So Many Movies, So Little Time

We watched so very many movies over Thanksgiving that I was astounded. However, it was great fun. I already reviewed American Gangster and mentioned The Prestige. Here is a very quick rundown of the others:

• My Best Friend (French): a nice little story about a man who suddenly realizes that he has no friends at all and sets about making some. The surprise that happens to the taxi driver in the end of the movie had us laughing in appreciation of the familiarity. You'll know it when you see it.


• Reign Over Me: I was surprised at how very much I liked this movie. It had the potential to be a real downer as it examines grief from several angles, but thanks to the strength of friendships and comedy the movie wound up being uplifting.


• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: spoofing noir at the same time as BEING a noir movie. Hard to do but this is great. It is also great fun watching Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer in this movie.
  


• Citizen Kane: Tom and I hadn't seen this for (mumble, mumble) maybe 20 years? Rose wanted to see it and it was fascinating to watch for the many techniques that Wells did for the very first time and that are now common. As well, the final shot of the movie hit me like a slap in the face ... I just didn't see it coming. (And, no, I'm not talking about Rosebud.)


• Amelie: (we actually watched this the weekend before Thanksgiving). This was a delight to me simply for its sheer Frenchness. It is difficult to see how any other culture would have made this movie with its mix of whimsy, sex, romance, and ... well ... Paris. It also is a celebration of friendship, love, and connectedness.
  

Bringing the Saints to the Streets

... the streetwise lingo represented the playwright's attempt at what theologians call an "inculturation of the Bible--that is, a translation of the Gospel texts not simply into a different language but for a different culture.

For Guirgis, that culture is contemporary urban life. Hence, his saints and apostles speak (and often shout) as if they were standing on a crowded subway platform at rush hour. Freed from the need to provide historically accurate quotations for his characters, Guirgis deploys such language to reveal the essential nature of his characters in surprising ways.

For example when the defense attorney in Judas faces difficulty in getting Judas's case heard before a judge in the afterlife, she appeals to Saint Monica, the fourth-century woman whose relentless prayers are credited for the conversion of her wayward son, Augustine. In the biography Augustine of Hippo, church historian Peter Brown describes Monica as an "all-absorbing mother, deeply injured by her son's rebellions."

In Guirgis's world, a fiery Monica is a self-described nag who encourages the audience to seek her intercession: "I got a calling, y'all--you should try giving me a shout if ya ever need it, 'cuz my name is Saint Monica ... and ya know what? My ass gets results!"

Among some Jesuits, Guirgis's approach got results, too. After one performance, a friend said to me, "Maybe I should start praying to Saint Monica again."

A Jesuit Off-Broadway turned out to be one of my favorite books of the year. I am not alone as the book made Publishers' Weekly list for best books of the year (noted here along with a link to a chapter pdf). Father James Martin wound up acting as theological consultant for the Off-Broadway play, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot when Sam Rockwell, the actor portraying Judas, and the playwright, Stephen Guirgis, were directed to Father Martin for background and insights. Later, as the cast somewhat adopted him, Father Martin wound up acting as a unofficial chaplain to the group.

Father Martin leads a diverse group of actors in theology "classes," gives them biographies of saints, and helps them dig deeper into essential questions of faith in everyday life. In return, he finds their fresh approach to the Gospels and the main characters therein to be thought provoking. It can be enlightening for us as well to see how well the playwright encapsulates characters to give us fresh insights.

In Stephen's play, the defense attorney questions the high priest about his decision to hand over Jesus to the Roman authorities. Caiaphas responds with growing impatience:

Our Torah has six hundred thirteen Sacred Laws--I can't even count how many Jesus broke or treated with wanton disregard and disdain! He broke the laws that came from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! He violated the word of God. He violated the laws of Moses. He consorted with the Unclean, and women, and prostitutes. He performed Miracles on the Sabbath. He proclaimed himself Messiah! He forgave sin! Who was he to forgive sin?!Only God can do that! If that's not crossing the line, then I don't know what is!

..."Sometimes," explained Jeffrey [the actor portraying Caiaphas], "I would feel such rage on his behalf. Rage to the point of tears. Having to answer questions from the lawyers suggested that Caiaphas was less of a man, less of a human being, and even suggesting that he was evil."

As the play script develops and production begins, he not only takes us behind the scenes with him but shares how this all affects the actors with distinctly different religious backgrounds who are living their faith on widely differing levels. I especially liked the fact that Father Martin did not pass judgment on these people whatever their backgrounds but simply engaged them in conversation about the topic of the moment. Granted, those topics were generally Jesus, the saints, and Christianity. However, it gives us a good pattern for remembering how best to share our faith in our own lives, as Madeleine L'Engle put it:

We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.

I also really enjoyed the way Father Martin uses the inspirations he realizes to make side trips into other, related subjects such as Jesuit theater, celibacy, Mary of Magdala, and the historical Jesus. I was also delighted when, after teasing us with snippets of the play throughout the book, Father Martin gives us a synopsis at the end. This is a play that I would have wanted to see and one in which I was deeply interested after reading about the actors and process.

Perhaps the best tribute to this book comes in the forward from the playwright who says that he didn't read the book as it is difficult to be a "character in someone else's story." That just made his testimony the more valuable.

... And along the way, Father Jim accomplished that thing that I hoped, and hope, to accomplish with the play itself: he got good people thinking about God again, and even got some back to the church. Even me.

Highly recommended to do that very thing, get us thinking about God in a new way. Christmas is coming. Get it for a theater lover you know.

Update:
Busted Halo features a book excerpt focusing on the play's director, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Read it here.

What a difficult, annoying religion!

To those of you who think religion is a self-delusion based on wish-fulfillment, all I can remark is that this religion does not fulfill my wishes. My wishes, if we are being honest, would run to polygamy, self-righteousness, vengeance and violence: a Viking religion would suit me better, or maybe something along Aztec lines. The Hall of Valhalla, where you feast all night and battle all day, or the paradise of the Mohammedans, where you have seventy-two dark-eyed virgins to abuse, fulfills more wishes of base creatures like me than any place where they neither marry nor are given in marriage. This turn-the-other cheek jazz might be based any number of psychological appeals or spiritual insights, but one thing it is not based on is wish-fulfillment.

An absurd and difficult religion! If it were not true, no one would bother with it.

No freaking kidding. John C. Wright says a bit more on this, amusingly and correctly. Read it all.

More on The Golden Compass ...

... since I seem to be on a linking roll on this subject.

I thought that I had linked to Jeffrey Overstreet's writings on this, which came out a week ago, but perhaps I didn't. In any event, it's worth linking to again. Anyone who has read Through a Screen Darkly knows that Overstreet loves movies and doesn't require them to toe the Christian party line to convey a message that is worthwhile. He also has written an excellent fantasy, Auralia's Colors which shows among other things that he has a deep understanding of the genre.

Specifically, he has read all three books and has some intelligent commentary and also answers people's questions, including how to approach this subject with your children. Read it all here.

Okay, so we shouldn’t start boycotts and complain.
But what should Christians do?

These recommendations come from my humble opinion, and you’re welcome to disagree.

• Educate yourselves. And equip your kids with questions… lenses, so to speak… that will expose the problems in these stories.
• Respond with grace and love. And truth.
• Worried about putting money in Pullman’s pockets by investigating the books? Fair enough. Here’s a little secret I’ve discovered: The Public Library!
• Admit that, yes, Christians have committed grave sins in the name of Christ, and that those shameful misrepresentations of the gospel have made many people fearful of, and even repulsed by, the church. But Christians have been called to serve the oppressed, proclaim freedom for the captives, bring healing to the sick, to seek justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly, and to bring good news of “great joy.” And by God’s grace, many are living out that calling. They paint quite a different picture than what Pullman has painted.
• Encourage the artists and storytellers in your church. If you see talent and imagination, provide resources and opportunities for those artists. We don’t want visionaries abandoning the church because they are tired of being misunderstood or having their talents exploited for the sake of evangelism.
• Do not get hysterical, mount massive boycotts, or behave in ways that the Magisterium in Pullman’s books would behave. You’ll just make Pullman’s stories more persuasive, and you’ll confirm for the culture around us that Christians only really get excited when they’re condemning something.
• Equip yourself and your kids with sharp questions that expose the lies of this story. Here are a few examples:- If we cast off all “Authority” and set up “free will” as the ultimate source of guidance, where will that get us? Has the world shown us that the human heart is a trustworthy “compass”? Does free will lead us always to the right choice?- If the heroes accept the “truth” of the aletheometer (the compass itself), aren’t they letting themselves be guided by just another source of truth… another “Authority”? But wait a minute… the movie told us that “Authority” is bad and we should only follow our own hearts, didn’t it?- If there are “many truths,” then aren’t these heroes being as self-righteous and wicked as the oppressors by demanding that their version of the truth is better than others?- What is so inspiring about the battle between the bears? Hasn’t this story led us to a place where it’s just “survival of the fittest” all over again? Should we really hope that the world falls into the hands of the strongest fighter, rather than into the hands of love?
• Finally… pray for Philip Pullman. Pray about the influence of his work. And pray for humility and wisdom in your own response.Pullman is just a man who, somewhere along the way, got a very bad impression of the church.I also cannot help but note a detail from biographies published online: Pullman’s father died in a plane crash in the 1950s, when Pullman was only seven years old. I don’t know if that had anything to do with his view of God… but I do know that many of the men I know who have struggled with the idea of a loving, caring, benevolent god are those whose fathers abandoned them or died while they were young. Boys without fathers often grow up with deep resentment, and having no focus for that pain, they target God.I want to be careful here: I am not explaining Pullman to you, because I don’t know him. But that detail made me stop and think about how little I know about his experiences and motivations. Shouldn’t I be praying for him instead of condemning him? Shouldn’t I be looking for ways to show love and respect to the man, even as I look for ways to expose the flaws in his work? Pullman’s not likely to reconsider his notions about God if those who believe in God organize a full-scale assault against him and his work.

He also gives us as much of a hint as an ethical movie reviewer can as to content without breaking promises about not jumping opening dates with a review.

Today, I saw the movie. And I’m not going to change a word of what I’ve written as a result. If the filmmakers tried to “tone down” the anti-religious content, they pretty much failed. “The Magisterium” is not a term invented by Philip Pullman. It’s a reference to the Catholic church. And it isn’t hard to see that in the film.

But by professional film-critic standards, I cannot publish a movie review until the day the film opens. (That doesn’t mean that scores of critics won’t break the rules and post their own in order to win readers. But I’ve agreed to play by the rules.) So you’ll hear from me about the movie when it opens.

God's Not as Fastidious as We Are

... Odd, she [Philippa] had thought, I never seriously visualized coming out of Brede again; it had not occurred to her, but in those minutes it occurred painfully. She could have blushed to think how once she had taken it for granted that, if she made enough effort -- steeled herself -- it would be settled. "I know," Dame Clare said afterwards. "I was as confident. Once upon a time I even thought God had taste, choosing me!"

Dame Perpetua had been more blunt. "Weren't you surprised that God should have chosen you?" a young woman reporter, writing apiece on vocations, had asked her. "Yes," Dame Perpetua had answered, "but not nearly as surprised that he should have chosen some of the others -- but then God's not as fastidious as we are," said Dame Perpetua.

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden

Great Moments in the History of Technical Services

537 B.C.
The National Library of Babylon, finally switching to papyrus, ceases maintaining its clay tablet shelflist, but is unable to discard it for nostalgic reasons. Two years later, under seige by the Persians, the city finds a new use for the old tablets and manages to inflict severe losses on the beseiging army by pelting them from the ramparts with large quantities of shelflist tablets.

43 B.C.
First attested use of an ISBN (for the special collector's edition of Caesar's Gallic Wars with an introduction by Marc Anthony): IXIVVIIXVIIIVIIIVIVII.

81 A.D.
Second gospel of the Christian New Testament becomes the first document written in MARK format.

427 A.D.
The Library at Alexandria decides to contract out its annual weeding project; Vandal hordes are the lowest bidder.

The geek-index is high for this one. Read the whole list here. Via Catholic Bibliophagist.

Shaped to Have Meaning

The statue seemed to emerge almost naturally from the stone, though again, statue seemed the wrong word, it was so alive. "He's uncovering it," said Dame Gertrude, marveling.

After the novitiate had watched him, Sister Constance had said, "It's like us. We come as a rough piece of stone and have to be carved and shaped to have any meaning."

"But he can only shape," said Cecily. "He can't put anything there that wasn't there before."

"Still more like us, "said Philippa ...

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden

Dishonesty in Homilies

Two people came into Church to pray, one was a Roman Catholic Cardinal in Charge of Church doctrine who prayed "I give you thanks oh God that I am not like others - greedy dishonest or like those living in Africa where AIDS is killing everyone even there we can never allow condoms to be used."

The other was an African widow dying of AIDS who stood off to the side and prayed "Oh God, be merciful to me for not refusing the advances of my husband without a condom, soon I will follow him to the grave and leave our six children orphans.

Jesus concluded – the last person went home more worthy in God's sight than the first.

The Curt Jester tells us that this was a real-life example from a homily given by a parish priest who was scoring points for a topic close to his heart. As he points out this is dishonest to the congregation and is an extremely simplistic sort of rhetoric that is all to easy to flip the other way. Sheez. Give the congregation some credit. Go read it all.

I haven't been following the story that this all illustrates but I am highlighting the homily because I absolutely despise people who put words into Jesus' mouth.

Isn't there enough in three readings, plus the psalm of the day, to craft a homily? I submit that there is. To sink as low as the example above is to show a horrendous lack of imagination, study, and scholarship. Not to mention displaying oneself as a tower of pride and disobedience.

It is true that sticking to what Jesus said might not give you the building blocks for the message that that the homilist wants to deliver. However, that probably is for a very good reason and there just might be another message there that both the homilist and congregation need to hear even more.

It's About Honesty: American Gangster

The movie is also able to traffic in a large quantity of moral ambiguity but never lose sight of the human costs of what its characters do for a living. Frank Lucas is successful, intelligent and sympathetic, but the film takes pains to show the end result of people using his product. On the other hand, in many ways Frank is preferable to the corrupt narcotics detectives who attempt to shake him down. At least he is not betraying the same kind of trust that they are. He is exactly who he says he is and providing a product that people have always been willing to buy. Franks treats his own people, at least the ones he perceives as loyal, far better than Richie Roberts’ people treat him for the crime of being a good cop.

Celluloid Heroes has a very accurate review of this movie.

I can say that because Tom, Rose and I went to see this excellent movie yesterday. (Hannah was sleeping off the 5:00 a.m. sale at Best Buy and passed on the annual Friday-after-Thanksgiving-movie.) I knew it would be gritty. I knew it would be violent. I knew it was about a crime lord who was unsuspected for most of his career. Not my usual sort of movie, to be truthful. (I was pulling for Lars and the Real Girl.) However, Rose won and I am happy that she did.

Certainly I also knew that we would be seeing two actors at the top of their form, Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. What I didn't know was that it is directed by Ridley Scott and stars a gaggle of high talent "hey, it's that guy ... the one whose name I never remember" starting with Chiwetel Ejiofor, known to our family as "The Operative" from Serenity.

Outwardly respectable gangster, Frank Lucas (Washington), makes an excellent living by selling low-priced, high quality heroin on the streets, and surrounding himself with family members who he can trust. He and his entire organization are largely anonymous to the law. Meanwhile, the parallel story of Richie Roberts (Crowe) shows someone who is basically a loser, right down to the point that his extreme honesty has made him anathema to all the other cops. Assigned as the head of the local arm of a federal effort to stop the drug trade at its source, Richie eventually stumbles across Frank Lucas.

This is a very complicated story but the viewer has no trouble following it, which says a lot for the skill and talent of the director, editor, and screenwriters. There is not a big moral to slap us in the face in large part because this is based on a real story and real stories don't always have an easily seen message. However, in thinking the movie over, it seemed to me that at the base it came down to honesty. Frank Lucas never lies to himself about what he does. He insulates himself and those he loves from it but that isolation is different from lying. This is seen in subtle things such as his stillness for a moment when his nephew tells him that he is giving up his lifelong dream of becoming a professional baseball player because, "I want to be like you, Uncle Frank." It is subtle, but it is there. Frank knows that is not a worthy goal. Another telling point about honesty is made when Richie's ex-wife confronts him with an unpalatable bit of truth about him. His reaction is quite telling. Similarly, the end of the movie (which I will not mention for fear of spoiling it) is only possible because Frank at last comes up against a completely honest man in Richie Roberts and that is the one quality that they can appreciate about each other.

Highly recommended.

Columbia College Here She Comes!

Rose got her admittance letter from Columbia College yesterday! Woohoo! (We had gotten a hint since the letter to parents arrived two days ago, telling about all the ways that they work to make sure students leave school employed ... no fools they.)

Not only is she excited about that, but she's also very happy not to also have to do the admissions essays to UT as a backup school. She'll be majoring in film editing.

And I'll finally get to visit Chicago.

This has so many upsides to it.

We're not gonna borrow trouble and think about how far away from home Rose will be. Yet. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Making Christmas Shopping Easy

For the patristically-minded, Mike Aquilina has a list of books that surely cover most anything you ever wanted to know. I highly recommend the ones that say "by Mike Aquilina" for full satisfaction.

The history of the Christmas Card is set out for us by Ian.

Actually, if you look carefully at the card you will see some unhappy figures on the edges. Sir Cole was very concerned about the poor in England and wanted to remind his friends to do something charitable during the Christmas season so he had these cards sent instead of handwriting individual letters. (This is true).

As for the shopping aspect, check out Ian's online Catholic store, Aquinas and More. Not only will you avoid the crowds, but you will be supporting a family run business, and that is always close to my heart.

Update: Can't believe I forgot to mention this, but Ian reminds me that everything is 15% off through Monday evening. Let your fingers do the shopping, cheaply!

Speaking of family run businesses, if you want to see an example of Tom's design work and my layout production, then get the latest edition of Letter & Spirit. Scott Hahn is the editor, David Scott is the managing editor (and a nicer guy you'll never meet) and this is full of essays that dig deeper theologically than you are wont to find in Hahn's regular books (you know, the ones that I read ...). They've scored thought provoking writing about "The Hermeneutic of Continuity: Christ, Kingdom, and Creation" by Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Dulles, and Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, to name just a few among the erudite authors. Some of the topics are the biblical basis of indulgences, feminine and maternal images of the Holy Spirit in early Christianity, and the "image of God" doctrine in St. Thomas Aquinas’ writings. (We also worked on the second edition ... always the insides not the outside ... but as y'all know it's what it says, not how it looks that is important. Check out all three editions.)

All I Want for Christmas Is ...

... a really great calendar. (Though, truth be told, I'm a calendar junkie ...) Order this one, and see more photos of it, at Confessions of a Pioneer Woman.

And, now, if you'll excuse me ...

A Glass of Rioja by Edward B. Gordon

I'm off to do some Thanksgiving cooking and celebrating all the many things that I am so thankful for, including every single person who stops by here.

I Leave Footprints. How About You?

Mama T asks:

How many of us write notes in our books? Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist?

She is a Preservationist but, luckily for me, Smock Mama takes notes in books so I'm not alone. I used to feel terrible about writing in books but got over it. This is usually marking paragraphs or sections of interest, especially in any theology books I have on hand. Otherwise I'd never find anything again.

Praying for the Souls in Purgatory

During November the Church especially prays for all who are in the purifying fires of Purgatory, waiting for the day when they will join the company of the saints in heaven. We are getting toward the end of the month but I wanted to direct everyone to The Lion and the Cardinal where Daniel Mitsui has been unearthing some truly amazing art to help us keep that prayer goal in mind by focusing as he says "on the appropriately morbid." Above is one of the more eerie and striking examples but there is also the very beautiful to be found as seen below. Do go look around through his November posts.

Joe's Old Clothes

Joe had not been a sight. When Admiral Twiss took Kissy to him, he was lying peacefuly in the grass. Kizzy held the Admiral's hand.

Nat came out, took Kizzy's other hand, and together the three of them stood looking at the big still body, at Joe's head with the white blaze on his nose, his eyelashes -- Nat had closed his eyes -- his great legs and mighty hooves that were split and grey -- it was a long while since he had worn shoes. His bay coat still shone. Nat had given it many a rubbing. Joe seemed as if he were asleep, but a deep, deep sleep.

Kizzy went nearer. "Careful," said Nat. "He's getting stiff."

"Will -- will the knacker, the hounds, get him now?"

"They can't," said Admiral Twiss.

"Can't?" Kizzy's head came up.

"Joe's safe," said the Admiral, "because this isn't Joe. He's not here."

Kizzy broke from him and put her hand to Joe's nose, not touching. "He doesn't huff," she said.

"Of course not. He isn't there."

Kizzy looked at the Admiral as if weighing what he had said and put her hand again to Joe. "The warm is gone."

"Yes." Admiral Twiss came to her and gently touched Joe's body. "This is just his old clothes, Kiz. He doesn't need them any more."

"Where is he?"

Mrs. Blount might have said, "In the horse's heaven," but Admiral Twiss was plainer. "We don't know. Nobody knows, but I believe we shall find out."

"When we're dead?"

"Perhaps. It seems to make sense, doesn't it?" said the Admiral. "If Joe isn't here, he must be somewhere. Come. We'll leave his body to Nat."

Rumer Godden, The Diddakoi

What do you think people are?

"I never know how to place Olivia Brooke," Mrs. Cuthbert had to admit. It was annoying as usually, given half an hour, she had people clearly and properly labelled, "As if we were all tidy glass jars," said Miss Brooke.

"Glass jars? I never said that." Mrs. Cuthbert was nettled. "And what do you think people are?"

"More like caves to explore," said Miss Brooke. "Mysterious caves. One never gets to the end of them."

The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden

Even in a children's book, she just hits that nail on the head.

Rose and Friends Give Beowulf Six Thumbs Down ... Way Down

Overall, I found Beowulf to be like the product of multiple personality disorder. Sometimes it wants to be taken seriously; sometimes it seems to aspire to be little more than a cartoon. I guess I’d describe it as uneven. There are scenes, like the dragon fight near the end, that are visually spectacular. Other scenes, like the fight with Grendel (in which a running gag is the number of ways a nude Beowulf’s privates are obscured by foreground objects), seem pointlessly contrived.

Past the Popcorn review

This sounds like a synopsis of Roses diatribe of faults for this movie.

It also probably doesn't help that her Literature class just finished reading the book. They said that they managed to wait until the end credits before bursting out laughing. A favorite mocking point was turning the sea hag (Grendel's mother) into a luscious babe (Angelina Jolie).

This is the same girl who, after seeing The Count of Monte Cristo starring Jim Caviezel, stretched and said, "The book, the sandwich, the movie ... all completely different and yet I love them all." So we know it isn't the lack of accuracy she's objecting to (at least not wholly ...).

Getting better with age

Age is a strictly limited reference in terms of the current television season, of course. Moonlight and Journeyman, however, have been quite rewarding in terms of beginning character development and complications that form a larger story arc than a simple story that lasts one show. (Please keep in mind that we're running a week or so behind on everything, due to our extreme work schedule and Rose's plethora of special projects for school.)

Moonlight remains largely a romance (which is just fine with Rose and me, natch!) but suddenly has a much needed layer of depth and interest with the addition of his former wife who somehow has become human after he thought he had killed her (when she was a vampire ... oh, it's complicated folks!).

Journeyman has not only the complications of simply disappearing into the past and trying to figure out what he's supposed to do, but that of constantly running into the sweetheart he thought long dead, and of a brother who has an understandable lack of faith in him (due to a heavy duty previous gambling problem). Oh, and then there's the mysterious think-tank professor who keeps showing up with comments about tachyons and quartz (both supposedly good for time travel) and shows no surprise at all when Dan suddenly disappears into time practically in front of his eyes.

If they begin running reruns due to the writers strike, give them a try (not that Moonlight would be that difficult to pick up now ... Journeyman, on the other hand, is getting to the point where you are having to factor in past hints to keep up with current developments).

A Beautiful Tribute Framed Around the Hail Mary

This has some of my favorite art of Mary and Jesus highlighted. From Love to Be Catholic.