PHILOSOPHICAL COMMENTS - LION KING Prof. Lúcia Helena Galvão Hello, welcome! Today we're going to talk about a slightly different but no less philosophical subject.
What are we talking about? The Lion King. Yes, that one!
The animated movie that has now just been remade into live action. One more among the many movies that are being released by Disney. In this version that has everything to be as successful as the animation one.
You may know that the original screenplay of the movie. . .
it's from 1988. . .
was one of Disney's most elaborate, complex works and also one of the biggest box-office hits. If you look at the stories. .
. they are always based, of the great Disney pictures, on some earlier tale. Not The Lion King!
It is a script created entirely by Disney screenwriters, has gone through countless transformations until it became consistent. It involved a huge work of professionals, among animators, scriptwriters, voice actors, soundtrack. .
. They say that one scene alone, the wildebeest stampede one took four years to be finished. And on top of all that, there was still the discredit, because the story didn't sound original, few people believed in it.
Also, it was being recorded concurrently with Pocahontas, which seemed to be a much more consistent story. The environment in which The Lion King was thought of and envisioned was the Kenya National Park, they envisioned it to be the lands of the Kingdom the savannah where the young Lion King would reign. And from that a simple yet very convincing argument was created.
. . which we will notice was the big reason for the movie's high impact, not only for technical perfection, not only for the beauty of some scenes, like the life circle you are faced with at the very beginning.
The movie is all filled with very beautiful scenes. But the consistency of this script. .
. The seemingly simple story of a young lion who flees his land, convinced that he was responsible for his father's death, deceived by his uncle and after a while he is convinced to return to take his uncle out of the usurped place, and take back his place as king. Basically the script is quite simple, but behind this simple little story of removing the usurping king, taking back his place, be a righteous and good new king there is a whole set of inspirations you may be starting to catch in the air.
The script is very reminiscent of Greek theater, no shadow of a doubt, the drama and even Greek tragedy. We have inspiration in two biblical passages: the Joseph and Moses stories. We got inspiration from the great Shakespearean drama Hamlet.
which is for sure the one it most resembles, anyway. . .
a whole elaborate set of references. . .
Old Bambi itself, we can see some important references there. Notice then an interesting thing: What could we perceive as similar in the story of Joseph sold by his brothers to Egypt? A story of the abandoned son taken away from his father who tends to regain his rightful place by merit.
We see Moses also, the child who, for tragic reasons, is removed from the family at a very young age and tends to regain his place and be the one who leads the people of Israel that is, the child predestined to be great, despite an ungrateful childhood fate. In Hamlet, on the other hand, we had quite a bit more. Hamlet is the story of the Prince of Denmark.
If you remember it, basically: Hamlet had his father murdered by his uncle Claudius and his uncle marries his mother, Gertrude, and at one point, Hamlet, who never quite came to terms with that story, meets his father's ghost who tells him everything that had happened, that he had been murdered by his own brother and asks him for revenge. He finds in the shadows of the night his father's phantom, and there will develop a whole plot to expose his uncle, to revenge on him, and make things get back to where they belong. Except it has a detail that makes Hamlet be more as a tragedy than a drama: Hamlet, in the quest for revenge and not just harmony, to restore the order of the universe ends up making his history, for his lack of trust in the order of things in nature his story goes from a drama to a tragedy.
For those who listened to our talk that I've mentioned a lot that to me was one of the most important in recent times, which is the two last chapters of the psychological conquest of evil. . .
We were talking about a very interesting fact recurring both in India and in Greek theater, which is the fact that the human being enters life, goes through a succession of trials, often very hard, from overcoming these trials, without losing faith in life, in the order of nature, in what the Indians call Dharma, he recovers this order in a state of far superior maturity. That is, between one drama and another, man grows until he reaches the fulfilment of his role in nature. This is present in both Greek drama and in the Indian sacred books, is the same idea, the Dharma.
Man's belief in the law of Dharma. We will see that Hamlet trades trust for revenge, this makes it all come to a tragedy in the end. Almost all characters die: He, his uncle, his mother.
. . they all die at the end.
So we see very strong traces of Hamlet in this story. You may remember Simba's meeting with his father, led by Rafiki. His father, who appears to him in the cloud midst, and tells him to retake his seat.
He tells him to take his place in the cycle of life, then it has a series of elements, the take-back of the kingdom from Mufasa, his uncle. . .
a whole set of stories that we will take a closer look at in a moment. And from Bambi, of course, the child who is also severely. .
. shaken by a trial of life that is the loss of his mother at a very young age. The father figure as a righteous leader, as a righteous king.
The leading of the child by the father I mean, there are elements of Bambi there as well. What I would like you to understand is: The whole success that was The Lion King and that continues to be, its first release, in its 3D relaunch, all of its versions, in this upcoming release, is not simply random chance. When a particular story has a very deep symbolic background, touching that symbolic background seems to make some of the strings of life sound, the heart strings of the human being.
The human being recognizes himself in this historical trajectory, in these historical arguments, which are the great arguments of life. It's like it gives him a nostalgic recognition of these threads, fundamental strings that he by alienation and superficiality stopped playing. So we can stop to think a little about the cycle of life.
The cycle of life that is the first scene, that wonderful scene on the rock of the kingdom where the cub is presented and all the animals celebrate it, is, fundamentally, a great faith that universe is cosmos and not chaos, that there is an order, that each thing is in its place and when each thing is in its place there is no evil in the universe. For those who attended my lecture on the Celts, remember that at a certain moment a druid answers Alexander the Great when Alexander asks him about what the Celts feared, this druid answers him that the Celts feared only two things: That the sky would collapse on the earth or that the sea would rise from its bed towards the sky. If the sky remains in its place and the sea remains in its place, it is a sign that nature has not lost its order.
It is enough that you, too, take your place, that everything is right, harmony continues. That is, this deep trust that we notice in these ancient traditions, that nature is harmony, is cosmos and not chaos, that cycle of life that is placed at the beginning is a restatement of this harmony, of each thing's place, of the order that Plato placed as the basis of justice. In other words, the universe is in flux, the universe is cosmos.
Now within the order of life takes place, at a certain moment, the break, the problem, the drama. . .
Because from the overcoming of these obstacles, all beings rise up. And remember that evolution is raising consciousness. Evolution is maturity.
So, in overcoming the life dramas, all beings rise up. And how does this drama present itself? At first we have the righteous king, which is the old myth of the king of the world, which is nothing more than a symbolic image of the idea of God.
The king of the world who under his gaze is all creation, all nature is aligned with his laws. He rules not only in his name but aligned with all those righteous kings who have ever existed. Remember Mufasa telling Simba that.
I mean, there is the law of Dharma there. The arm of God stretched out over the cosmos. Everything is aligned in harmony, but at a certain moment, this king of the world is overthrown, dethroned, killed.
Here comes the story of the usurper, realize that all these things are not only happening outside, they are happening inside of us as well. What I find beautiful and interesting in this film is that it comes back to nature. .
. in its most virgin form, the characters are animals, maybe to get us to come out a little bit the alienation in which we live, and feel this call of the virgin nature that exists within us. This call from the king's stone is for each one of us, to remind us this connection with the nature laws.
Then, at a certain moment, it is part of it, it is natural that this cosmos breaks down to be rebuilt at another level, with more maturity, with more awareness of all its characters. I mean, the king of the world, the righteous, wise king, is bereft within us, we have lost contact with wisdom, the usurper rises to the throne of our life. The usurper, normally, is selfishness with all its unfoldings of ignorance, of sensuality, of unmeasured desire.
. . That is, of animality, of violence, that takes power, all that was represented by Scar.
Realize that he was all of that. Debility, gross sensuality, instinct, violence, envy. .
. He is the usurper. When man experiences a moment of chaos, when he internalizes this chaos, the usurper is in power inside him.
But there is inside him, echoing, the voice of the father. This voice of the wise father, this voice of wisdom that does not stop, from the depths of his unconscious, does not stop calling for him to take his place, for him to regain order, because that is up to him, that is what nature expects of him. All the kings who have represented the law of the world have gone through their mishaps, they knew how to fight and recover order, I mean, his deeper, higher nature, we could name the call from his divine essence, is the call of the father within him.
Realize that the voice of the father comes from the heavens, from that highest point of his consciousness, of his own essence. And that calling, no matter how much he runs away from it, surrenders himself to a carefree life, a life of fun, survive in this world quite easily attenuating his powers, ignoring his powers. .
. That call eventually recovers, whether through the voices of the past, or through the voice of a master, Rafiki, who shows him that no one is dead. All those who have contributed to the law form a great chain and now it is his turn as a link.
So this call from the father makes him regain his position, his protagonism. Then he goes there and faces his difficulties. He faces all the shadows outside and inside him as well, and manages to be victorious over it all, and reconcile all these forces that participated with him in his survival reconcile all these masters that he had, and reign again over the lands of the kingdom, and again achieve harmony, get closer to his nature again.
Inherit his mission, his Dharma, and fulfill his role. So, realize that when we hear about these things we don't have a mere admiration for a cartoon film, what we have is nostalgia. I remind you again of that passage where Plato says that true beauty does not provoke desire in us, it provokes nostalgia.
It seems that we, through it, remember something inside us that is very pure, very strong, very beautiful, a mission. We can remember the voice of the father, we can remember the old myth of the righteous king, the king of the world, who expects us to take our role. When we do this within, it is harmony, it is wisdom.
When we do this outside we are great leaders, and we can distribute, share this harmony that exists inside us with the outside world. I remind you again, a story like this, so grounded in myth, in great drama, a story like this makes you feel like you're in it, the strong call of nature, of the cycle of life, of the king's stone. This call is also for us and that's why sometimes, without much awareness because in general what we do nowadays, so alienated that we are, from this symbolic call of life, we go after it thinking we're after just entertainment.
Deep down we are looking for traces to back to our own nature. These symbolic arguments that are inside are very strong and even if we don't understand them they do shake things up a bit, even if only for a few minutes, they shake this superficial structure of mere survival to which we have surrendered. I mean, perhaps it is no longer time for Hakuna Matata, now it is time to hear the voice of the father.
The film concludes this in a very beautiful way. In other words, it is a drama, not a tragedy. Simba trusts, he does not seek revenge, he seeks harmony and manages to reconcile all the factors.
. . in a reestablished kingdom inside himself: wisdom, outside himself: leadership, happiness, well-being for all his people.
We also need to recover that: Not revenge, trust, faith in nature, even in human nature. Think about this for a moment when you watch The Lion King once again. Stop to wonder: the things that touch me, why do they?
In the background, which element inside of you is touched by something. What thing, inside of you, recognizes something in the Lion King. This is not a myth, it is not simply a made-up story, this is human history retold in a very beautiful, simple, comprehensive way, but it is the history of humanity.
There are very important mythical structures there. That's it, I hope you have fun, but also reflect, one thing doesn't exclude the other. In everything that touches us, there is learning.
Remember that I am here trying to pass on to you the habit of awakening the sleeping philosopher, and the philosopher loves entertainment, but he also loves reflection. In fact, reflection is one of the best ways of entertainment. Think about it!
Cheers and have a good movie!
