the poignancy of the film.Tom Hanks, really does get inside the role of a man who can barely communicate in English, let alone get a job, and not only manages to survive but, in fact manages to impress and befriend a lovely stewardess and help some Airport employees.The elegant Catherine Zeta Jones plays the part of the Airline Stewardess and an interesting relationship develops between our protagonist and her, love almost.
I’m going to strongly recommend that you go out and watch this movie, and even more strongly I’m going to recommend that you follow the message in the movie.That what binds us humans, is much stronger than what differentiates us.Our needs, our emotions, our fears, our desires.
All of us live inside prison houses of materialistic trappings, but we aren’t prisoners, slaves, or machines, we can be good to each other, even if our Big Guy upstairs, God, lounging with his camera on the world, want us to play life’s old games, while He watches us dispassionately(or does He?).And even if the cold Cosmos just cares about rules.That is what I got out of the movie, anyway.I’m sure you will get more.