John’s Movie Musings

The novelization of The A-Team, if written one hundred years ago, would be considered classic literature by today’s standards.  Never before has an action movie explored those themes that affect the deepest core of our being. And not just for men.

The opening scene has the Alpha-Unit, or A-Team, fleeing Mexico in an old medical helicopter.  To escape a pursuing Mexican chopper, our A-Team pilot, Murdoch, executes a series of barrel rolls and stall dives to avoid heat-seeking missiles.  But you say that’s impossible.  Exactly.  Much like our lives, things seem impossible until we try.  The A-Team teaches us that we will succeed.

In another scene, the A-Team is gathered in a tank that has parachuted from an exploding cargo plane.  Going from bad to worse, a few parachutes get shot up, accelerating their decent.  They spot a lake far in the distance and recognize that’s the best place for a safe landing.  But how to get there.  They are in a tank.  Refusing to acknowledge the man-made inadequacies of a tank, they fire the cannon to the side, using physics to propel them towards the lake.  Still descending much too rapidly, they fire the cannon towards the ground to slow them to a safe splash landing.

This is obviously an analogy of our lives.  Too often we feel like a tank, unable to move, barreling head first into certain destruction.  But the lesson is that small choices can lead us to safety.  We just need the courage to act on them.

And finally, and perhaps the most important lesson of The A-Team; the new Mr. T struggles to accept who he is.  He feels maybe he shouldn’t be Mr. T.  Instead, maybe he should be Ghandi.  How many of you have thought, “Ya know, I just can’t be Mr. T today”?  I know I have.  It’s tragic, but still a very real fact of life.  Thankfully, I have lots of friends – my personal A-Team, who can come around me and say, “No John, you can be Mr. T.  We see it.  And we’ll be here until you do to.”

Powerful stuff.  It’s all onions up in here.  Go see The A-Team.  Bring tissues.

Grade: A