Apologetics swallowed-up by Cinema?

[Kevin_Walker]

Matt16_18:

Do you really think that the reason that Mel Gibson made The Passion of the Christ was because he wanted to create a piece of entertainment? Is this film to be dismissed as nothing more than a lightweight piece of fluff to be enjoyed in the theater while eating candy and drinking sodas? It is obvious to me that Mel Gibson had the intention to craft a piece of art that would act as a vehicle to bring us closer to God, and “entertainment” was NOT his purpose.

A question that can be asked is this, which film of David Lynch brings one closer to God, Mulholland Drive, or The Straight Story? David Lynch did have the intent of creating entertainment with both films, but the dark spirit of Mulholland Drive leads not to God, but away from God, IMO.

The movie The Passion of the Christ was a depiction and nothing more. It was a docu-drama made to depict one version of the last few hours of the life of Jesus Christ; just another form of entertainment for pay$$$$$.

But how do you feel about other landmark religious movies like:

*The Robe *1953 with Victor Mature and Richard Burton

*The Greatest Story Ever Told *1965 with Max von Syndow

Jesus of Nazareth 1977 with Robert Powell

King of Kings 1961 with Jeffrey Hunter

Shoes of the Fisherman 1968 with Anthony Quinn

I saw four of these powerful movies on their opening day, yet they were still regarded by the intelligent audience as only movies - sheer entertainment! Not to mention the Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, Samson & Deliah, and The Bible (with George C. Scott).

So what would make Mel Gibson’s interpretation of the 14 Stations of the Cross, i.e. The Passion of the Christ, any more spiritual than all those great movies listed above?

And why would a schmuck director like David Lynch bring anybody closer to God, unless they had a heart attack or took the Lord’s name in vein watching one of his awful films?

You seem to be looking for the spiritual in the most unlikely place - a movie? You should find spirituality more often in Church than at the movie theater. Please rethink your opinion of the movies and talk to your Priest about it.

 

[Pace]

Kevin Walker:

And why would a schmuck director like David Lynch bring anybody closer to God, unless they had a heart attack or took the Lord’s name in vein watching one of his awful films?

Spoilers…

John Merrick (The “Elephant Man”) utters the words, “It’s finished” just after completing the construction of his model church. The only part of the actual church that was visible from his hospital room (a room right next to the hospital clock) was the cross on top of the steeple. He completes his model (from memory or imagination) just before literally laying down his life to “sleep like normal people”.

 

[Kevin_Walker]

Pace:

Spoilers…

John Merrick (The “Elephant Man”) utters the words, “It’s finished” just after completing the construction of his model church. The only part of the actual church that was visible from his hospital room (a room right next to the hospital clock) was the cross on top of the steeple. He completes his model (from memory or imagination) just before literally laying down his life to “sleep like normal people”.

Hi Pace,

I saw the Elephant Man, both the movie and the play. Exactly what are you trying to say? That the tragic story of John Merrick is equivalent to the Bible as a source of religious inspiration?

And why would The Elephant Man be more of a religious movie than The Bible (with George C. Scott) or The Greatest Story Ever Told (with Max von Syndow)?

 

[Pace]

Kevin Walker:

Hi Pace,

I saw the Elephant Man, both the movie and the play. Exactly what are you trying to say? That the tragic story of John Merrick is equivalent to the Bible as a source of religious inspiration?

Kevin,

I am only trying to understand the power and authenticity I sense from Lynch’s art. Maybe Lynch was meant more to reach the pagan world? I don’t know. Yet, I don’t see how the above scene I mentioned could possibly fail to move the heart of pagan or christian. I believe that you state the very problem we have gotten ourselves into with the movies, culminating in The Passion. Namely, that we have begun to think of Jesus as just another “story” rather than a person moving authentically through the inauthentic world one moment at a time. We have placed him and his “story” comfortably within a movie or memory or history lesson. Whereas with Mulholland Drive we enter into his very living soul, and he ours. That’s why I likened it to the Eucharist.

And why would The Elephant Man be more of a religious movie than The Bible (with George C. Scott) or The Greatest Story Ever Told (with Max von Syndow)?

I believe that God understood that in our day it is necessary to sneak things in through our subconscious. Our consciousness is too watchful.

 

[Kevin_Walker]

Pace:

Kevin,

I am only trying to understand the power and authenticity I sense from Lynch’s art. Maybe Lynch was meant more to reach the pagan world? I don’t know. Yet, I don’t see how the above scene I mentioned could possibly fail to move the heart of pagan or christian. I believe that you state the very problem we have gotten ourselves into with the movies, culminating in The Passion. Namely, that we have begun to think of Jesus as just another “story” rather than a person moving authentically through the inauthentic world one moment at a time. We have placed him and his “story” comfortably within a movie or memory or history lesson. Whereas with Mulholland Drive we enter into his very living soul, and he ours. That’s why I likened it to the Eucharist.

I believe that God understood that in our day it is necessary to sneak things in through our subconscious. Our consciousness is too watchful.

Hi Pace,

I think you nailed it when you correctly identified that director Lynch was meant more to reach the pagan world. Or that pagans are gravitating to certain movies as a cult identity.

But the Catholic Christian should have a more sound belief in their fatih than to interpret a mere movie as some sort of religious inspiration equivalent to the Bible?

Any religious movie, no matter how well done, or enjoyable to watch, was not inspired by God, but by directors who were concerned with the bottom line - $$$$$: And that includes Mel Gibson.

I love movies, but no matter how impressed I am by any movie, its still make believe set to a camera for audience entertainment, and nothing more. I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, it was decades ahead of its time, it floored the academic community here in Boston, and yet today it is obsolete, dated, quaint. But not the Bible!

Remember, its only a movie.

 

[Pace]

Kevin Walker:

Hi Pace,

I think you nailed it when you correctly identified that director Lynch was meant more to reach the pagan world. Or that pagans are gravitating to certain movies as a cult identity.

But the Catholic Christian should have a more sound belief in their fatih than to interpret a mere movie as some sort of religious inspiration equivalent to the Bible?

Any religious movie, no matter how well done, or enjoyable to watch, was not inspired by God, but by directors who were concerned with the bottom line - $$$$$: And that includes Mel Gibson.

I love movies, but no matter how impressed I am by any movie, its still make believe set to a camera for audience entertainment, and nothing more. I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, it was decades ahead of its time, it floored the academic community here in Boston, and yet today it is obsolete, dated, quaint. But not the Bible!

Remember, its only a movie.

O.K. Kevin, we’ll have to disagree for now. To be clear, though, I meant that Lynch has brought Christ himself to the pagans (and that there is at least a little pagan within every Christian).

One thing that I thought was interesting: It was rumoured that *Eraserhead * was Stanley Kubrick’s favorite movie, and that he had seen it 30+ times by the mid-1980’s.

I, myself, saw MD twelve times in the theater. I’ve heard from others who have seen it 50+ times. One man even saw it twice on some days (in the theater), sometimes travelling 100 miles each direction!

 

[Kevin_Walker]

Pace:

O.K. Kevin, we’ll have to disagree for now. To be clear, though, I meant that Lynch has brought Christ himself to the pagans (and that there is at least a little pagan within every Christian).

One thing that I thought was interesting: It was rumoured that *Eraserhead *was Stanley Kubrick’s favorite movie, and that he had seen it 30+ times by the mid-1980’s.

I, myself, saw MD twelve times in the theater. I’ve heard from others who have seen it 50+ times. One man even saw it twice on some days (in the theater), sometimes travelling 100 miles each direction!

Actually, according to one of Stanley Kubrick’s biographies, Kubrick said that the movie THE GODFATHER was the best movie ever made.

By the way, the movie: THE GODFATHER was not about the mafia, it was a metaphor of the Federal Government.

 

[Pace]

Kevin Walker:

Actually, according to one of Stanley Kubrick’s biographies, Kubrick said that the movie THE GODFATHER was the best movie ever made.

It sounds like Kubrick suffered from the same schitzophrenic attitude the rest of us suffer from. We keep two lists; one for the movies we think are the “best” or “greatest” (i.e. the best for us, like vitamins), and the other for the movie our personal favorites (i.e. the movies we like to ‘hang out’ with). This, I believe, is how our intellect torments us. And this is also the reason I question the usefullness of Apologetics in our day. Our two lists should be identical; both should come together, like they do in the person Jesus. Mulholland Drive, in turn, accomplishes the same thing.