The Cider House Rules

I'm actually shaking at the moment, because I'm on either my second or third coffee of the day - I'm not sure which, but I think third, and I'm only really used to having one. Getting to sleep 
tonight could be an interesting experience....

Anyway, even though I haven't written one in a few weeks, I'm going to go back to the Netflix fuelled film review blogs, because I think you can tell a lot about a person by their opinions and the way that they react to things, and I quite enjoy looking at that on other people, so I think it's only fair to make the opportunity available to others. 

So there's this film called The Cider House Rules that is about a boy who grows up in an orphanage, because he just doesn't fit with the families he's placed with. As he grows, the doctor who is in charge begins to train him as a doctor for women who are either about to give birth, or who are arriving at the centre so that an abortion can be performed, even though abortions were illegal in America (or at least in that state - the film doesn't exactly make it clear and I'm not sure on the history of it) at the time. 

As much as it is very possible to sit there and just watch the film, and accept that it is there solely for the purpose of entertaining or educating, if you let it, any piece of art, cinema, music or writing can make you think. I say, balls to curiosity killed the cat - blind acceptance kills meaningful conversation!!!  

The most obvious debate available because of the film is that of whether or not abortion should be legal. Even in the days where I was a pretty loud and angry atheist, it was something I wouldn't have been able to consider, but then again, I accept that when we create a law which is against it, it's not beneficial to people - mainly women. In every age, there have been myths of how not to get pregnant or ways to get rid of the foetus and some of them are down right brutal and not just to the infant. Women have died because of the injuries caused to their bodies or because of the infections which occur because of improperly sterilised implements or environments. I'm not saying that it's morally correct, but I think I would prefer their to be a legally regulated system as opposed to back street abortion clinics that become responsible for the deaths of young women as well as their potential children. 

If you look at the film again though, you can sort of see it as a coming of age drama where the main character has no other option than to take another look at his morals and see that sometimes you have to do things that you don't necessarily agree with for the greater good. To help a young woman he befriends, he performs an abortion, because he has the ability to help her and feels compelled to use it, even though he's not comfortable with it. Having grown up in the orphanage, there was no money for him to attend college or medical school, but after shadowing the doctor who is responsible for where he grew up, he has pretty much the exact training. He is the person who is needed to replace the doctor, so even though it involves lies and forgery to "prove" his ability to practice medicine, he sees where he is needed and reacts. 

If it's not obvious, I do love the film, but I was contemplating it for hours afterwards as to whether or not that was something I could do. 

For so long, he rejects the idea of being a doctor, of returning to the place he grew up and providing help for young women in trouble, but in the end he accepts that the gift which has been given to him - this medical training which enables him to help women and prevent them from harming themselves - is more important than his own selfish wants. It sort of reminds me of The Cross and The Switchblade - a fantastic book about Pentecostal preacher who brings religion back to New York City, to the children in gangs, to the girls who hang around the gangs to be used as nothing more than warm sex dolls and to the heroin users. He is pretty much dragged kicking and screaming to what he eventually feels is his destiny, much like I see the main character. 

Anyway, Goodnight you Princes of Maine, you Kings of New England.