Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them! Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised! Happy are those whose greatest desired is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully! Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them! Happy are the pure in heart; they will see God! Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children! Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!
Matthew 5, verses 3 to 10.
So many times I see religion as a poor justification for violence and hatred. I wonder if these people were ever taught that religion is meant to be happy? The whole point of faith (to me in the least) is be joyful!
I think it's important that being happy was the first lesson of The Sermon on the Mount. You have the power to choose to be happy; what good is life without happiness?
These words make me happy
To quote a friend, the film is unrelenting. Solondz portrays the pedophile character as an otherwise normal guy who happens to enjoy drugging and raping his son's friends, and it's torture to watch -- it would have been easier if the guy had been some kind of greasy, disfigured monster.
A notable feature of the film is its depiction of semen -- I've never seen so much outside of a porn flick. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a sweaty, twisted pervert who calls up women on the phone while masturbating and verballly abuses them. (After ejaculating, he hangs up and sticks pieces of paper to his wall with his spooge.) When he gets one of the sisters on the phone, she turns out to enjoy the abuse.
The third sister, in comparison, is easier to watch: she's simply a spinless, unhappy woman who dates men who steal from her.
There's plenty more to this movie to make you cringe -- imagine all the angst of a depressing German movie honed to a really sharp point and drilling in to your forehead for the entire duration of the film.
This film was not rated in the United States, and Blockbuster has declined to carry it.
Chapter Fifteen -- Happiness
Solondz himself describes Happiness as a series of intertwining love stories, stories of connections missed and made between people, how people always struggle to make a connection, and to what degree they succeed or don't. "Love" stories... what an interesting description. Depending on your mood, you will either be horrified (by the wrenching scene where a psychiatrist confesses his paedophilia to his ten year old son), or you will find yourself giggling, or you may find yourself feeling empty. You get to see a lot of the ugliness that comes along with beauty. And indeed, a bit of the beauty that comes along with ugliness. Or you will find yourself one of the many people who simply do not get the movie, and don't care to.
The storyline is very complex, there are about a dozen central characters, not one of them more outstanding than another. Most distressing was the character, equal amounts family man, therapist, and paedophile, who participates in the most disturbing father/son dialogue ever captured on film. The thing which strikes me about the movie is, that no matter how disgusting we find these people, no matter how dysfunctional they seem at times, we all act like them on occasion, some of us daily. So, for me, the people who don't understand this movie, or rather do not want to, are partly denying that which we really are.
Cast:
Hap"pi*ness, n. [From Happy.]
1.
Good luck; good fortune; prosperity.
All happiness bechance to thee in Milan! Shak.
2.
An agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good fortune or propitious happening of any kind; the possession of those circumstances or that state of being which is attended enjoyment; the state of being happy; contentment; joyful satisfaction; felicity; blessedness.
3.
Fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace; -- used especially of language.
Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, For there's a happiness, as well as care. Pope.
Syn. -- Happiness, Felicity, Blessedness, Bliss. Happiness is generic, and is applied to almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appetites; felicity is a more formal word, and is used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated associations; blessedness is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections; bliss denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy anticipated in heaven.
O happiness! our being's end and aim! Pope.
Others in virtue place felicity, But virtue joined with riches and long life; In corporal pleasures he, and careless ease. Milton.
His overthrow heaped happiness upon him; For then, and not till then, he felt himself, And found the blessedness of being little. Shak.
© Webster 1913.
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