A Grey World: The Giver!

Imagine a world in which deep emotions, love, anger, agony, pain, hurt, disgust, fear, regret and doubt are banished. A world in which nobody can perceive colours. A grey world, a harmonized community. What is the point of living? What is the point of life if life is nothing more than an organization? If love is not possible, if killing doesn’t hurt and doesn’t torture you with guilt? If the only thing you can feel is accomplishment and a slight sympathy for someone? There are no memories and building a life and a history are not possible. Let’s talk about… The Giver!

The Story

The Giver tells the story of a community in which no one can feel, remember nor perceive colours. It is an organized society in which absolutely everything is controlled to obtain a world in which no one is different and war and misery aren’t possible. Morning injections take all emotions and memories away.

At the head of this grey community is the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep). Jonas (Brenton Thwaites)  is selected to become the Receiver of Memory, to keep all the history of life before the community. Before ‘sameness’. The Giver (Jeff Bridges) trains him to become the keeper of Memory, but soon they both realize that they don’t want colours and emotions to be history. They want to live it. Jonas risks his life and the one of his lover, Fiona (Odeya Rush) to bring back colour, emotions and memories.

The Chief Elder and The Giver

Am I the only one who was incredibly upset with the ending? Meryl Streep staring straight into the camera, in her eyes you can see her regrets, pain and fear. And then a black screen, end credits and me staring at my computer, somehow shocked that this was it. Stop, over, done, go ahead and figure it out yourself! I could have cried!

Anyway, what I wanted to discuss is The Giver and The Chief Elder. Does someone remember that scene in which The Giver says: ‘The Girl has a name’, and upset, the Chief Elder answers: ‘Did you think I could forget that?’ (or something like that). He says: ‘I tried to share my trainings as well’, and then he looks at her. And then she gives him a look and the only thing I could truly think is: did they have a love affair? Do the Giver and the Chief Elder have a history together? Is Rosemary not only his, but also her child? What happened between these two characters that created a certain tension between them. A tension that could be suppressed love or even hatred.

The Community

The reason this community controls feelings, colours, climate and relief is to prevent people from being jealous, to stop wars, to create sameness and equality in every possible way. But when you think of it, the chaos of life is necessary. Who would want to live a life that isn’t yours. An organization that has been made and designed for you. It is true that so many people feel pain and hurt, regret and sickness, but if you can’t feel that, you can’t feel happiness and love either. Everything sticks together. There are no ups without downs…

The Chief Elder

Sometimes I feel like The Chief Elder doesn’t always take her morning injections. You can clearly see how she’s upset or scared, when she fears something. Mostly when she’s in the presence of The Giver, you can feel  something you don’t know about happened between these two people. Something she can remember, which she couldn’t if she would have taken her morning injections. She’s cheating while playing her own game. Perhaps she knows how love feels, has seen colours and has felt so many emotions. Perhaps she can’t turn it back now that she knows how it feels? Perhaps she loves The Giver but doesn’t allow her to? Anyway, that’s just my look at the movie.

I didn't read the book, so I can't say if it's a good adaptation. But I think The Giver is truly a wonderful movie. It contains everything you want: love, drama, mystery, action and suspense. I really enjoyed watching it, great acting, beautiful soundtrack. And as you know me a little better now, you probably know that the soundtrack is so important to me! A good movie is not only a good story and good actors, it is also a good soundtrack! 

Memories are forever