Alex, Marie, and Leonore

Over the last three days, I've seen three autobiographical films.
Three.
I can't say that I usually tend toward such things, as that would be a lie.
However, I don't necessarily shy away from them, either.
With these three, I had reasons for seeing them which were completely unrelated to the people they were about, as I did not know those people.

The first, "Free Solo", featured El Capitan of Yosemite National Park. Why did I care? Well, my friend Paul had insisted in mid-May of 2010 that we visit there before going to Las Vegas. Cathy had pointed out that we might not be able to if the snow had not yet melted. Yikes! Fortunately, the road was clear and I was able to see this great peak, as well as halo rainbows and a waterfall that was so beautiful that I wept.
I welcomed the chance to see this natural rock formation once more, courtesy of the silver screen, and saw the film on the last day of its weeklong stay in Savannah.
I'm glad I did, as did a few others. The story was about Alex Honnold and his decade-long dream of climbing it. On June 3, 2017, just before his 32nd birthday, he successfully ascended nearly 3000 feet to the peak of El Capitan, using only his bare hands and shoe-clad feet, with the entire almost-four-hour climb captured by a film crew.
Wow.
If not for the fact that he was such an introvert, such a solitary sport that required hours of practice would not have drawn him.

The second, "A Private War", had Rosamund Pike portraying the lead character. She is an amazing actress, playing such diverse characters such as a presumed-dead-and-missing wife and as a lone survivor of an Indian attack and as a behavioral psychologist in a comedy. In other words, she is both delightful and fearless, fully occupying any and every character that she portrays.
So it was in this case, too, as she brings back to life war journalist Marie Colvin. The based-on-facts film followed key events in Colvin's life over her last eleven years, until her death by bombing.
Wow.
If not for the fact that Colvin was such an introvert, she might not have been able to withstand the time and space of such a stressful career.

The third, "Can You Ever Forgive Me?", drew me in because it starred Melissa McCarthy. Yes, once upon a time, I had dismissed her as a one-trick pony, as she played the same overweight, foul-mouthed character in several movies. Then, in 2014, I saw "Tammy" with my brother Ronnie, as his birthday request. That changed my view of her, as she portrayed the daughter of an alcoholic (played deliciously by Susan Sarandon). I kept watching her, impressed with her subdued persona in 2016's "Ghostbusters". Ever since then, I have continued to be quite impressed with her range, especially in those movies written and directed by her husband, Ben Falcone, films such as ... "Tammy".
As Lee Israel, a dowdy lesbian, aging and alone, McCarthy is fabulous, prompting me to care about this biographical writer who chronicled the lives of others. In the 1970's and 1980's, Lee Israel was flush with cash and successful, but the film picks up with her in 1992, after a bug dud and a bout of writer's block. She discovers by accident that letters by famous people would sell, so she actually became a bit infamous for her "carefully crafted witticisms" when she had used up the few genuine letters she had possessed.
Wow.
If not for the fact of her being such an introvert, she probably would not have been able to have the space and time for such ingenuity.

Three different films, all about introverts that had mental blocks against society, mental blocks that allowed them to shut out society's rules and regulations about normality and expectations.
Wow.

Of late, I've been watching a new television show, "The Good Doctor". It's about an autistic young man who is especially gifted in the medical field, having an ability to concentrate on the disease more so than on the patient. Accordingly, that ability allows him to catch fluke diagnoses that are masked by others' expectations.
If not for him being such an introvert, people would be more likely to die at that hospital.
I think I'll watch another episode, right now.
Somehow, I can relate to these folks...
(smile)