they were yours but cannot imagine ever being like this “hero.”
Or perhaps you strongly disliked everything about a certain
character that seemed very different from you. In fact, you
were glad to be a better person.
How we respond to different movie characters can show us
who we are. We learn most from characters who touched us
with their charisma, attitude, looks, demeanor, or actions.
When they move us, something inside resonates with what we
perceive. Our understanding of our emotional reaction to what
we see and hear in the film is like looking into a mirror of our
internal world. The more intense our emotional response to a
character or their behavior, the more clear and direct is the
reflection of our own psyche.
Usually we identify with characters when we recognize
ourselves in them. They remind us of how we see ourselves.
Whatever we like or dislike in a character is usually what we
like or dislike in ourselves. This understanding can be of great
assistance with our efforts to expand positive qualities and to
successfully work with our shortcomings as well as with our
negative view of who we are.
Why We Learn from our Projections on
Film Characters
Projection is an interesting concept in this context. According
to the Merriam Webster Dictionarythe verb “project” stems
etymologically from Middle and Old French, as well as Greek
and Latin for “throwing forward.” Among others, the diction-
ary lists the following meanings for projection:
The display of motion pictures by projecting an image
from them upon a screen and
a) The act of perceiving a mental object as spatially and
sensibly objective; also something so perceived or
b) The attribution of one’s own ideas, feelings, or attitudes
to other people or to objects.
How Film Characters Affect Us — The Film Matrix 127