Echos Of Enlightenment

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Essential Viewing for all Humanists!
Review: Absolutely Essential Viewing for all Humanists.

Selected out of over 2000 entrants, "Echos of Enlightenment" was shown at the 2002 Telluride Film festival as one of only 12 given a platform. Curious to see this film, I was not disappointed, and, in fact, as a result of seeing it on the DVD now available, I sat watching the end credits convinced it is absolutely essential viewing for all humanists, and for that matter, anyone who has ever made a movie, or is thinking of making one.

Although the subject matter is universal to the human condition, it is difficult to imagine "mainstream" Hollywood tackling this in such a head-on manner. Dan Coplan has done this with his first independent feature film.

Mystical in it's approach to the story of an Attorney who disappears in the face of the repellent greed and selfishness of his clients, the entire film, if you see it for no other reason, is remarkable for Dan Coplan's own astonishing and moving performance as the central character.

This stays with you long after you have watched the movie. An extraordinary achievement. Courageous, unstinting and totally honest. Also, as a lay person, you might just look upon the legal profession in a new light. The best of them should watch this movie. The worst of them should be made to watch it. Totally recommended. See it and feel it.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Essential Viewing for all Humanists!
Review: Absolutely Essential Viewing for all Humanists.

Selected out of over 2000 entrants, "Echos of Enlightenment" was shown at the 2002 Telluride Film festival as one of only 12 given a platform. Curious to see this film, I was not disappointed, and, in fact, as a result of seeing it on the DVD now available, I sat watching the end credits convinced it is absolutely essential viewing for all humanists, and for that matter, anyone who has ever made a movie, or is thinking of making one.

Although the subject matter is universal to the human condition, it is difficult to imagine "mainstream" Hollywood tackling this in such a head-on manner. Dan Coplan has done this with his first independent feature film.

Mystical in it's approach to the story of an Attorney who disappears in the face of the repellent greed and selfishness of his clients, the entire film, if you see it for no other reason, is remarkable for Dan Coplan's own astonishing and moving performance as the central character.

This stays with you long after you have watched the movie. An extraordinary achievement. Courageous, unstinting and totally honest. Also, as a lay person, you might just look upon the legal profession in a new light. The best of them should watch this movie. The worst of them should be made to watch it. Totally recommended. See it and feel it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Indie filmmaking!
Review: After seeing Echos of Enlightenment at the Telluride IndieFest 2002 film festival, I was impressed with the professionalism, polish and general look of the film. The story was compelling and interesting and the acting was strong and convincing. I was particularly impressed with Giovanna Brokaw's performance, which although a small role in the grand scheme of the story and picture, comes across very powerfully.

Overall, the film tugged on my emotions on many levels. That's always a good sign for me, as I tend to be a bit cynical about films of this subject matter. However, it was a well-told story with very important social and spiritual messages.

If I were to offer it any criticism it would be that there are scenes that could be shorter and the overall length of the film is slightly longer than necessary. In my opinion it would be a more powerful film if time had been taken to remove unnecessary exposition that doesn't drive the story foreword. But these are such minor, nick picky issues that you would expect from a filmmaker. So, I'll stop my critique at that note and close with saying it is a film worth seeing and watching.

If Echos of Enlightenment is an example of Dan Coplan's true talent and not a `one shot wonder', he has the potential of being a great filmmaker.

Rating:
Summary: Awful, just awful
Review: As the story opens, we're immediately handed a mystery: Who is Daniel? What happened in his last days? Is he Dead? If so, how? Through flashbacks, we follow the spiritual transformation, as Daniel slowly awakens to the illusion surrounding him - the lies, the struggle, the social conditioning of everyday life. Overwhelmed by the world coming down around him, Daniel breaks out, disappears, and comes face-to-face with people all around him suffering from various forms of fear and disconnection.

Daniel's awakening allows him a sort of transcendental detatchment, from which he pronounces wisdom, and causes those around him to stop, think, and transform. While I appreciate the spirit of the film and script, I found the nature and ease of these transformations distracting and strained. Daniel seems like a smart and powerful person, and his wisdom is often profound, but even so, the awe-struck reactions he inspires are unrepresentative of the world I know.

Parallel to this, there's a sort of gnawing creepiness about Daniel. Maybe he's really insane? Maybe he's a charlatan? Why not play with these possibilies, and serve back some of the complexity that actually surrounds these issues in real life?

I respect this movie for approaching the human condition in a challenging way, and recommend it to anyone open to Buddhism - anyone who feels the chafe of social conditioning, and wants more... for those on the fence, or for whom "spiritual" is equal parts truth and nonsense... be forewarned...

Rating:
Summary: ambition = 5 stars, follow-through = 3
Review: As the story opens, we're immediately handed a mystery: Who is Daniel? What happened in his last days? Is he Dead? If so, how? Through flashbacks, we follow the spiritual transformation, as Daniel slowly awakens to the illusion surrounding him - the lies, the struggle, the social conditioning of everyday life. Overwhelmed by the world coming down around him, Daniel breaks out, disappears, and comes face-to-face with people all around him suffering from various forms of fear and disconnection.

Daniel's awakening allows him a sort of transcendental detatchment, from which he pronounces wisdom, and causes those around him to stop, think, and transform. While I appreciate the spirit of the film and script, I found the nature and ease of these transformations distracting and strained. Daniel seems like a smart and powerful person, and his wisdom is often profound, but even so, the awe-struck reactions he inspires are unrepresentative of the world I know.

Parallel to this, there's a sort of gnawing creepiness about Daniel. Maybe he's really insane? Maybe he's a charlatan? Why not play with these possibilies, and serve back some of the complexity that actually surrounds these issues in real life?

I respect this movie for approaching the human condition in a challenging way, and recommend it to anyone open to Buddhism - anyone who feels the chafe of social conditioning, and wants more... for those on the fence, or for whom "spiritual" is equal parts truth and nonsense... be forewarned...

Rating:
Summary: A pretty gutsy and compelling human drama!
Review: Facing death by swallowing the barrel of a .45, the protagonist Daniel Gesar, a tormented attorney, takes us on a journey of self-discovery through flashbacks merging past, present and future into that culminating point in his life. The main story in Echos of Enlightenment, unfolds the last days of a quietly despairing man who leaves his home, his work, and his wife, never to return.

The director and producer Daniel J Coplan explores the basic ideals of Buddhism and intricately weaves these concepts into a contemporary story line. Whilst fusing the cinematic influences of David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino, this first full-length feature of Coplan's encompasses both positive and negative dimensions that exist in a single moment of life. Coplan reconciles this duality in the context of defining enlightenment at the moment of death.

Portrayed through Daniel Gesar, he offers liberating insights to the despairing even when Daniel's own circumstances are diminished. Coplan skilfully expressed the seemingly incompatible disciplines of Shakyamuni's ancient parables with contemporary lives in a modern day setting. He uses them to illustrate just how Daniel Gesar has become imprisoned by his life and his journey to ultimately break the chains that bind him as he escapes from an allegorical prison.

Echos of Enlightenment could have easily gotten lost in a maze of contradictions and metaphors. However, the narrative holds the whole script together coherently, linking events to capture Shakyamuni/Daniel Gesar's journey to enlightenment. The metaphors add deliberate depth to the stylish visuals. For example, the dew dripping into a pond ripple effect when something pivotal was about to happen, or what I interpret as an intimate moment captured in a black and white photograph, the scene where Daniel reminisces holding his wife Mary. It was like looking at someone's photograph and wondering what words/feelings were exchanged, what they were thinking, when that photo was taken. Echos is a coherent ensemble of fragmented moments where several storylines, running in parallel to the main story, circles back to the onset of the movie. This is a reflection of Coplan's desire to emphasize the inter-connections of life and environment (esho funi) and time itself.

Coplan finds his inspiration from the "Expedient Means" (Hoben) chapter of the Lotus Sutra as an answer to the drudgeries of our mortal daily toils. Interpreting the concept of enlightenment on screen requires the finesse of walking the fine line between proselyting and sentimentality in which Coplan skillfully surpasses. Quite remarkably, Coplan's Echos coaxes the audience to surrender disbelief and be drawn into a vibrant world of magical realism. We cannot help but recognize a part, if not all, of ourselves in Daniel Gesar.

It was hard not to like Daniel. There is one scene, when looking in the bathroom mirror, he doesn't recognize who he is anymore, that scene resonated with me. The difficult transition between a person who was angry, frustrated, torn apart by people's expectations into a character who uplifted people's spirit was remarkably believable. Indeed, the performance by Coplan as Daniel Gesar is poignantly human; shades of pathos unravelled rreminiscing of Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now!

On the whole, I thought that "Echos" was pretty gutsy. It boldly went where no other spiritual film has ever gone before, i.e., to offer a glimpse into a man's journey towards transcendent escape from an allegoric prison, without the preachiness. For good measure, there are erotic and minor violent scenes for universal appeal. Love it or hate it, Echos of Enlightenment is an engrossing, post-viewing conversation piece, bridging pop-culture with religious classic. We rate it 8 out of 10, with 10 being the best!

Rating:
Summary: Sad But Typical Presentation
Review: If you're looking for an inspiring film of spiritual integrity, this is not it.
It offers a very low, very Metaphysical skewed view of what most feel 'enlightenment' is.
Go for "Little Buddha" instead and you won't be disapointed.

Rating:
Summary: A profoundly different experience!
Review: There are films that still come back to me in the most unusual of times and rattle my brain.

Echos of Enlightenment does the same thing, although to a much lesser degree, and I cannot tell you how much that delights me.

This is a time in which most filmmakers do not want to force their viewers to question their lives, their values, or their acceptance of reality. Entertainment is the focus, and I'm all for that, at least most of the time. But a steady diet of fun, thrilling, gory, dorky films eventually leaves a stale taste in your cinematic mouth. Echoes of Enlightenment provides an excellent change of diet.

Daniel is a lawyer. He works very hard. His wife is distant. Daniel works harder. His wife grows more distant. Clients are harder to satisfy. The cases become more difficult. Daniel works even harder. His wife is all but a stranger. Then, one day, Daniel vanishes. He leaves a trail of people whose lives he has touched and altered, but once he hit the coastline, he seems to have vanished into thin air.

The premise almost sounds like an episode of The X Files. But writer/director Dan Coplan doesn't go for the creepy mystery thing. Instead, he heaps so much crap onto the main character that the character's only option is shift gears and simplify his world in an effort to find meaning. His journey of spiritual enlightenment alters everyone with whom he comes in contact, and as he learns more about himself and his place in the world, everyone he meets suddenly finds they have the same desire to delve deeper into themselves and their existence.

Such a film could easily be a rambling mess or the breeding ground for cheap moralizing. Coplan keeps things well balanced between New Age prophet tale and raving looney road picture. For every scene you get of the main character opening his mind, you also get the vague feeling that he has just snapped from the stress of his professional and personal lives. The fact that you are made to closely identify with the main character in the first third of the film lends his spiritual road trip with just enough credibility to keep you by his side until he reaches the coastline and debates his ultimate fate.

Yet, as pleasant as the various threads of the story doing a Maypole dance happens to be, the film is not without a couple of minor weak points. Occasionally, the acting comes across as stiff and staged, and the weird thing is that those particular scenes come across as though they were improvised -- just not improvised with much confidence. Also, a couple of the scenes of characters debating drag on a bit long, as if the running time needed padding or the dialogue needed some minor tightening. Very slight problems in the great scheme of things.

If you can't watch Echos of Enlightenment for the spiritual quest or the human search for meaning, watch it simply because it delivers a profoundly different experience than the run-of-the-mill film. Most likely, you will thank yourself, and you will find the film crossing your thoughts more than you might like to admit.

Rating:
Summary: Awful, just awful
Review: This is, to put it plainly, one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I cannot believe it has received these positive reviews-- or even that it has been distributed widely. The writing is awful and predictable; the acting is laughable; and the plot made me nauseous. It attempts to play on every new-age theme it can. For anyone looking for a serious film about a spiritual quest-- search elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: WOW! What a surprise
Review: What a surprise!

A sleazy lawyer stumbles upon enlightenment!

This film is grounded in the expression of the Buddha nature. I think this is the first time the essence of Buddhism is expressed on the screen. Even if the quote from the Lotus Sutra is unrecognizable to the general audience, everyone can relate to the impact of a single life on so many others and the struggle for meaning in life.

The route to Daniel's enlightenment was laced with social commentary and humor about the mundane routine of life. The lawyer's daily trudging his cases up to the courthouse was a great motif for showing the increasing burden his life and his unraveling before he finds enlightenment. Daniel's struggle between his humanity and his dreary work is something many people can relate to. (I'm especially recommending this to my lawyer friends).

Very good actors, well cast. The direction, camera work, and editing were well done--better than many movies emerging from the independent market. ("Clerks," and "Chuck & Buck" come to mind). Visually interesting, particularly that scene where his disappearance is envisioned. Powerfully presented.