MovieChat Forums > About Schmidt (2003) Discussion > The message of this movie

The message of this movie

posted 12 years ago by ryker84
5 replies | jump to latest

Warren Schmidt's senior life sucked for the most part. His wife passed away, he retired and the new boss of the company doesn't care about his merits, his daughter is going to marry a guy he doesn't like. At the end he drives home.

"What difference has my life made to anyone. None that I can think of. None at all."

I've read some of the posts on here, not many, but I think, many people don't understand the message of this movie.
For me, the last scene tells us, what (at least Warrens) life is all about. He reads the letter which answers all his foregoing letters. It doesn't matter if the child care program he donated to is a scam or not, just like it doesn't matter if other people care about your existence or about what you do. As long as you are CONVINCED your life has a meaning, there is a point in everything.
It is a simple message, true, but if you have another interpretation, please tell me. I may be wrong.

Thanks.

[–] nutsberryfarm 11 years ago

a quality letter opener delivers the news quicker.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

[–] criztu 11 years ago

As long as you are CONVINCED your life has a meaning, there is a point in everything.
It is a simple message, true, but if you have another interpretation, please tell me. I may be wrong.

There is a cycle here: old Warren is dying, a drone who calculates chances of risk for other people's life insurances, while he has no life. That african child he is fostering, is actually himself, there is a little man inside Warren, who he is fostering, who wants to reach adulthood. Because Warren is neither alive, nor an adult, he is not peeing like a man ffs, in a house that he realizes it's not his, it's his "wife" - his wife is in fact a mother, who loves a man - not Warren the asexual drone, that house is her womb. Warren's journey is the realization that he needs to be reborn, because his life so far was wasted. His cry at the end of the movie, is the newborn's cry.

[–] Quicksilver1900 11 years ago

I saw the meaning of the film somewhat differently. Warren learned that by reaching out to help another person, he could become the most valuable force in that person's life. Without Warren's $10 or $20 dollars a month, Ndugu would have not gotten the medical treatment he needed, and could have lost his eye. I like to think that Warren would expand his altruism to include others in his near vicinity, and find satisfaction and joy as a result. A by-product would be that it would bring him into contact with some very decent people, and a new chapter of his life could begin, possibly a second marriage.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] 11 years ago

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