The awesome power of storytelling, and to another degree the immortalizing rush of acting, can often escape us. After some tough stuff in my own life I find myself thinking much on this topic. The late Robby Coltrane said “I’ll Not Be Here, Sadly, But Hagrid Will” and that has stuck with me tremendously of late.

I recently had a conversation with a fellow traveller who brought up an anecdote about the cast of the show Firefly talking about how they are engaging fans who seem surprised at how old they (the cast) are, because cinema is Real and Present in the moments you watch it. There is a timelessness to it.

I never truly understood this until I lost a good friend and then a few years later a brother, and then found myself (quite recently) watching a handful of old films in which they were both actors. These are a diabolically low budget horror comedy and a radically self-indulgent horror western mind you, so they aren’t particularly notable in the overall cultural moment, but to me they matter, because I know those dudes. Tubi for the win.

But I get it now, and I feel especially blessed that my people are film people and theatre people, even a big percentage of my military people are in that same space. So in those moments of peak nostalgia or deep mythology mania I can sit with the people I knew, and watch them thrive for a few minutes on my screen.

I am positive and assured that it hits different when you are an indie person versus a Hollywood celeb, but still, I think about all of the above when I watch scenes like this, because myself and others have plenty of low budget independent film moments quite similar to this that only the people who love us have seen, and that’s ok.

Achilles has been a character for many centuries, and so for the folks who know Brad Pitt (not just fans) it is so clear that this is going to be one of those things that he is known for in his family for generations. It makes me think of the original writers like Homer, or the actors in the various plays of ancient Greece, or the halls of Shakespeare. I like all of it. When I see this I don’t get jealous, I get motivated.

Anyway, here’s the dang clip.