Observing myself as an audience to the film “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” ET2

Ever since young, I have never thought of observing myself as an audience and also notice what my usual preferences are when watching a film or movie. However, I am sure that most of us do not usually observe ourselves as we are observing the movie and through my first time observing myself, I have come to realize that after watching the film “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, I felt specific emotions, realized my preferences when watching films and also had thoughts about the film the next day.

During the film, I remembered that I empathized for the main character that was to be hung. When he was about to meet his demise, he shed a tear and thought of his wife and children in front of what I assume to be his house. At that moment, I felt sad as well and I immediately thought of my own family. However, it all changed when he did manage to escape. As I observed his escape, I began to feel his exhaustion during his extremely long run through the forest, especially when he stopped for a breather while leaning on a tree. There was just something about him that affected me emotionally when he pushed himself to the limit just to see his family again. Another emotion I felt was shock. I felt shocked when all this time, it only appeared to be him imagining his escape. After dodging bullets, cannon balls and even running for an extremely long time, I realized that I grew an emotional attachment to the character. I also thought of whether he really deserved it. In the beginning of the film, a sign on an old tree stump had mentioned, “if any civilian was caught interfering with the railroad bridges, tunnels or trains, they would be hanged”. In my point of view, I still thought of him as an innocent man – as the film never really portrayed nor showed any of his wrongdoings.

Another thing I noticed during the screening of the film was the rest of the audience and how they affected me. I have realized that I tend to pay more attention to a film or movie when I watch it in a group, as my mind tends to wander if I do watch it alone. My reaction to the film would have been different if I had watched it alone as I think I would have been bored and would have stopped paying attention. This is probably so as I like the feeling and atmosphere when everyone sits down together to share an emotion or reaction together. I also prefer watching it with others as I have the option of asking them a question related to a scene I might not understand. Throughout the screening, I felt many different emotions and in my case, I cannot hide what I feel. Most of the time, I was trying to understand how the man could possibly escape from all that gunfire. Thus, making me squint with my mouth wide open whilst trying to make out the sense of it all. It ended when the film showed that it was all his imagination and he had really just died instead which shifted my clueless face into a more shocked expression. Additionally, every time there’s a scene in a movie or film where a character is submerged in the water, I always hold my breath only until they gasp for air. Similar to how the man did when he was submerged in water. I guess this is just putting myself into the character’s shoes to see whether I would survive if I were to be in a similar situation.

After the screening, I had several thoughts on the film. On my way back home, in my car, I thought of the man and his escape. I thought of how things would have gone if he really did escape and he did get to meet his family once again. I guess that’s what we all do – predict the best and also, the worst outcomes of situations. That entire escape scene has even made me consider carrying a pocketknife with me at all times just in case I get tied up. The next day though, when I was having a game of football at the park, I thought of how important stamina was. When I was running, I thought of the man and how he ran and avoided all the gunfire and cannon balls. If I were to run out of breath and be that man, I would’ve died instantly! Sadly, it even affected me as I began to feel more tired and lethargic during the game as I thought of him running with that tired look on his face. It made me consider jogging as a daily means of increasing my stamina.

After watching the screening of the film, I have realized that I might be a very cautious person. I do not want to lose any of my family members, thus I feel emotional when I watched the man tear when he thought of them right before his death, wanting to understand the film as I want to learn as much as possible in order to avoid problems from arising and even going as far as carrying a pocketknife and jogging daily for my safety. The screening has really helped me understand more about who I am and hopefully I’ll understand even more after my next.