Divergent

(Warning: There be spoilers here!)

A couple weeks ago I watched Divergent with a couple friends, and it was a really good movie. I want to write down my thoughts and opinions on the film because I found it really fun to watch and it touched on a really personal level.

The movie is set in a dystopic future where apparently there was some kind of huge, possibly global, war. A century after the war a system was set up where people were divided into five groups based on personality. You have the selfless Abegnation; the warrior Dauntless; the scientific Erudites; the brutally honest Candor; and the loving artistic Amity. They live in Chicago which looks run down but is actually quite lively. Surrounding the city is a huge lookout wall that Dauntless use to be on the lookout for war-affected mutated humans. There are also people that are factionless. They are sort of the homeless of the world, and are cared for by the Abegnation.

The main character is Beatrice, who later takes on the name Tris. She is from the Abegnation. During the scan which sees which faction she's best suited for, it's found she is a Divergent. These are people who don't think like normal people and thus don't neatly fit into the system which the humans founded a century back. I almost wondered if perhaps this equated to Asperger's or some such, but she was not portrayed as having any social or cognitive issues. On the day she is to choose what faction she will be in, Beatrice picks Dauntless, since she admired them.

Dauntless are nothing short of amazing, and honestly I feel her amazement at the faction. They routinely climb stuff and jump out of trains. The process by which they become inititated into the faction involves a lot of rigorous physical training and plenty of fighting. At first, Tris (the name she gives herself in Dauntless) is one of the weaker members. But she persists in her training and, while she doesn't become cream of the crop, she does mostly avoid being kicked out.

In her training there is a process where one faces their fears in a hallucination. It's an interesting experiment and something that touches personally to me. Over the course of the movie she finds that the Erudite want to take control of society away from the Abegnation. She also has to hide the fact she is a Divergent since such people are killed. One of her mentors, and later love interest, is also a secret Divergent. When the rest of the Dauntless are drugged into being a sort of mindless army, the two of them lead a mission to stop the Abegnation from being genocidally murdered by Erudite leadership. They do succeed, of course, but at the expense of essentially becoming outcasts from their society, since they had killed leaders and basically caused untold disruption to society.

There are a few things that stand out to me in this movie. First, it seems to be a monomyth aka Hero's Journey, film. But this time, the main character is a female. She isn't a terribly attractive person, but that gives the movie brownie points in my eyes. There are enough shows and films with hot actresses; let's give it a rest. She starts off as being a sweet Abegnation girl who doesn't have much in terms of physical strength or mental sharpness. Her dogged determination, as well as exposure to life-threatening situations, gradually turns her into a person who is strong in every way she was previously lacking. Seeing her go from her original state to warrior-like, able to handle the futuristic gun that is the Dauntless weapon of choice, as well as being very clever and brave, is really awesome. There was one scene where her mother is killed, and the stoicism she developed during the movie is temporarily lost; the actress is able to portray deeply seated sadness with facial expressions that are extremely accurate and touching.

One of the things I wish were different about myself were my physical and mental hardness. Physically, I'm not someone who is capable of much. I don't have outstanding strength, or speed, or really anything. My pain threshold is low enough that I would be useless in a fight. Being a guy, I have that sort of warrior drive to be able to protect, provide, and hold my own in situations where strength and ability to defend myself are important. Unfortunately I've never been one to have that ability. Mentally, I don't see myself as an exceptionally brave person. My religious beliefs are sometimes unpopular and people might think I'm "brave" for holding to them in the face of opposition, but that's not really the bravery I'd like. I'd like the bravery to stand up to someone even at the risk - especially at the risk - of a physical altercation. So seeing someone like me, a physically uncommanding and uncourageous person, go from this state to being bold and competent is appealing. I sort of lived vicariously through Trice's story, I guess.

The Dauntless have this axiom, "never give up." This is seen in a situation where one of the characters hangs on to a railing for dear life, as she was over a deadly drop. She held on until she couldn't anymore, and then at the last moment the mentor let her fellow newcomers to Dauntless rescue her. The lesson was to not give up no matter the costs. I find that exceptionally admirable and I'm almost envious of the ability to have that sort of tenacity. I'm not someone who is good at keeping it up when everything seems impossible, much less fatal.

Visually the movie was very fun to watch. I'm a sucker for eye candy and the movie delivered on that.

I was fascinated by the idea of a society divided by personality type. I'm interested by the idea that people have personality types which can be neatly divided into groups. Which is why I like things such as MBTI, Kiersey temperaments, enneagrams, and so on. I wondered to myself what faction I would likely belong to. All things considered I'm most likely a mix of Candor and Edrudite. I can sort of see MBTI parallels in the factions: Erudite screams of NT, Dauntless is SP, Amity is probably NF. Abegnation seems more SFJ, while the lawyer-like nature of Candor gives an STJ vibe.

One of the things I don't like is the eventual inclusion of a romance storyline. Tris eventually falls for Four, one of her mentors. If you ask me it just comes out of nowhere. They have a moment alone with each other, a few words are exchanged... and bam, they're kissing. Oh and there was quite likely implied sex... because when doesn't that happen in a modern young adult film. I don't like love plots anywhere. But given the nature of the rest of the film, I guess it was a bit of a necessary evil to drive the story further. Now, Four has a tattoo on his back of the logos of all five factions. This was a glaringly obvious hint that he was also a Divergent. I got the feeling he was a Divergent earlier in the film by the way he interacted with Tris. Had he not been one, he would have reported the girl as soon as he found out.

The ending was also kind of weak. It ends with Tris narrating how now they had nowhere to go, and were on a train to wherever they would hide out. It sounded all hopeful and stuff. But to me it was just sort of bleh. There surely had to be better, stronger ways to finish off the movie. If nothing else, it leave a large opening for a sequel.

Kind of cliche, but the girl's father is a major figure in the city's government. I guess some sort of relevance needed to be established for her.

Overall, it was a very pleasant thing to watch. It's actually an adaptation of a book, which is in trilogy form. I've been wanting to get back into reading books. And I've always been a lover of sci fi. This seems like a really good trilogy to pick up on. I would like to find a paper copy of the book instead of an ebook or PDF. But it's for sure something I would like to read. The movie is inspirational for me, in a way. It's like how fairy tales we tell kids can move and motivate them. I connected with the main character strongly. It motivates me to press on and go hard in what I want to do, because if I have the dogged determination for it, I can accomplish a lot. The movie also sparked sort of my testosterone-led, warrior side. I would really like to find a way to explore that side of me more.