Concussion (2016)
Greatly enjoyed this movie and had to shed tears a few times. Probably getting old and far too emotional. The story is compelling though and reminds me of Barack Obama’s own story of an immigrant respectively foreign descendent American who aspires nothing more than being accepted as part of the US society. “When I was a boy, here was heaven, and here was America”, Kenya born Dr. Bennet Omalu tells his wife gesturing with his hand America slightly lower than heaven. The story captures the corruption of the NFL and the xenophobia of the American establishment in a similar way as Obama’s autobiography Dreams from my Father capture the wealth divided American society with the eyes of an aspiring, non-Caucasian, hard working outsider. It seems as if societies corrupt to an extent, which is not conscious to us.
Concussion is not only a story about a man who worked hard to obtain a place in American society, but it is also about the distorted perceptions which are taken for granted and sound by the main stream; whether it is football in the US, cycling in Europe (just compare the brilliant film The Program), alcohol abuse in German speaking countries or animal protein consumption worldwide. Full body contact sports have been a no-go for me since high school graduation; and indeed it is common sense to induce brain damage from colliding hundreds if not thousands of times during an amateur or professional football career. I enjoyed Bennet showing the anatomical peculiarities of woodpecker and ram, which enable their brains to endure repetitive collision. “God did not design man to play football”, indeed he did not. Neither did he design us to play soccer, ice hockey, American rugby or anything alike. Still we do it. And we still go to war. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) seems to be a rather obvious consequence of multiple collision impact at force G100; much more obvious than cancer or cardiovascular diseases from animal protein consumption; less obvious than death from going to war.
And even though the romance and faith scenes have to be part of a successful happy ending blockbuster with a Devil’s Advocate like plot, I feel that Bennet’s God devotion comes in as a welcome change to a world which is lost in chaos. The American Bible belt is probably torn apart by this movie, attacking one of the most central pillars of American society in the person of a faithful member of the church. On a personal note I admire the director’s sensitivity for introducing Bennet’s wife, Prema Mutiso, as a God sent assistance to the lonely and work focused life of one of his sheep. What we want is quite often not what we need. But what we truly need is being taken care of – as long as we are perceptive to receive.
Greatly enjoyed this movie and had to shed tears a few times. Probably getting old and far too emotional. The story is compelling though and reminds me of Barack Obama’s own story of an immigrant respectively foreign descendent American who aspires nothing more than being accepted as part of the US society. “When I was a boy, here was heaven, and here was America”, Kenya born Dr. Bennet Omalu tells his wife gesturing with his hand America slightly lower than heaven. The story captures the corruption of the NFL and the xenophobia of the American establishment in a similar way as Obama’s autobiography Dreams from my Father capture the wealth divided American society with the eyes of an aspiring, non-Caucasian, hard working outsider. It seems as if societies corrupt to an extent, which is not conscious to us.
Concussion is not only a story about a man who worked hard to obtain a place in American society, but it is also about the distorted perceptions which are taken for granted and sound by the main stream; whether it is football in the US, cycling in Europe (just compare the brilliant film The Program), alcohol abuse in German speaking countries or animal protein consumption worldwide. Full body contact sports have been a no-go for me since high school graduation; and indeed it is common sense to induce brain damage from colliding hundreds if not thousands of times during an amateur or professional football career. I enjoyed Bennet showing the anatomical peculiarities of woodpecker and ram, which enable their brains to endure repetitive collision. “God did not design man to play football”, indeed he did not. Neither did he design us to play soccer, ice hockey, American rugby or anything alike. Still we do it. And we still go to war. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) seems to be a rather obvious consequence of multiple collision impact at force G100; much more obvious than cancer or cardiovascular diseases from animal protein consumption; less obvious than death from going to war.
And even though the romance and faith scenes have to be part of a successful happy ending blockbuster with a Devil’s Advocate like plot, I feel that Bennet’s God devotion comes in as a welcome change to a world which is lost in chaos. The American Bible belt is probably torn apart by this movie, attacking one of the most central pillars of American society in the person of a faithful member of the church. On a personal note I admire the director’s sensitivity for introducing Bennet’s wife, Prema Mutiso, as a God sent assistance to the lonely and work focused life of one of his sheep. What we want is quite often not what we need. But what we truly need is being taken care of – as long as we are perceptive to receive.
