I was biased going into the theater to see Blue Like Jazz because I happen to be related to the Director/Producer/Co-writer. The whole reason we went in the first place was to support him.
To be fair, I had read the book, and wasn’t really a fan. I didn’t dislike it; it just didn’t really register much. I think I marked two lines from the book that struck me as worth remembering. And I don’t remember them now.
The movie was entirely different.
If I could have legally taken screenshots while in the theater, or at least been able to see enough to write things down, I would have marked so many things. I even tried to cover the light from my phone and use Sound Hound to capture a few songs that were playing.
But I’m not sure I actually need to have the songs or screenshots. Different characters, setting and actual conversations, but I think the film resonated with me so much because I could relate to it – so much more than I want to. Alter the screenshots just a bit, and it was my life.
As Don is getting ready to leave for college, the world cracks around him (details reserved for the film) and he starts to question the why. His path had been set. But because of the events that happen, he needs to get out. Escape. He heads across the country to another college, one that happens to be polar opposite from the one he had planned – in setting, politics, values and people.
He is immediately an outsider. And the girl who first befriends him tells him how he can fit in: keep his faith in the closet.
And he does.
He wants and needs to belong somewhere – anywhere, and he alters himself to accomplish that goal.
But his story doesn’t end there.
It takes time, but he does eventually come back around to his faith in Christ. He identifies with the authenticity he sees in someone else and thirsts for it, grabs it and makes it his own. It is no longer something he believes just because his family did or because that’s how he grew up. It is his because he reaches out and takes it.
What resonates with me so much about this story is that his decision to follow Christ was not the end point, as it seems to be with so many other sources. He messed up – repeatedly, and a lot, after that decision. He got angry, tried to run, tried to escape, but God followed him and went where he went. After trying to live life his own way, he finally turned back toward God and made his faith his own.
Not because it was anyone else’s, but because it was his.
When I tell people about the film, I tell them to forget any preconceptions they have. If they’ve read the book, ignore it, because it’s only loosely based anyway. If they haven’t, don’t read it first.
The story resonates with me because it was so real. So much of my story happened after I placed my faith in Christ, not before.
It took time
for that faith to become my own
become real.
It took time
to become authentic.
Blue Like Jazz ©2012