Pay(ing) it Forward...

Again, circumstances of being sick and staying at home instead of participating in other 'Christian' activities have allocated time and opportunity for me to watch this movie...

I initially heard about this movie from a Christian friend, but haven't actually seen it. The theme and meaning behind the title of the movie was that if someone did a good deed for you, you would in turn go and return a good deed to someone else. The idea came from a student and was inspired by a motto his teacher (played by Kevin Spacey) was trying to teach in class, with the intention of trying to inspire his students toward positive global scale change:

"Think of an idea to change the world and put it into ACTION!" [may not be 100% accurate quote, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223897/]

The quote on the movie cover as can be seen from imdb.com is:

"When someone does you a big favor, don't pay it back...PAY IT FORWARD..."

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223897/]

The student's idea was that if each person who received help would in turn help three other people, PAYING IT FORWARD eventually multiply and the entire world will eventually be helped.

Since I was watching this on one of the more conservative channels (CTS), any profanity in the original version of the film was again 'blanked out' which made it difficult to understand the explanation of the idea or theory in the jail scene. Suffice to say, the concept of 'Pay it Forward' was being transmitted 'word of mouth' similar to that of a 'broken telephone' and while the main point is still there, the wording may not have been original.

Although attempting to minimize 'spoilers', I kind of want to point out this movie has a 'sad' ending involving 'human sacrifice' (hehe) which reminds me of some other bible verses, but I am concerned I will completely 'spoil' the movie if I specify which verses, so I guess you're just going to have to watch the movie and find the passages for yourself afterwards. :P I am debating whether to add this next sentence, those of you who don't like 'spoilers' should skip to the next paragraph. Let's just say the ending was very 'Christian'.

Overall, the movie wasn't at all bad, so I think it deserves the 6.9 rating on imdb.com as of the day I checked the ratings. The moral of the movie is making a positive impact in the lives of others should be positive enough to be its own motivator for the individuals helped to in turn help others. Seeing that they made this into a movie, the concept should essentially be out in circulation but I have yet to receive that 'random act of kindness' from a stranger for me to believe that I have experienced 'Pay it Forward' first hand. As the main protaganist says in the movie, "it has to be something big". Not to discount small favors we do for people, but I guess I'll end the review by pointing out that perhaps the reason why the kid mentioned it this way is because 'small things' aren't necessarily 'sacrifices'.