Starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman and directed by Rob Reiner, The Bucket List, released in Turkey as Şimdi ya da Asla (Now or Never), arrived on the big screen on 16 December 2007…
I thought long and hard about featuring this film in our film corner; I wanted to write about it but couldn’t. Every time I sat down at the computer to write, I found myself writing about something else. Now I’ve made up my mind: I’m writing it. I watched this film in 2013, right when I was living through my own “now or never” dilemma. It was a time when my life had more downs than ups. It did me so much good that I promise to do my very best to share it with you, so that it does you good too.
The film introduces us to two people living very different lives, in very different financial circumstances. So what brings them together? Sadly, the relentless disease of cancer, which each of them learns about in a different way. They are going to die; there is no escaping death. Our heroes know it too: there is no escape, and death is the final stop on this journey we call life. Well then, if we are dying, if the final stop is so close, why not do the things we’ve always had in mind? Setting out with the thought “it’s now or we’ll never get the chance again”, they do what all of us ought to do. A list of things to do before you die!
I don’t want to give any spoilers, and I won’t. I warmly recommend that you all watch this film. One day it will end for us, for all of us. If not now, when?
Everything we put off in life, everything we say we’ll do tomorrow rather than today, will one day come to an end. We must act before we end up in a hospital room, suffering the pain of everything we longed to do but never did. We must rise up with the motto ”If not now, when?”
When the film ends and you switch off your computer or television, I’m sure you’ll sink into silence and, in that silence, reach for a pen and paper. Make a list of everything you’ve been putting off; in fact, I’d say make a list both of what you’ve postponed and of the things you once enjoyed enormously but no longer do. Make an effort every day to tick off what’s on your list. You’ll appreciate your own effort, and as you work through your list you’ll make room for new things. Life really is short; it passes in the blink of an eye. Since death exists and one day we will be gone, why not savour life?
CREDITS
Release Date: 1 February 2008
Running Time: 97 min
IMDb: 7.4
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Director: Rob Reiner
Screenwriter: Justin Zackham
Production: 2007 – USA
Producers: Rob Reiner, Justin Zackham, Travis Knox, Alan Greisman, Craig Zadan, Neil Meron
