To Dream

Whenever the girls and I spend time with my family, I look forward to catching up on movies I may have missed at the theater. During this trip, I had the opportunity to watch The Greatest Game Ever Played and Dreamer, two films that focus on pursuing a dream in the face of fear, ridicule, and all odds. However, that’s not all the two movies have in common. Both stories also look at reconciliation between fathers and their children.

Since it first opened at theaters last fall, I’ve wanted to see The Greatest Game Ever Played. It’s the story of Francis Ouimet, the son of a common immigrant worker. He is far from a gentlemen’s heir and constantly reminded of this by those above him in the social ladder, as well as by his father. However, his social standing does little to discourage Francis from pursuing his dream: to play golf.

A caddy, Francis is offered the opportunity to play as an amateur in a golf tournament. While he has the encouragement and support of his mother, his father is dead set against Francis wasting his time in the chasing of his dreams. He wants Francis to accept that he is the son of a common worker and not try to fit into the world of gentlemen. At one point father and son strike a bargain. If Francis qualifies in the golf tournament, then and only then can he continue to play golf. If he doesn’t qualify, he must give up his dream forever and accept a common job. Francis’ pursuit of what his mother calls a “God-given gift he’s putting a voice to” creates a rift between father and son that, by the film’s ending, is reconciled.

Dreamer is the story of Cale Crane, her father Ben, and her grandfather, who they call “Pop.” Fired from his job for refusing to let them put an injured racehorse, Sonyador (a.k.a. "Dreamer") down in front of his young daughter, Ben finds himself unemployed and nursing a thoroughbred back to health. His goal of breeding Sonyador and selling the colt ends in disappointment when they learn that Sonyador is infertile. Yet, Cale never loses hope. In Sonyador she still sees a champion, despite the horse's once broken leg. Daily, she tells Sonyador how she sees her, reciting,
You are a great champion. When you ran, the ground shook, the sky opened and mere mortals parted. Part of the way to victory, where you'll meet me in the winner's circle, where I'll put a blanket of flowers on your back.

It isn't long before Sonyador rises to the occasion. As a result of a little girl's refusal to stop believing Pop and Ben are reconciled. And the ties between Ben and Cale are strengthened as never before.

Both films are examples of what filmmaking should be. The Greatest Game Ever Played and Dreamer are about the story. Pure, undefiled story. These movies don’t clutter themselves with profanity, with sex, with violence. They are simple, yet at the same time these stories contain a depth that many times is lacking in films.

At the center of both films is the biblical truth that “for as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7), or as pop psychology would call it, “the self-fulfilling prophecy.” Both Francis and Cale succeed because they have they don’t allow discouragement and ridicule to influence how they view themselves, or in Cale’s case how she views Sonyador. These movies provide a powerful message for us as viewers. In them we are encouraged to pursue the dreams God has placed in our hearts. And as we do, to never take our eyes off of how God sees us.

I'm looking forward to adding both of these movies to our film collection.