The Movie That Feeds My Wanderlust


My favorite movie is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. While it wasn’t a crowd favorite, it appealed to me on three distinct levels. So maybe it wasn’t for everyone, but it made an impact on me.




            The first level is traveling. Not only does he go to incredible places in the movie, he does it in an envious way. I would love to just pack up things and go somewhere on a drop of a dime. Then there are the places where he traveled. I think the movie did a great job putting the viewer in those places. One of my favorite scenes is the long-boarding scene. Where he wraps rocks to his hands, and long boards down a winding road toward the city he needs to get to. I would define that as an experience. That scene puts an image to my passion to travel. I don’t want to travel just to see incredible places, I want to experience them.




            The second level is photography. I have always had a passion for photography. I was planning to major in it in college, but my passion for nonprofits took over. Now, I will graduate with a minor it, but it is still a major thing in my life (had to do it). This movie was not only shot with an artistic vision, but it involved it in the story line. I am a sucker for film photography, and it really sucks that now it is getting completely replaced by digital. However, this movie got me excited because the photographer is set on using film. I guess you can say I aspire to his lifestyle. There’s a scene where he doesn’t want to take a photo because he wants to just remember the moment for himself. I love that even the crazy travel photographer takes time to enjoy the little things. It also doesn’t hurt that when I watched this movie with my friends majoring in art, we couldn’t stop talking about it.




            The third level is the message. The overall message that I got was to not be afraid to experience life. Travel the world. Find a job you can go to for 30 years straight. Do what you want to do, instead of just thinking about it. If that didn’t make me want to travel, I don’t know what will. Sometimes I get the feeling that traveling is unrealistic, but then I remember the timelessness of the memories and experiences I have. It is always worth it.