“Wash
your dishes.” “Take out the trash.” “Clean up your room.” These were few of the
many sentences we all dreaded as kids. When we were younger little tasks such
as these made it seem like the hardest work we ever had to do. As we grow
older, our parents sculpted us to become hard-working citizens of the United
States. Sooner or later we found out that there are much bigger problems out in
the world we have to worry about than having to do chores around the house,
going to school, doing assignments, and passing classes. Before we know it,
we’re at that point in our lives where it is all work and no play. We look back
and wishing that the only problems we had to deal with was ‘taking out the
trash.” We should all be thankful for the love and support that our parents
gave us when we were younger, but in the movie Step Brothers two 40-year-old men are still being taken care of by
their parents and they are forced to grow up and become a regular
hard-working-citizens. Although the two main characters are older adults, they
are portrayed as children and their parents want them to change who they are to
meet the minimum requirements of what every parent expects of their child; to
become successful. For many young people now, their parents force them to grow
up so quickly to prepare for the future, so some kids do not get to experience
their childhood and young adolescent years to their full potential. In today's
society people are too worried about growing up fast and forget how important
it is to be young. Does endeavoring the spirit of youth outweigh the qualities
of being serious and reserved all the time?
In
the movie poster for Step Brothers,
there are two older looking men at the bottom right corner that seem to be
fighting against each other to get into the picture. They both look like the
stereotypical "young brothers" in a picture, struggling to get a
dominant position in a family picture but smiling in it to make the picture
look nice. Also, they’re adults, and not children, which in the background is
sort of white and blue mix that gives the poster the effect of looking like the
background of an elementary school picture; making these older looking men look
somewhat childish. To the side of their heads are the words " they grow up
so fast" which is very ironic because they look pretty old, but they have
the mind set of a much younger age group. The title of the movies are written
in different colors to show that there can be a big difference between being
step brothers with someone than being biologically related to them.
The
movie Step Brothers has many scenes in
the movie where it shows how forcing people to grow up too quick can be a bad
thing. Throughout the movie it shows the transition of two older men who have
been living off their parents support and career their whole lives and how they
change into your average hard working American citizen within a short time
span. One of the earlier scenes in the movie it shows when Dale and Brennan
first start to get along with each other. They had been enemies with each other
because they were not used to living with each other, but soon find a common
enemy who was Derek, Brennan’s younger successful brother. When they decided
that they could be friends they decided to share things about themselves and
treasuers that they kept secrets from each other. Although most would call
these secrets unimportant or not of value, it was the little things that they shared
with each other that made them extremely happy and appreciate their life. While
they were “playing” the night before their interviews, their mom and dad told
them to quiet down and go to sleep because they are too worried about their
future. It is the things like that, that people forgot when they get older is
to enjoy the little things that keep a person youthful and help them persevere
through life. In the eyes of Dale and Brennan they were not focusing on their
interview because they were too busy enjoying the small things in life with a
friend. From the parent’s perspective they didn’t even notice the fact that
their sons were bonding, but were more concerned about the interview. In order
for a person to become successful both physically and mentally, we need to find
the perfect medium of having fun as well as being productive at the same time.
When a person is either too lackadaisical they may never find a future for
themselves, where Dale and Brennan were headed at the beginning of the movie. At
the same time, if you are too serious all the time and care too much about your
future, it can be a bad thing like Brennan’s younger brother Derek as an
example.
In
a scene in Step Brothers, Derek is
introduced and he seems like he has everything going for him, he is rich and
successful and talks about it all the time. When he comes over to meet the new
family, he meets Dale for the first time and he gets into an argument with him
and starts to harass Dale for being a loser in his eyes. In this scene, Dale
says, “What is your problem, man?” Derek then responds, “My problem? I don't
know. I don't have a problem, uh, Dale. In fact, I have the opposite of a
problem. I made over 550K last year. How much did you make?” Dale then yells
back, “It's not about money.” Derek then ends off with, “It's not about money?
Well, for me, it's a little about money, and I made *that* much money last
year.” Derek has been on a high horse his whole life and since he is so caught
up in making money and being successful he lacks many different qualities that
makes him a genuine person. He is clueless to his surroundings because he is
only focused on himself; his kids are being raised as selfish and stuck up and
his wife can’t stand him or her lifestyle, but is only with Derek because he
has money. He can’t stop talking about himself and his only mentality is to
become more rich and successful. In this way, the movie shows people who grow
up too fast and only care about the future, can tend to forget who they are
because they get too caught up in their work and stop realizing that there is
more to life than just working all the time.
In
the last scene of this movie Dale and Brennan have some what realized what they
wanted to do with their lives and have matured since their parents divorce.
They end up both working together to host a huge event called “The Catalina
Wine Mixer” where Brennan is hosting the event and Dale is catering it. During
the event the band playing got kicked out and if there was no music, Brennan
would be fired from his brother’s company. “The Catalina Wine Mixer” all
depended on a past hobby Dale and Brennan used to do before they had jobs,
which was playing music together. They were very hesitant on playing because
they had put the past behind them already when they “grew up” and didn’t want
to revert back to them old selves. The Father who has been hard on them their
whole time about getting careers and growing up spoke to them and told them a
story from when he was younger, “When I was a boy, I always wanted to be a
dinosaur and I would run around the back yard chasing and growling at the
neighborhood cats pretending to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur. Then my dad yelled at me, Son, you’re
17 years old-grow up!” Dale and Brennan said, “Dad, your a human, you could
never be a dinosaur. What’s your point?” He then says, “The point is, Don’t
lose your dinosaur…Don’t lose your Dream!” Everyone when they are younger has a
dream to become something, and as silly as this quote is, as people grow older
they tend to lose their hopes and dreams of becoming something one day because
they are not young anymore and start to see things as they are. The best part
of being young or having a young spirit it that you are never too old to try
and achieve the goals you want to accomplish.
Another
movie I would like to compare to Step Brothers is another Will Ferrell movie called Elf. Will Ferrell plays a human elf named Buddy, who was
accidentally abducted and raised as an elf his whole life. Santa one day lets
buddy venture off to New York to find his biological father who was deemed on
Santa’s bad list. While finding his father, Will Ferrell finds out that his
real dad is a selfish father who puts his job over his wife and son Michael.
The father kicks Buddy out of his house because he acts like a child, but then
later the father is forced to take care of him and put up with his young and
immature behaviors when he finds out that he is actually his son. Michael and
Buddy become friends and when Buddy goes missing, so Michael busts into his
dad’s meeting and yells at him to put family over his job for once and help him
look for Buddy. They find in Central park trying to get Santa’s sleigh to work
but would only work if they got enough people to believe in Santa was real. But
it was difficult because the father had never believed in him. Every one began
to believe in Santa, and thus Christmas was saved. Both Elf and Step Brothers emphasize the idea of how important it is to have a
young mentality and to take notice in other things than just working and being
serious all the time.
Many
people enjoy watching movies such as Step Brother or Elf because
when we see these movies, it ignites a flame from within and makes us feel like
we can achieve our long lost goals from when we were younger. When we were all
younger, everyone had at least one crazy dream they hoped one day would come
true, but as time went on we tell our selves it is unattainable or it will
never happen. We stop seeing our dreams from a younger perspective and start to
limit ourselves because we think in our society seems more realistic for
ourselves in the future. Movies like these can be truly inspiring and should
remind us all that having a youthful mind set is not always a bad thing because
it opens up endless amounts of hopes and dreams before they can be labeled as
unrealistic goals our society or parents have set for us.
Step
Brothers is a very funny and ridiculous
movie, but it truly has a meaning and moral behind the story. What saved “ The
Catalina Wine Mixer” was a good mix of responsibility as well as having fun
every now and then. No matter how old we become physically, we can still remain
youthful in the mind to live a healthier and better lives for ourselves.
Cherishing the spirit of youth is important to everyone because as we all get
older we tend to forget the little things in life that make us happy. Everyone
has a dream when they’re younger, but as you start to get older you forget that
dream because you think you we will never be able to attain that goal because
we have more realistic and serious goals to focus on. That is why I think
having a young mentality is so important because no matter how old we get, the
spirit of youth can carry us forward and make realize that we still have time
to achieve those life-long hopes and dreams we set when we were younger.
Works
Cited
Judy Rakowsky, et
al. "Will Ferrell." People 70.6 (2008): 30. Academic Search Elite.
Web. 6 Dec. 2012.
"Step
Brothers." Rolling Stone 1058 (2008): 99. Academic Search Elite. Web. 6
Dec. 2012.
Roark, David.
"My Top 5 Christmas Movies." Christianity Today 55.12 (2011): 68.
Academic Search Elite. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.
Kendal, Sarah,
Philip Keeley, and Peter Callery. "Young People's Preferences For
Emotional Well-Being Support In High School-A Focus Group Study." Journal
Of Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing 24.4 (2011): 245-253. Academic
Search Elite. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.
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