Review of Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality (2003) by Adam W — 05 Apr 2008

Having read Ernest Becker's books and a bunch of TMT papers, this movie wasn't as awe-inspiring and original as it would be for someone new to these ideas. I did enjoy the film although it was a little slow at times and had some cheesy techno music in a couple montages. I'd indefinitely recommend it to someone who hasn't yet heard of Becker and TMT.

I thought the best part was seeing Solomon, Greenberg, and other TMT related people on film to see the people behind the research. I also enjoyed that Shen chose to take footage from many cultures and regions of the world to express that the theory (supposedly) hold universally to all humans.

On the other hand, I would have like to see a more "balanced" pitch of the theory in relation to other theories and its criticism. TM theorists I feel take their own "immortality project" (their research) with too much faith--not that they shouldn't believe in what they are doing, but be open that their theory isn't universal to all human cultures. Much of the film and the literature I have read construct an Indo-European male as the model the theory is based off of. I have not seen studies exploring homosexuality and indigenous traditions (though they have done a lot international and gender studies).

I think it is easy to perceive TMT as an over-arching meta-narrative/theory for humanity--as Becker called it, "the science of man." Their is something very attractive to our secularized modern western minds about death and nothingness (read: existentialism). "Fear of death" just sounds way to romantic(?) as an idea to blame for evil. What if instead of "terror" it was "despair", and instead of "death" it was "limitation." Does "despair of limitation" carry the same pathos as "fear of death" despite being very similar: not really. It seems to me there are many other factors at play and I'm glad to see TM theorists building coalitions.