How the mighty have fallen

There haven't been any particular press releases it seems, on the details of Tony Scott's suicide. Maybe reporters are actually being respectful of his family's wish for privacy.

This is a phenonemal story of sadness nonetheless. It is surprising to see how many people knew about Scott and his movies, and also how many didn't know he'd directed some of their faves, or that he was Ridley Scott's brother. I was having a conversation with a friend about him just a month ago. I must say, his IMDB list of movies reveals some pretty awful productions, but it also reveals his presence in a plethora of movies and series. For people older than me, he's the director of Top Gun, with that scary monkey faced woman. For me, he's the director of Man of Fire, one of my all-time favourites, just one of the best revenge movies ever, with a brilliant casting, script, music, overall production and underlying themes.

I seems to me that he intended for his death to be a parable. Indeed, for once, it's not a mixture of pills that kills a famous person, in uncertain circumstances, not to disrespect Heath Ledger, but it was all very odd. This was a clear and open statement. Indeed, it looks like an intentional declaration. He didn't take his life with a gun, didn't overdose, didn't have a weird accident. Some say he may have had an inoperable brain tumor. If this is true, he chose to go out with a bang. But whether it is or isn't true, the power of this image stays.

It speaks out: "Look at me, look at my life. Look at the people I know, look at the money I have, look at the things I've achieved. I may still have twenty years of life in me, or just 6 months, which could be well lived, but I don't see anything else worth doing. I embrace death over life. I will make my body go to where my mind is already. It will join countless others, who are just like me. I will show you how I fall."

It's a story we all know. I'm not trying to be funny here, his death is a tragedy, I can't even imagine how his close ones feel. But this is a statement he made, in a world which still doesn't GET it! There are still people who believe what this stupid R'n'B/pop culture is preaching at them: that they can be happy if they rise to the heights they can imagine for themselves. Money, fame, power, artistic achievement, adulation, sexual satsifaction, self-realisation. Ultimately, it doesn't free you from your hell, this lack of inner peace, it just makes it more evident. The problem is not in aiming high. It's that people don't aim high enough.

The only true height from which we cannot fall, the love of God, expressed in Jesus' fall for our redemption. We aim for man-made heavens instead of the true heaven. And THAT is tragic for ALL of us.