T.C. of an O.J.

Although director Julian Schnabel took some liberties adapting Jean-Dominique Bauby’s tale to the screen, the result is still impressive and thought-provoking.

Despite maybe being a little too artisy-fartsy for some, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a must-see French language film. It tells the story of Bauby, known as “Jean-Do” to friends, the Editor of Elle magazine that wakes up from a coma with “locked-in” syndrome. Due to a major stroke, at 43 years old, Bauby is left paralyzed and unable to speak.

All Jean-Do can do is see and think. As observers, we’re able to hear his thoughts and see almost exclusively what he sees for the first portion of the film. After the shock and horror of his situation sets in, Jean-Do pities himself. His only communication with the outside world is his ability to blink his left eye.

With the help of his determined nurse Henriette, he develops a method of communication and rediscovers his imagination. Henriette works her way through an alphabet ordered by frequency of usage and Bauby blinks when she arrives at the letter in the word he wants to spell.

Let's write a book.

To the shock of his publisher, Bauby decides to make good on a book deal arranged before his sickness. Claude, yet another beautiful woman in Bauby’s life, is sent to take the dictation.

Bauby is trapped inside his body, a prison of flesh and paralysis. This suit is an inescapable “diving bell” for Bauby. But, with his blinking eye and his mind unaffected, he is still able to imagine vivid fantasies and dreams. As Jean-Do struggles to keep from drooling out of a disfigured mouth, as viewers we also see his “butterfly” or escape - an endless stream of imagination and memories including a wild dinner at an expensive restaurant with Claude, sex on the beach with an old flame, and life as the editor of fashion magazine.

However, the film’s conclusion is abrupt and the movie is devoid of spirituality. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was by no stretch trying to invoke comparisons to Christianity, but some parallels to Christ did exist. Jean-Do’s paralyzed state must have been something like Christ felt when he was stripped of his divine attributes in order to come to earth and die for our sins.

In order to die on the cross for our sins, Jesus left the comfort of the Trinity and came to earth.

…although [Jesus] existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

What it must have been like for Christ on earth? Talk about leaving your comfort zone - Christ went from being all-powerful and omnipresent to confinement in a fleshly prison. While on earth, Jesus had no divine attributes and instead was doing his ministry through God’s power. Although obviously not God, Bauby also faced the limiting reality of “locked-in syndrome”, reduced to a prisoner in his own body.

Bauby’s prison, his “diving bell”, symbolized his extremely limited state and approaching death. On the other hand, his butterfly, or his imagination allowed him to be reborn in a sense and live in a fulfilling way he never experienced before his illness.

In goes almost without saying that Jesus’ death and rebirth are central to our life as Christians. As we undergo spiritual growth, our natural man dies while Christ starts to shimmer through. The older we grow in Christ, the more we realize that we’re depraved sinners only capable of doing good things through Christ. Is it too much of a stretch that Bauby’s figurative death and rebirth bring to mind this passage?

So death works in us, but life in you.

The theme I liked most from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was that the mind and the ability to choose are the most powerful things a human being “owns”. Reduced to vegetable state, Bauby could still choose to accomplish something amazing. Instead of wishing for death or making excuses based on his circumstances, he wrote his memoir – the bestselling The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

God also places extraordinary value on choice. The one thing we have sole control over, our heart, is the one thing God uses to establish a relationship with us. No one can force us to choose anything we don’t want to. We have the free will to enter into a relationship with God at any time. But, even the creator of the universe can’t make the choice for us. We have to make it for ourselves.

The movie also touches on things we take for granted. We live like we deserve things like our right eye and the ability to walk, yet sometimes we don’t appreciate them until they are gone or are sewn shut.

What did you think of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly? Do you make excuses for yourself because of circumstances or what you don’t have? Do you take what you have for granted?