Matthew Evans- Movie 21

The movie 21 was much deeper and better organized than I originally thought. In discussion the idea of the 7 deadly sins was brought up which was very intriguing. However, I was more struck by the idea of Karma. In a movie where money became a God, a way of life, where everyone stole, how you treated people became very important to the outcome of your life. The main character starts out as this kid who’s a qualified, honest, and brilliant student, but doesn’t do anything to take control of his life, doesn’t stray from the rules at all. He’s given a way out of this when his teacher invites him to participate in a rigged black jack game as a member of a team. When he starts he’s very modest and does very well, but as he becomes cocky and greedy he loses, and loses biG and is consequentially beaten by a security guard. He also turns on his friends and looses much of the respect in his academic community. At this point the teacher turns on him and takes him for everything that he’s worth and sets out to ruin his life. Well, the kid manages to get back into his teacher’s good graces, and decides to go to Vegas. He and the teacher run the tables along with the girl, and all seems good till security “catches on” and there’s a chase seen, which turns into a setup where the teacher ends up getting beaten up (we’re not sure what happens to him in the end) by the security guard he caused to loose his job years ago. The security guard takes the money and retires (injustice in the world?), we’re not sure what happens . After all this the kid ends up getting into his graduate program based upon his story. I liked how it all worked out on the basis of karma, but in moderation. The perfect don’t have a good life it seems, but the life lived in moderation seemed to do well.