Movies worth seeing

[Howard Chapman]

Thought it might be worth opening a discussion on movies. I like going to movies. I even like "chick flicks". They have characters and plots, albeit not enough explosions. Let's share our reactions to what we have seen and what we thought about it.

We went to see "Across the Universe" last night. I enjoyed it, but then I am right in the middle of the Baby Boomers, just the right age to enjoy it. The movie is a musical but all the songs are from the Beatles. I was in fourth grade when the Beatles came to the US and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show, and in junior high and early high school at the end of the sixties when the whole hippie movement, Viet Nam war, civil rights movement, etc. was going on. Everyone my age loved the Beatles, (I still do) and the movie is just full of not only Beatle music but all sorts of references to songs that aren't sung, and other Beatle and sixties' trivia.

There is a plot line of a dock worker from Liverpool named Jude coming in the late sixties to the States and falling in love with a posh suburbanite named Lucy. Other characters in the story are Max, JoJo, Sadie and Prudence, who, incidently, does come in through the bathroom window. If you're a Beatles fan, just those two sentences alone are enough to grab your interest.

The movie is beautiful to watch with some of the musical numbers being very psychodelic and weird. But for the most part the songs are like any musical and fit in very well with what is going on. I found some to be quite moving: "Let It Be" being sung by a victim of the Detroit riots, "If I Fell in Love" being sung acapella across a slow motion party. Some were a lot of fun, "Come Together" sung by winos and pimps, "I Am The Walrus" by a Ken Keasy character. The movie did seem a bit long, and of course didn't have all the Beatle songs I would have liked. They could have dropped "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and included "Help" and "Can't Buy Me Love," but that is my taste.

The spiritual connection for me was at the ending, when everything culminated in "All You Need is Love." While it was an exciting time with a wonderful optimism, there were a lot of things that were pretty messed up. We soon realized that we needed a lot more that the kind of love they were singing about back then.

So, what do you think? I would be interested in anyone else's reaction to "Across the Universe," or something else you have seen. Has anyone seen "Final Season" yet? What did you think of it? We don't have to limit this duscussion to current movies. Recent releases on DVD would be great. Or even the classics. If you have finally seen Hitchcock's "Vertigo" for the first time and want to talk about it, that would be fine.

[Jim Bonewald]

One movie that I really enjoyed last year and would highly recommend is "Children of Men" It was originally a sci-fi book written by the brilliant British detective author PD James.

The movie takes place in a time, in the not too distance future, when humanity has lost the ability to reproduce. The movie resonates with lots of current issues (terrorism, immigration, etc.) but the best part was its allusion, whether intentional or not, to advent and the hope for the world which is found in the Christ child.

The movie follows the plight of a young girl, who needs to be whisked away to safety, because she is the first one in a generation who has become pregnant. Following the birth of the mother's baby, a world full of violence and turmoil stops for just a moment in awe and wonder at the hope found in the newborn...this was one of the most powerful movie scenes I'd seen in a long time.

I wouldn't hesitate to find a way to use this movie - and that scene in particular - in a sermon on advent hope.

[Howard Chapman]

With Halloween coming up, I saw parts of a show on TV listing the top 100 scariest movies. I didn't watch it all but "Jaws" came out as number 1. "Alien" and "Psycho" were in the top 5. My earliest memory of being absolutely freaked out by a movie was when I was 5 and my mother took me to see the "Wizard of OZ." I actually saw it up on a big screen. My folks were missionaries in Sierra Leone, West Africa, which was still a British colony at the time and the town we lived in had a British consul. Occassionally, the consul would have "cultural events" and would have a concert or lecture or some form of entertainment, and they brought in the Wizard. My mother tried to prepare me. She said there would be a scary witch, but it was all pretend, just a story. So, fine. The witch appeared and disappeared and I was cool, no problem. I knew witches were not real anyway. But Mom did not say anything about flying monkeys. Absolutely terrified me. I had seen monkeys and knew they weren't cute little pets we see here in the States. The thought that some might be able to fly and come and get me, gave me nightmares for years. I probably still have some latent psychological hangups as a result.

What about any of you? Any particular movie really scare you? Or move you emotionally in some other way?

[Bonnie Beyer]

There's a movie that I'm afraid to see. "Sophia's Choice." Back in the late 80's it was on TV. I happened to be flipping through channels looking for something to watch, and I happened on to that movie during it's key scene - the one where the Nazi soldier is making her choose between her two children. I quickly flipped the channel after that. I saw just those 2 minutes and was horrified and haunted by it for years. I later read the book and put it all in context, and I still can't stomach the thought of watching the movie.

My favorite "scary" movie of late is "Signs" with Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson - Need I say more? :-) But I really liked the story and the way it all tied back to his loss of faith after his wife's death. If you haven't seen it, it is definitely a good Halloween movie to rent.

[Howard Chapman]

It has been quiet around here for a while, so I thought I would throw out something new. We went to see "The Golden Compass" after Christmas. There may be some discussion about this movie in your churches. It is based on the first of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. It has received some publicity surrounding the fact that Pullman is openly atheistic and reportedly has said he wishes to undo all the harm C.S. Lewis has done with his Narnia stories. Some Christian groups have urged a boycott.

I have the trilogy, but have not yet managed to read more than a few chapters. So I cannot comment too much on the books. But the movie was sheer fantasy. To be sure, there is a religious heirarchy that tries to supress truth, but there was nothing that I found at all offensive. The Hollywood Jesus website (www.hollywoodjesus.com) has a pretty good review of "The Golden Compass" and says that you could just as easily see the heroine as a Christ figure resisting the Pharisees as anything anti-Christian.

Overall I enjoyed the movie and thought it was well done. I think both The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series are better. Alhtough the special effects and CGI keep getting better and better. It is almost getting to the point where you don't even think a talking polar bear or ferret are at all unusual, which is the way it should be. The movie did not tie up all the loose ends, so my guess is there is a sequel being made.