Anne Quote of the Day
One of the reasons I married Anne is that, while I'm trying to look closer at movies and music and other arts, she's looking closer at what God has made.
Yesterday, out of the clear blue, after a silent minute in the car, she suddenly said,Read more
Troy (2004)
Troy, starring Brad Pitt, is a movie about a historic tournament clash of two GBA (Greek Basketball Association) Basketball teams.
There are many all-star players on the court for this exhausting, energetic tournament, but Achilles (Brad Pitt), a point guard with a deadly jump-shot is the superstar. He’s also a free agent. The Spartans have had him in the starting lineup for many spectacular match-ups, but they’re not guaranteed that they’ll hang on to him for this championship match. Achilles doesn’t like the Spartan coach, Agamemnon (Bryan Cox). Agamemnon has never been defeated, and his ego has swollen to Shaquille O’Neill proportions. He wants to defeat every team in the league and use his riches to secure the crown, not just this year, but for many years to come. He’s all about establishing the ruling franchise all around the Agean Sea.
"There's no profanity in my society..."
This letter came to me in response to my article at CT about profanity in the movies. My argument covered a lot of points, including the fact that artists often use their work to hold up a reflection to culture with all of its pros and cons. Thus, art often reflects foul language because, clearly, the culture which we have been challenged to love and transform does indeed include people with colorful speech.
Here is the response:
If you ask me, this is a pretty flimsy way to rationalize and justify your movie reviews. Sorry, but I'll continue to check Focus on the Family so that I know exactly how much profanity I might be subjected to before I go to view a movie. I cannot tolerate a movie which takes my Lord and Savior's name in vain. You say that this honestly depicts our society. Well, no it does not depict mine. I don't work with people who speak that way and I'm not around them away from work. If someone attempts to use this kind of language around me, I will quickly point out that I don't like it and then remove myself from the situation.
As Michael Medved has repeatedly said, the movie producers and directors always said they are simply honestly depicting the way people talk and behave, but in reality they are depicting the way they talk and behave.
"You say that this honestly depicts our society."
Uh, yeah. Ever been downtown?
"Well, no it does not depict mine."
I suspect that is because, like so many Christians, you stick to a community that makes you comfortable... other Christians who don't use foul language.
"If someone attempts to use this kind of language around me, I will quickly point out that I don't like it and then remove myself from the situation."
And Christ responds to sinners in this way... where? If I recall, he hung out with the drunkards, the money-grubbers, the riff-raff, and this troubled the pious religious leaders. It threatened them in their sanitized, insular religious world.
The development of a "safe Christian culture" is one of the church's greatest obstacles to its responsibility to be "salt and light." We've made ourselves quite a comfortable salt shaker, and we're staying on the shelf, thank you very much.
Most prestigious film award goes to...
Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 911.
That's right, this year's Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival goes to the guy who brought us Bowling for Columbine and who now is showing us what went on behind the scenes in the Bush administration during and after September 11th, 2001.
The next year is sure to be packed with feverish debate over the film's veracity, Moore's credibility, and what his footage and interviews reveal.
Clearly, beyond America's borders, anything that makes Bush look like a fool is going to be well-received. Rather than jumping to judge Moore and his film as many will do, I'm simply anxious to see it for myself to decide if it's a piece of leftie-propaganda, or if it's responsibly and fairly made. Is it just one guy's opinion, backed up by whoever he could get to agree with him? Or is it news, drawn together from a careful and thorough examination of the facts?
We'll see.
"Surviving the Open Heart"
Today I'm directing you to the excellent online poetry journal DMQ Review for some truly disquieting poetry.Read more
Thank You of the Week
Linda Wagner has inspired a large crowd of writers through her work at the annual Seattle Pacific University writers' conference.
She changed my life one day, in 1994, when I was working in the Humanities office at SPU. She asked if the rumors were true, that I was writing science fiction and fantasy. When I said, yes, she told me she wanted to start a reading and critique group for Christian writers of sci-fi and fantasy. That grew into a rewarding, close-knit group of writers who continued to meet regularly until just last year, when some in the group were called to other places and responsibilities.
But soon after it started, Linda invited me to join her and another mutual friend, Beth Harris (whose turn in this blog will someday come), in teaming up with a rowdy band of Christian artists to start Promontory Artists' Association. Over the years between 1994 and now, Promontory has produced a magazine called The Crossing; hosted a long list of events organized to encourage, challenge, and inspire artists; and hosted the Web site promontoryartists.org. It was there that I started Looking Closer, which was the path that led me eventually to my work with Christianity Today.
Because of Linda's vision and dedication, a whole world of artists, both here in Seattle and out there in cyberspace, have been challenged and inspired.
This year, Linda is stepping down from her work at the SPU writer's conference. But her work with Promontory continues. She recently helped organize an evening of looking closely at the films of master filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, which was a great success.
I am confident that the moment Linda stopped and inquired about my writing was one of those moments when God granted me one of the greatest blessings I've known. Her friendship and care for me as an artist and as a writer about art have been fuel for my journey and protection for my work. I know she has been just such a blessing for many more besides.
Thank you, Linda, for all of your support, time, editing, counsel, and inspiration over the last decade. And thank you for being such a dedicated supporter for the Looking Closer endeavors over the past several years.
Yet Another Gaping Hole in The Da Vinci Code
"But it's fiction!" people keep saying to me, when I criticize The Da Vinci Code or Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass. "Why are you taking it so seriously?"
Because most people are inclined to find fault with Christianity, and are quick to seize upon any detail they can use in order to sound educated in their critique of the faith. Most people haven't really read the Bible, much less know anything about its history. Thus, when a conspiracy theorist like Dan Brown comes along with a novel in which characters spell out the history of the Bible, the reader is inclined to accept what they read... especially if it arms them with an argument that backs up what they WANT to believe.
Dan Brown is welcome to fictionalize whatever he likes. Unfortunately, he's also going around in interviews claiming his fiction is based on fact. In fact, his theories are about as secure as a submarine with screen doors. As Margaret Mitchell writes, "A 'black light' edition of The Da Vinci Code would ... be unnecessary if readers would simply take the book as fiction. But there is an obstacle: the first page of the book reads, under the bold print headline 'Fact': 'all descriptions of ...documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.'"
Here's just one of the most recent responses to Brown's claims, shooting holes in his misleading Code.
If you want more of the same, click here.
Here's another one, from the University of Chicago.
Here's a thorough critique from a Catholic journalist.
Sticking Up for Them Cussin' Characters
When I post a review recommending a film that includes harsh language, I almost always hear from somebody somewhere who is aghast that I, a Christian film reviewer, would approve of anything that includes profanity...Read more
Movies That Buck the Trend
Here's a new interview with Barbara Nicolosi, head of Act One: Writing for Hollywood.
Get a load of this quote:Read more
Amid the 25-Minute Ovation, a Surprising Criticism
While it's true that Michael Moore received an 25-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival for his Dubya-bashing film Farenheit 911, here's an interesting detail, courtesy of IMDB.com:
Legendary French director Jean-Luc Godard became one of the few persons in attendance at the Cannes Film Festival who had negative things to say about Michael Moore's controversial Fahrenheit 9/11 film (although he admitted that he had not seen it). Godard, who described Moore as "halfway intelligent," told reporters that films like Fahrenheit "help Bush more than harm him ... in a very vicious way that [directors like Moore] are not conscious of." Bush, he said, "is less stupid than [Moore] thinks."
Godard is visiting Cannes to support his latest film, Our Music, which is being screened outside of the competition. Like Moore's film, Our Music explores the conscience of nations in conflict. At one point in his news conference, he invited Olivier Derousseau, a leader of the part-time actors and technicians who have been staging a demonstration at the festival to protest cuts in unemployment benefits, to say a few words to the reporters.