Get A Movie On

It’s dark, it’s rainy and the future is anything but orange. With no inspiration, it’s hard to see a career forming ahead of us. So we sent JAMES MITCHELL to collect some movie inspiration for our shaky career prospects.

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So – what are films for? Do they (a) offer nothing more than frivolous escapism, or (b) can they provide profound insights into our lives and deliver valuable lessons?

The correct answer is (a) of course, and at Cambridge the cinema provides some welcome mindless distraction from the endless torment of supervisions, looming deadlines and the small matter of finding a job post-graduation.

However, I have been commissioned to write a piece to explain how some films can guide us through our studies and into the Real World Beyond Cambridge (RWBC) where our future careers await, so for the purposes of this article, let’s pretend that there is something in (b).

So do films offer more help than harm? How can we use them to find inspiration instead of procrastination? Here is my guide for using films to summon that extra mile, to squeeze out those final creative juices and brighten the prospect of RWBC.

Let’s start with teaching. In all the films that I can remember teachers are portrayed as inspirational, almost heroic, individuals who command the unwavering respect of their pupils. From Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society” all the way to Robin Williams in “Good Will Hunting”, the cinematic pedagogue is a subject of admiration and even worship.

OK – teachers may not always stick fully to the syllabus – and yes, in Half Nelson, Ryan Gosling does have a penchant for crack cocaine. But if you’re failing for inspiration for that Teach First interview, simply turn on a bit of Robin, and you’ll soon learn to ‘caaaarrpeeee dieeeeem’.

Perhaps you are studying medicine and planning upon becoming a doctor.

Perhaps you should think again.

Almost every film featuring the medical profession ends in unmitigated disaster. In fact, life as a doctor usually involves any one or more of zombie attacks, terrorist attacks, epidemics and/or natural disasters. This probably applies to scientists as well, and they are usually the first to perish. Martyrdom is overrated.

I know what you’re thinking: let’s just turn to Robin Williams again, right? Wrong. Patch Adams makes a mockery of both medicine and cinema.

A significant proportion of you will have few morals and enormous greed, and will therefore be attracted to a job as a banker or trader. The films that I have seen provide both good and bad news. Things are likely to start well, with loads of money, flash cars, beautiful women and designer drugs. Invariably, however, things will start to go wrong, just as you are at or near the top. You will probably end up being responsible for a major banking crisis and prosecuted for fraud – so it’s swings and roundabouts really.

Lawyers, on the other hand, tend to do quite well in most films. The best advice for the young lawyer is to take on a case where your chances of winning are close to nil. If the likes of Twelve Angry Men, Philadelphia, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Few Good Men have taught us anything, it’s that the underdog always wins.

But these all require a remarkable amount of hard work and success, which is a future that just isn’t realistic to most of us – and what else do we go to films for if not realism? Into The Wild offers that nice safety net: a romanticised vagabond infected with wanderlust and a dream of a simpler life. That said, he ends up dead and alone.

If your enthusiasm is flagging during this dark and rainy week, put down those notes, buy a film and consider your future career.

Lol jk just download one illegally and procrastinate.