What it means to be an American. Heaven is here…. America is right under there. America was the penultimate goal of what we should all dream, aspire, hope… To be. To be an American… Was to say… That you are the chosen ones to live on this earth. That scene, from the movie, sealed it in for me. There’s a lot of this movie that I can say was decent…. The acting was good… Will Smith captured the Nigerian Doctor perfectly… The culture, the chattiness of Africans from Nigeria and Ghana… The expressions with the hands, the tendency to over explain… The need to show the academic prowess… The humbleness…
The movie captured a time in our recent history that hit home for a lot of Americans…. The football players’ potential concussions that led to the medical industry and NFL reconsidering what it means to have 300lb men smashing their heads against each other.
All of the supporting actors did an equally impressive job. …
But what got to me… On a personal level… Was a foreigner, coming to America, to escape the struggle they had in their home country. To be amongst these “gods” in USA…. And to feel he is finally rubbing elbows with the greatest examples of humanity…. And to see them turn on you. To see that what you thought was paradise… Was just an illusion.
My family went through the same thing. Just as many many of the naturalized citizens around the USA did. During the Cold War, Russian paradise… Was the United States of America. America was giving out asylum green cards to anyone that could escape their country… And come here. This was the promised land. My dad, just like so many other families… Worked their ass off to come to this country. Their struggle to integrate, to prove themselves… To be a part of this great nation…. The nation that won the Cold War, the nation that led the promises of the future….
This movie … On a very personal level… Captured that essence.
Will Smith’s portrayal, at times, made me cry… It reminded me of my dad perfectly. The Essence of the Dr.’s struggle. To build something… For his family… And to struggle with doing what’s right.
As I grew up… And I chose to see in the end of the 90s… That America was no longer the promised land… And I felt international exposure was important…. My father was very upset… Mad…. Hurt… I thought he was just too prideful. I thought he was just thinking I was betraying the GREAT nation he worked so hard to bring us to.
This movie helped me realize…. It was more…. Of what he had riding on his bet. His whole life, health, family, well being… Bet on a singular effort… To bring us to the promised land. And I was spitting in that face.
Of course that wasn’t what I meant to do. But… Yeah. This was a good movie.