Thoughtful Review of New A-Team Movie

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16826

Change the World: One Film at a Time

Over at my other blog (Chosenrebel.wordpress.com) I wrote a piece about How to engage with culture in a post-Christian context. One frequent visitor, Paul Bauer, wrote that we need to encourage young Christian film makers to produce quality films from a Christian world view (see comments at http://wp.me/pGYIn-ac).

I agree. Later, I opened my email and got Chuck Colson's latest offering at Breakpoint. It was right on target. Here it is.

BREAKPOINT DAILY TRANSCRIPT
Cultural Disconnect: Portraying Christians in Film
April 15, 2010

Peter Dans is a Johns Hopkins physician who loved going to the movies as a boy. He watched films like Going My Way and Boys’ Town, which featured honorable priests. But after the start of his medical practice in 1961, Dans no longer had much time for films.

Fast forward 30 years. Dans was asked to write a column about how Hollywood portrayed doctors for a medical journal. To write it, he had to start going to the movies again. He was struck not only by how badly doctors were portrayed, but also of the contemptuous treatment of Christians and the Church.

In his new book, Christians in the Movies: A Century of Saints and Sinners, Dans writes that when he was young, celluloid clergymen “were tough-yet-good-hearted priests, often played by big stars like Spencer Tracy, Pat O’Brien, and Bing Crosby.” But these days, he writes, virtually all priests, preachers, and believers are portrayed as “vicious predators or narrow-minded, mean-spirited Pharisees.”

What happened in those three decades? A huge shift in worldview.

In the early days of film, movie-makers understood that religion was a source of comfort and stability for most Americans. But by the late 1940s, Dans writes, social changes were taking place “that would alter Hollywood’s reverential approach” to religion.

American-made films were required to follow the Motion Picture Production Code, which demanded that subjects like religion and sexuality be treated with sensitivity. But foreign films were not bound by these strictures, and when they began pouring into the U.S., American filmmakers began to rebel against the Code.

Second, the tumultuous cultural events of the 1960s led to dramatic changes in our society -- including, Dans writes, calls for “nonjudmentalism,” disagreements over right and wrong, and “the rise in the affirmation of personal autonomy rights.” As Americans became more affluent and secure, Dans says, “there seemed to be less of a need...[for] practicing a faith whose God demanded behaviors that restricted lifestyle choices.”

And third, polls reflected a huge gulf between the religious practices of the Hollywood crowd and ordinary Americans. This “cultural disconnect” and its reflection in films was accelerated by two important changes. First, after 1965, American Catholics were no longer obligated to avoid films condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency rating system. Second was the demise of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1968.

Today, with a few exceptions like Amazing Grace and The Blind Side, it’s hard to find films that do not depict Christians as charlatans, dupes, and hypocrites.

Many believers respond by simply refusing to see modern films. But we ought to care about how we are depicted on film, because films are immensely influential in shaping public perceptions of us.

We should lobby filmmakers about how we are portrayed -- just as other cultural groups do. And when anti-Christian films emerge, we ought to confront them head-on, helping believers, especially our kids, understand the worldview that is driving these films -- a worldview that sees Christianity, not as a source of truth and goodness, but of backwardness and evil.

Copyright (c) 2010 BreakPoint

Movie Review and Recommendation

I'm going to rent the movie this weekend.

BREAKPOINT DAILY TRANSCRIPT (Chuck Colson)
Saints and Soldiers: Eternal Questions
January 5, 2010

A few weeks ago, my wife, Patty, and I watched a fabulous movie, one that I’d really never heard of before. It’s called Saints and Soldiers, and it was made back in 2003. We rented it on Netflix because it sounded like a pretty good story. And it certainly is.

The movie, which is very well done and based on true events, hooks you from the first instant. It’s winter 1944. At the height of the Battle of the Bulge, near a Belgian village named Malmedy, a group of captured American GIs are being herded together by German SS troops -- fanatical Nazis.

If you know anything about World War II, you’ll know that the Malmedy Massacre of American troops was one of the most infamous events of the war. The movie follows the harrowing escape of four of the American GIs -- who flee the massacre scene and try to find their way back through enemy lines. One is a tough Army sergeant, a natural leader.

Another is a hard-bitten medic, who has had enough of the war, and enough of the Germans. Another is a Cajun country boy. But the hero of the film is a young, quiet corporal. He’s an expert shot. His nickname is “Deacon,” because before the war he was a missionary living in -- of all places -- Berlin.

But he is haunted by a horrible tragedy -- an event that took place just a few weeks prior to the massacre. Deacon’s struggle with the tragedy (I don’t want to spoil too much of the plot for you) provides the subtext for the film. He hasn’t slept for days, and as he and his comrades march through the snow, constantly on the alert for the enemy, he begins to hallucinate -- endangering the lives of them all.

The medic, an avowed atheist, does his best to keep the young corporal from delirium -- so he engages him in conversation. He targets the corporal’s faith, asking vexing questions about God’s existence in the face of inhumanity, of suffering, of young men bleeding to death far from home.

The dialogue between Deacon and the atheist medic alone is worth the rental fee. The drama and tension are heightened when the four GIs come across a downed British airman -- a man with vital information that he has to get to Allied headquarters as soon as possible, and at all costs. Now their trek becomes not only a mission to save their own lives, but perhaps the lives of thousands of Allied soldiers.

How each man responds is a lesson in human nature -- and above all, a glimpse into the imago Dei, the image of God imprinted on each human soul. Altruism, love, the willingness to sacrifice self for the life of comrades in arms, or for a cause greater than oneself, these are on display in abundance in Saints and Soldiers. And the climax of the movie produces a stunning, breathtaking visual -- the likeness of the greatest sacrifice of all.

Now, Saints and Soldiers is rated PG-13 for war violence. It may not be suitable for pre-teens. But I’m happy to report that there is no profanity or sexuality.

So I recommend you rent Saints and Sinners. See it with friends. Engage them with the tough questions. And with the unforgettable message: “Greater love hath no man than this.”

Copyright (c) 2009 Prison Fellowship