We are at least thirty years into the phenomena of the summer blockbuster movie produced for the purpose of soaking up the free time and money of young people. From May to August, theaters are full of them. Over the past generation they’ve steadily moved from propelling their violence and explosion ridden story lines to ones where magic and comic book superheroes dominate.

East Cooper theaters will or have offered motion pictures this summer which include the Green Lantern, Harry Potter, Transformers, Captain America and Xmen First class. In each of these films, the heroes confront superhuman evil with superhuman powers given to them by technology, alien intervention or magic. There is always some pushing and shoving which involves leveling a city block or more. There is some conflict, a little moral ambiguity and finally more conflict in which the heroes eventually triumph, generally after leveling a city or two. It has become boring.

Entertainment can’t mirror real life. Almost no one is going to devote their free time to sitting around watching video of me doing legal research and drafting documents. Even when the food channel is turning restaurants and catering businesses into entertainment, they rely on editing, time constraints and conflict to generate drama. Crab fishing in the Arctic is probably more boring than it appears to be on the Discovery Channel. Superman is superficially more interesting than what most of us do.

However a steady, on some cable channels preemptively exclusive, diet of superheroes vanquishing evil with fireballs they generate from their heads debilitates us. Since our own capacity to make a difference within our neighborhoods and communities appears to be so puny beside Harry Potters spells or the Xmen’s powers, it erodes our capacity to do anything at all.

Last weekend, I saw a remarkable film which did the opposite. The Greater Park Circle Film society showed Kinshasa Symphony, the story of the only symphony orchestra in Central Africa and the lives of the people who play in it.  Kinshasa is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s one of the amazing, massive third world cities which have appeared in the last generation. However, you probably don’t want to live there or book an extended vacation stay. It’s dirty, crowded and utilities can’t be depended on.

However under these circumstances, through revolution, disorder and economic collapse, as well as the daily struggle to survive, a group of people come together to play classical music. Violins without strings are strung with bicycle cable. Double basses are made in lumber yards. Bells are improvised from tire rims.

Between rehearsals musicians struggle to pay rent, take care of their children and attempt to find safe places to live. They may not be the X-men or Harry Potter, but they bring impressive skills and determination to a struggle which would overwhelm most of us. They have real problems. A child’s gall bladder operation under primitive but caring conditions in what most of us couldn’t recognize as a hospital will move any parent. The disappointing search for a new, needed apartment touches the audience with an understanding of how much people need a home.

The film leads us up to a major concert by the symphony, an outdoor performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. I won’t tell you how the concert goes, but the complex reality of what we had seen up to that point in the film made the effort more compelling than the artificial blasts-fests which conclude the other movies.

What gives Kinshasa Symphony its value is the powerful lessons it shares about the human condition and human potential. People can survive terrible things. The worst filth doesn’t have to stain the soul. Children must be protected. Beauty, hope and happiness is possible. Life has meaning without superpowers.

Films which did some of these things were once very common. They still come along occasionally, even in Hollywood. Apollo 13 is a big budget example. However only a handful of such movies are made now. Most must be sought from the rapidly expanding supply of independent films which can be sifted out on Net-flix or found at small, local screenings. My wife dug up Kinshasa Symphony online and persuaded the film society to show it without a wand or superpowers.

Mostly, however, Americans amuse themselves with debilitating fantasy. After a weekend of it (ABC Family just concluded 4 days of Harry Potter movies on cable), we wonder why meeting rooms are empty, and volunteer sign-up sheets are thin. The cycle of leading, following and changing aren’t working very well.

It’s the wrong diet for a nation which needs to undertake a huge amount of positive change. It leaves us stuck waiting on superpowers that aren’t going to arrive, even for “exceptional” Americans. Three years ago we elected a President on an agenda of “yes we can” and “hope and change.”  He told us, throughout the campaign, that regenerating America would require the effort of ordinary people across the country. 

It’s easy, and popular in some quarters, to attack all of that. Picking up trash, running a food drive or putting a youth group event together appears pathetic compared to Captain America. However, it is real and much more powerful than the flickering illusion of superpower heroism thrown at people passively sitting in the dark.

We owe it to each other to share stories of what we can do, who we are and what we can become together. We have to recognize that to the extent that they displace our practical imaginations computer generated superpower dreams are dangerous.  We will wake up to a nightmare if they fill our heads.

William Hamilton (www.wjhamilton.com) is an attorney who lives in I’On Village.