Movie review Peaceful Warrior Hits Hollywood
Audio interview with Dan Millman In this exclusive WIE interview, Carter Phipps speaks with Millman about the book, the movie, and the peaceful warrior way. Peaceful Warrior Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman is one of the most beloved spiritual novels of the last two decades. It is a story about a gas station attendant/spiritual teacher named Socrates who endeavors to teach a brash young gymnast the nature of spiritual life. Even in the early eighties, it was a story that seemed custom-built to be a movie script. But spiritual scripts haven’t exactly been big business in Tinseltown until the last few years, when The Passion of the Christ and What the Bleep Do We Know!? surprised everyone by raking in record profits. Now Hollywood—where imitation is truly a form of art—is finally ready to test the waters of spiritually oriented films, and one of the first mainstream results of that endeavor is Peaceful Warrior, the film adaptation of Millman’s bestselling novel. Nick Nolte stars as Socrates, the no-nonsense, tough love spiritual teacher who challenges the young Dan Millman to reach far beyond his perceived limits. Nolte actually does a wonderful job bringing the gruff but wise Socrates to life. In fact, the movie as a whole is enjoyable, well made, and genuinely inspiring. Yes, it has its share of clichés, and it may lack the megawatt star power necessary to make it a blockbuster, but the film also manages to pull off the seemingly miraculous feat of conveying complex spiritual themes—the battle with ego, the nature of the student-teacher relationship, and even the experience of heightened states of consciousness—in a believable, authentic manner. In particular, the relationship between student and teacher is expertly treated and doesn’t resort to cheap irony or cynicism. Nolte’s Socrates is not only wise and compassionate but also pushy, demanding, and uncompromising. He makes you believe in your own capacity to reach higher, push farther, and transcend your own limitations, spiritual and physical. In a culture that has grown so accustomed to reminding us ad nauseam how our heroes also have feet of clay, this is no small accomplishment. Nor does the film descend into personal sentimentality, another trap common to stories that attempt to portray a more spiritual context for human life. Peaceful Warrior is fun, easy to watch, and in its own modest way, leaves you uplifted at the end. A number of classic spiritual novels and books are currently in production, and the viewing audience is about to be besieged with “spiritual but not religious” themes. Let’s hope that Peaceful Warrior is the example rather than the exception and that the successful translation of Millman’s work to the big screen is a sign of even better things to come. Carter Phipps |
