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Sunday, July 13
i watched "changing lanes" last night and i must say it's one of the best movies i've seen lately. i really like how there wasn't a clear cut protaganist or antagonist. both ben affleck and samuel l. jackson's characters were flawed, but also possessed some good. it also made me think and had a pretty strong moral message. yeah, ben affleck's character, gavin, left the scene of the accident, cheats on his wife, lied to his bosses, cut off another man's credit line, among other things, but was he really worse than jackson's character, doyle, who didn't forgive and was bent on revenge? both of them oscillate between doing the right thing (or at least wanting to) and being driven by rage and vengeance. i think the strongest aspect of the movie is how it's driven by clear, absolute morals. in every situation the two men are in, there is an absolutely right thing and absolutely wrong thing to do. you feel frustrated when one is trying to do what's moral, but because of some immediate action of the other guy, he chooses the wrong thing. and the thing is, when they go against what would be ethic, they know it's wrong...there isn't any "well i'm justified in acting out my vengeance, he wronged me." at one point gavin's boss tries to justify their law firm's taking of millions of dollars from a foundation, because of the foundation's own questionable sources of money. but gavin knows that what they have done is wrong. gavin and doyle both are able to see how their actions directly affect each other, and understand the morals, or abandonment of morals, behind them. basically, the movie would be pointless if there wasn't that underlying knowledge that there is absolute truth and morality.anyways, yesterday was another mcat practice day. my roommates and i overslept, which would not be good on actual mcat day. but we made it on time, haha. 1 week left here....i'm going to miss getting paid to play. and the people of course. =)