If You Can't Pay It Back, Pay It Forward

Recently, we've been talking a lot about movie reviews and it made me think of how many movies there are that are about Good Samaritans(if there are any). Usually, we see hit movies coming out that are comedies, love stories, or horror movies. But what about a movie about doing good? Do we not see them put out into the media because they won't sell due to lack of sexual scenes or gore? Though there are not many immediate movies that come in mind when I think about Samaritans, I can recall this one movie I saw about two years ago..

Pay It Forward came out on October 20, 2000. This movie staring Oscar winners Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and nominee Haley Joel Osment, was based on a novel written by Catherine Hyde after she had a real life experience of "paying it forward". As discussed on http://www.payitforwardmovement.com/media/media_time.html, the author was driving home late one night in a section of Los Angeles when her car stalled and started to smoke. As she leaped out of the car, she saw two men running at her with a blanket while thoughts of muggings danced in her head. It turns out that these men were not muggers but they were there to put out the fire that was burning along the throttle line of her car. As Hyde said, "I finally realized these two guys could have died. I could have died. I turned around to than them--and they weren't there. For the next few months, I walked around with this great sense of regret. But without realizing it, that planted the seed for the idea. If you can't 'pay it back, pay it forward.' "

Eventually, Pay It Forward made it's way onto the big screen. According to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223897/plotsummary, the plot of Pay It Forward revolves around young Trevor McKinney(Haley Joel Osment), troubled by his mother's(Helen Hunt) alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet(Kevin Spacey). The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward--repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor's efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher, but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him.

After watching this movie, it made me think about ever action I did. I wondered if me holding the door open for someone or picking up a dropped book would make them think of me in the future and want to do something small for something else. I think if you haven't seen this movie you should definitely take a look at it. It will open your eyes to a whole other side of lending a helping hand. I think everyone should join in the pay-it-forward movement.