The Butterfly Effect:
The Butterfly Effect:
The Butterfly Effect:
The Butterfly Effect:
The Butterfly Effect:
The Butterfly Effect:
Uh...let's see, which one of these do I want to comment on? Ok, I'm joking. This was an ok movie, movie-wise, but I really don't want to do the Ebert thing and talk about the film conventions here. I want to get to the chase.
My summary:
Chaos theory has probably to date not been illustrated as well as this. But it is a Godless theory. It's roots are still highly existential. The resulting ethos is lonely and ultimately lives up to it's name, leading to dispair. Only a short leap away is Theology of Choice, that being that multiple miriads of millions of possible futures exist according to our choices, yet all intertwine connectively to assemble themselves in the end in the fabric that God weaves into a most perfect tapestry. The difference in these two, again, and risking redundancy, is that one is Godless, and the later is not.

On wishful thinking this movie gets an A+. It is our utmost desire to get through life without hurting anyone, and without being hurt. "If only I had..." begins a thousand sentences through life. The ability to go back and fix those things would seem marvelous. In the end our hero, played by Krutcher, sacrifices his own desires for the good of many it would seem. That's very selfless of him. In the end, though unrealistic, I think most would identify with this desire, and yet we still live with the nagging "what ifs" of normalcy until something utterly "out of the ordinary happens" to us.

The story devices of time travel and the conveniently inherited trick of "the butterfly effect" certainly highlights for us many moments that we may relate to in the icons of the bully, a moment of decision that causes pain, or destruction. Words said that either heal or destroy, and especially impotency in the reality that what we could have done but did not in the face of something bad gets played over and over in our heads. Guilt is a strong force. It can be destructive by making us inward, depressed, jaded, and bitter, or it can motivate us to see justice, become sensitive, or break through the pain of what we have done and heal it many times over by proactively making sure it does not happen to others.

While this story may be based on a Godless theory, it is not Godless in it's morality, and at least makes us think strongly about our decisions, and how important others should be to us. It does not trivialize relationships, but indeed shows us how close-knit they are, and how interrelated everything is. My own personal saying regarding reactive synthesis is, "When you throw a rock, it comes back down". Another closely related saying of my own is, "When you throw a rock into a pond, the ripples actually never DO stop". I would say that is as close to "The Butterfly Efffect" as you will get. However, I'm firmly in the God-initiated camp.

Chaos theory in and of itself cannot give us an ultimate answer. It is only one very good way of observing interatctions, not an end in itself.