Amongst the movies that I have watched I would like to make one recommendation today. It's called "Shortcut to Happiness" or it was once called "The Devil and Daniel Webster". It is a year 2004 movie starring Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
I will not disclose any of the plots of this movie but I personally like a part of it very much. Here's the lines:
The Devil:
People come to me because what GOD has given them isn't enough.
They want more.
They want more than what GOD gives.
They want whatI can give.
GOD is stingy with creation.
Look around you, GOD could have created any world that HE wanted.
He could have created a world without conflict, without pain, without death.
And what did he create?
Of all the realities available what did he give us? This one.
This petty, cramped, needy world.
I don't have to misrepresent my product.
Damnation is surprisingly easy thing to sell.
Mr. Stone wanted success.
And I gave him success.
They want more.
They want more than what GOD gives.
They want whatI can give.
GOD is stingy with creation.
Look around you, GOD could have created any world that HE wanted.
He could have created a world without conflict, without pain, without death.
And what did he create?
Of all the realities available what did he give us? This one.
This petty, cramped, needy world.
I don't have to misrepresent my product.
Damnation is surprisingly easy thing to sell.
Mr. Stone wanted success.
And I gave him success.
Daniel:
Here's the man driven or pushed by his dreams.
Being blocked in every door or window of opportunity if you will,
in desperation he tried one after another.
Ironically the thing he wanted most in life to be a good writer may finally within his grasp.
And then the creature appeared.
This creature appeared and clouded his judgment.
She offered him celebrity and money and women. Women as beautiful as herself.
Who gave this creature that kind of power?
Well certainly not GOD.
He banished her.
She has no power by her nature. No.
The sad truth is that all of her strength comes from us.
Why do you think she work so tirelessly gathering as many human souls as she can?
Simply because it's the one thing she doesn't have.
Freewill.
My opponent says Mr. Stone come to her because what he had was not enough.
That he wanted more.
More what?
More money, more sex, more power, more control?
That's what she had him believed.
But what my client really wanted was readers.
He wanted people to read what he wrote.
He's a writer. That's what writers want.
An audience. An audience for his words, for his vision, for his truth if you will.
That's all any of us wanted.
The chance to tell what we feel, what we believe, what reality looks like to us.
That's what I want. That's what she wants. That's what you (the juries) wanted.
That's what my client wanted.
What did he get? What did he get?
What did she give him in exchange for his immortal soul?
Ah yes, she gave him fame, she gave him power, she gave him money.
Yes she gave him readers, and audience.
But an audience for what?
See without a soul what did he have to say?
Without a sould what did it matter he finally had an audience?
Without his soul all the readers in the world didn't matter,
because without a soul Jabez Stone couldn't write!
Certainly not anything that mattered.
Certainly not the truth.
Yes GOD could have created any reality but HE created this one.
Birth, pain, conflict and death.
Pain reminds us with what hurt us;
conflict challenges us to be better than we think we are; and death,
ah well death,
death gives us the chance to sum up all goodwill done, or left undone in life.
Yeah, it is a painful world.
That's why we want someone like Jabez Stone comes along.
Someone who could look at the pain and describe it truthfully and simply and give it a shape so that we can understand it when someone like that comes along.
A visionary, a religious leader or a statesman or an ordinary person with a good heart and common sense.
When someone like Jabez Stone comes along we need to fight for him.
Not for his sake, but for ours.
(a paragraph extracted from Stone's work) Johnny with eyes now filled with tears turned and looked up to his father's kind face. His father puts his hand on Johnny's shoulder and said, "Remember son, there's never a shortcut to happiness."
Tonight you have a chance to send her a message, seize it (Objection!).
Tell her that enough is finally at the long last enough (Objection this is beyond the scope of the trial).
Tell her there's never a shortcut to happiness.
You know that, you have all people know that.
Sit down.
It's good to be reminded of it isn't it?
It's good to have someone around to remind us.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen.
Let these lines sink in and feel it...I enjoyed the movie very much and I hope you'd find it interesting too.
Here's the man driven or pushed by his dreams.
Being blocked in every door or window of opportunity if you will,
in desperation he tried one after another.
Ironically the thing he wanted most in life to be a good writer may finally within his grasp.
And then the creature appeared.
This creature appeared and clouded his judgment.
She offered him celebrity and money and women. Women as beautiful as herself.
Who gave this creature that kind of power?
Well certainly not GOD.
He banished her.
She has no power by her nature. No.
The sad truth is that all of her strength comes from us.
Why do you think she work so tirelessly gathering as many human souls as she can?
Simply because it's the one thing she doesn't have.
Freewill.
My opponent says Mr. Stone come to her because what he had was not enough.
That he wanted more.
More what?
More money, more sex, more power, more control?
That's what she had him believed.
But what my client really wanted was readers.
He wanted people to read what he wrote.
He's a writer. That's what writers want.
An audience. An audience for his words, for his vision, for his truth if you will.
That's all any of us wanted.
The chance to tell what we feel, what we believe, what reality looks like to us.
That's what I want. That's what she wants. That's what you (the juries) wanted.
That's what my client wanted.
What did he get? What did he get?
What did she give him in exchange for his immortal soul?
Ah yes, she gave him fame, she gave him power, she gave him money.
Yes she gave him readers, and audience.
But an audience for what?
See without a soul what did he have to say?
Without a sould what did it matter he finally had an audience?
Without his soul all the readers in the world didn't matter,
because without a soul Jabez Stone couldn't write!
Certainly not anything that mattered.
Certainly not the truth.
Yes GOD could have created any reality but HE created this one.
Birth, pain, conflict and death.
Pain reminds us with what hurt us;
conflict challenges us to be better than we think we are; and death,
ah well death,
death gives us the chance to sum up all goodwill done, or left undone in life.
Yeah, it is a painful world.
That's why we want someone like Jabez Stone comes along.
Someone who could look at the pain and describe it truthfully and simply and give it a shape so that we can understand it when someone like that comes along.
A visionary, a religious leader or a statesman or an ordinary person with a good heart and common sense.
When someone like Jabez Stone comes along we need to fight for him.
Not for his sake, but for ours.
(a paragraph extracted from Stone's work) Johnny with eyes now filled with tears turned and looked up to his father's kind face. His father puts his hand on Johnny's shoulder and said, "Remember son, there's never a shortcut to happiness."
Tonight you have a chance to send her a message, seize it (Objection!).
Tell her that enough is finally at the long last enough (Objection this is beyond the scope of the trial).
Tell her there's never a shortcut to happiness.
You know that, you have all people know that.
Sit down.
It's good to be reminded of it isn't it?
It's good to have someone around to remind us.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen.
Let these lines sink in and feel it...I enjoyed the movie very much and I hope you'd find it interesting too.
Daniel: what did you ask for? Be precise. Stone: Success.
Daniel: Coz that's what you lacked?
Stone: Yes.
Daniel: You already had happiness?
Stone: I just wasn't happy enough. I thought success would make me happier.
Daniel: That's a common mistake.
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