Explanation of film ratings

First to preface this rating system I need to say three things:

1. As a high school teacher who gives grades and scores to student work every single day, I've always tried to reserve the highest echelon so I can properly distinguish the best of the best. Therefore, five-star films are rare indeed and I hope I don't disappoint my reader if I award the best film of the year with only 4 1/2 or even 4.

2. Bear in mind that 5-star films aren't necessarily my favorites. I'll probably watch Lord of the Rings and American Beauty a dozen more times before I see Seven Samurai again. More to the point, accessibility and universality is a factor. If a movie has a cult following, it will usually get a 4 1/2 but not a perfect 5.

3. Acting standards for comedies, thrillers, and action flicks is a world apart from dramas. Otherwise no action or comedy in the world could ever attain a 5-star rating. Since that would be an obvious bias I've come to the decision that genre definitely matters, and where the demands of a great drama lie in certain places, they lie somewhere else entirely for other genres. Still, most of the classic movies are dramas because jokes and action sequences feel old a lot faster, and classics (according to my definition) must transcend time.

★★★★★
An all-time classic; a masterful and original creation without blemish, offering insightful commentary that is universally relevant, far beyond the scope of its own place in history; can be viewed from cradle to casket, and appreciated greatly by all walks of life.  
Drama: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Requiem for a Dream, A Separation
Action: Star Wars Trilogy, The Matrix, Casino Royale, Kill Bill
Thriller: The Silence of the Lambs, Pulp Fiction, Jurassic Park
Comedy: Groundhog Day, What About Bob?, Blues Brothers
Animated: The Little Mermaid, Aladdin

★★★★ 1/2
An instant classic; a masterful and original creation, offering insightful commentary that is relevant beyond the scope of its own place in history; it can be viewed in multiple life phases, and deeply appreciated by people of many different stripes.
Drama:  The Reader, Le Huitieme Jour, Cool Hand Luke, Donnie Darko, About Schmidt, Lars and the Real Girl, American Beauty
Action: Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Dark Knight, Lethal Weapon 2
Thriller: Terminator 2: Judgment Day,  Fight Club, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, The Departed
Comedy: Dumb and Dumber, Cool Runnings, Superbad, Princess Bride
Animated: The Incredibles, Toy Story 3, Spirited Away

★★★★
A film deserving universal acclaim for its aesthetic and moral qualities; since you will find yourself ruminating with respect to its comments for some time after viewing it, you could probably watch it repeatedly over a sustained period of time, unless it caters to a narrow audience is probably nominated for Best Picture; no serious flaws blemish its story, its characters, or its technical delivery.

★★★ 1/2
A film deserving widespread acclaim for its aesthetic and moral value; it can be viewed often over an extended time frame; original in what it says and how it says it, thereby offering insightful commentary with respect to its subject matter.

★★★
A film deserving some acclaim for its aesthetic and moral value; watchable many times over; although not exactly original, it offers a fresh spin on what's been said and done before.

★★ 1/2
A film probably worthy of several viewings, if one wishes to appreciate fully its aesthetic and moral offerings; expect generally positive reviews with some dissent; hardly original, yet bearing the marks of well-established themes, characters and plots and putting them to good use.

★★
A film perhaps worthy of a single viewing, if one is inclined to appreciate its aesthetic and moral offering; despite some significant missteps it manages an intelligible message and story arc; expect mixed reviews from critics who begrudge it for its pandering, clumsiness, simple-mindedness or its overdependence on special effects.

★ 1/2
A film with negligible aesthetic and moral value, although it could still be enjoyed if not taken seriously or given any serious scrutiny; mixed reviews from critics due to its misguided theme or artistic irrelevance. Many box office hits that target a specific demographic.

★
A film without any discernible aesthetic or moral value; only in a perverse and self-destructive state of being could a viewer possibly give it praise. Dungeons and Dragons is one memorable example. I try to avoid true one-star movies so fortunately I haven't seen one in a long, long time.

Tae Kwon Do in my Life (2011)

Tae Kwon Do in my Life

Presented Orally as Part of

First Dan Black Belt Certification

By Ivan Tarter, November 2011

      First, some background information. I began my journey in Korean martial arts when I was nine years old. My mother enrolled me in a Tae Kwon Do class and I joined about thirty kids my age, all starting together at white belt. Every December and June we tested, and by the time I was twelve I had earned my red belt. At that point I quit, mostly because I knew I wasn't very good and didn't feel like I was going to be able to pass the next couple tests.

      After I quit I didn't return to TKD for a long time. However, the four years I had invested into it, an hour and a half twice a week, continued to impact my life. I had learned that through pain comes reward, and physical conditioning is a discipline requiring perseverance and patience. I had learned that confidence breeds success, and if you doubt yourself you are exponentially more likely to fail. I had been inspired by the demonstrations of black belt breaks, fancy kicks and brutally fast sparring. Finally, I had found out that the asthma I'd been born with could be controlled and beaten if I stayed in shape. So I kept running every spring, and even found a couple opportunities to revisit the self-defense I'd learned as a child.

      I moved to Moore two summers ago. One day I happened to be driving on Sunnylane and was attracted to a giant sign advertising, for me, a return to that childhood challenge I had never overcome. Maybe I just wanted to feel again the pride of breaking inch-thick pine boards with my feet. I spoke with Master Wan and he convinced me to sign up. The first six months I trained with a young couple under Master An and relearned what I'd forgotten. It wasn't easy to lose my red belt, but I really did need the chance to start all over from scratch.

      As a high school teacher working with a mainly Hispanic population on the south side of Oklahoma City, I have been impacted by my TKD training in ways that specifically relate to my profession. How many times have I wanted to wring a student's neck, but didn't, because I had released all my frustration on the kicking bags the evening before? Probably several. It also gave me a physical confidence and courage so that even my larger students didn't intimidate me. As a young male teacher, there is always an element of competition with my male students, especially those who body build or who are enrolled in athletics. Thanks to my martial arts training, I'm not only a white-collar professional, but I'm also ready to spar in tournaments and defend myself, and that garners a lot of respect on the south side.

      There's more. Being a teacher is hard and many days I would come home dissatisfied with my professional performance or conduct. It was great to come to the gym through the week, to a place where I gave respect and got respect, a place of courtesy and cooperation, a place where I felt successful and could see visible progress from my effort. Even now, positive experiences like these are often lacking at my work place.

      Being a student here has made me a better teacher, too. Every evening at the gym I'm reminded that new skills must be practiced a thousand times, and that mistakes pave the road to mastery. As a student of TKD, I want to be told what I'm doing right, not just what I'm doing wrong. I want my instructors to tell me as many times as I need to hear it. I want them to be patient with me, and honest, too. I want them to inspire me with a love of the sport, so I can love it to. And if I want these things as a student here in the evening, then that's what I should be giving my students during the day.

      And of course, it's been great to stay healthy through the entire year. My immune system is stronger so I resist the majority of the bugs I'm exposed to by a large and often less-than-hygenic group of teenagers. It even helps me run Yago, my German Shepherd, as hard and as often as he needs exercise.

      I admit that after two and a half years it's been hard to come to terms with receiving a black belt – something I've anticipated nearly two decades. I always thought that by now I'd be an expert, that all my forms would be beautiful and all my kicks perfect. They're not, and I'm not. I've realized that old habits die hard and a black belt is really just another kind of white belt. I am still a student and will always be a student of TKD. I'm much humbler earning this First Dan than I was when I got my red belt.

      It's been great to foster new relationships here at the gym, and to be entrusted with responsibilities. Now I get to give something besides my money. I get to make the gym better. I'm excited about the coming months and the classes in Hapkido and Kumdo that will be offered in the new year. I'm excited to compete at an entirely new level at the upcoming tournaments.

      I'm also starting to study the more philosophical and spiritual elements of TKD. At the most basic level, it is a martial art – in other words, there is an aesthetic quality to the movements, whether sliding through the motions of a Taeguk form, or experiencing the back-and-forth, give-and-take, risk-and-reward of a good sparring match. It is truly beautiful and constitutes a kind of creative or artistic self-expression.

      Still, TKD remains a fundamentally Korean art form, and many cultural ideas and values are embedded into what may often appear as a neutral and even scientific sport. For example, the Asian idea of a person's energy – how you can channel the power of your entire body out to a single point, whether the edge of your hand, the heel of your hand, the side of your forearm – and exert an unbelievable amount of force from that single point, even if you're small and lacking the big brawny muscles that Western culture calls strength.

      Third, TKD exists because of the human need for violence. We see violence all around us every day, whether in a child's video game, the ongoing wars around the globe, or the angry threats honked during rushhour traffic. Martial arts are also fueled by this universal human quality, and explains the unparalleled satisfaction of executing a powerful and potentially lethal kick. Here, however, we learn to control our desire for violence and the emotions that can drive us to act impulsively. Violence becomes the conduit for discipline of mind and body, and in extreme cases, may be used defensively. Our natural impulses to destroy and hurt something put to constructive and positive use. And when those same violent desires inevitably arise in the real world, they have been so groomed and harnessed through years of sport that they are far less likely to control us.

      Finally, as a child when I stepped into that TKD gym, I was truly stepping into a new world. A world where you bow to show respect, where you count with strange words, where it's reasonable to do knuckle push-ups if your mind wandered for a few seconds. TKD is, for most practitioners in America, another way, and one that challenges our own assumptions and beliefs about how the world is supposed to work. For me, it makes me believe that the world can become a better place, and needs to be, and I can be part of making that happen, one kick at a time.

      Thank you.