I love movies. I have since I was a kid, and more so since I worked at a theater in high school. DVD's and big TVs are fine, but no substitute for the Big Screen Experience.
I was reminded of that this evening, when I took the opportunity to visit a small non-chain theater in an even smaller town. So small that the guy selling tickets also manned the concession stand and probably started the movie. Old and quaint seating in this day of stadium-seat multiplexes. But fun, nevertheless, once the movie started. Just like the old cinema, long-ago closed down, that I used to work at. It made me miss the old days.
The movie, now that was something else. Brand spankin' new. Full of movie stars and special effects. "GhostRider" starring Nicholas Cage and Eva Mendes, based on some Marvel comic book. Interesting, yeah. Slick, yeah. Evil - oh yeah.
What makes it evil is the banality, the unseriousness about the topic. Basic plot line: the Devil tricks a kid into signing a contract for his soul and then turns him into the Devil's employee, a bounty hunter. From there on out it turns into a special effects bonanza of how the good guy (Cage with his skull on fire) can beat the bad guy ( the Devil, and the Devil's son who wants to whack Dad and take over) and still get the girl.
Clearly for the makers of the movie (writer, director, Hollywood in general) the Devil and your soul and so on are not serious issues to be be given serious consideration, but plot devices in a comic book / movie.
That's the problem. Movies have power over people's imagination. They can inspire you, or they can desensitize you. So much violence reduced to crowd pleasing fun! So much evil - and is there more evil than the devil signing a contract with you for your soul - reduced to popcorn munching entertainment.
My overall impression of the movie - well made by Hollywood standards - was vulgar evil reduced and marketed to kids as the latest comic book / video game / action movie plot line.
Evil. I'm sorry that I saw it.
On the other hand, I'm excited about tomorrow's release of the movie "Amazing Grace". Talk about a serious movie that treats it's moral topic seriously! It's the story of two men who illustrate courage (Wilberforce) and redemption (Newton).
William Wilberforce has long been a hero of mine. He was a member of Parliment in England who introduced legislation to ban the slave trade in England. Not once. Not twice. But eighteen years in a row until it finally passed. He showed the moral courage to stand against the great moral evil of his time, slavery, even when it was legal and popular.
How did I know about Wilberforce, when most don't. Well because he's a hero to the pro-life activists in America who see a parallel to slavery and abortion. Slavery was the great moral challenge of Wilberforce's generation, as abortion is ours. Pro-life activists are motivated by his story to perservere in our efforts to end the legal and "acceptable" evil of abortion in this country. 33 years now. 40 million dead. But Wilberforce's legacy is the courage to perservere.
Newton was a slave trader who almost drowned in a shipwreck. He transformed, became a small parish pastor, and spoke out against slavery while writing the powerful hymn "Amazing Grace". He was was lost, but then was found.
What I didn't know was that these two men were connected. Newton inspired Wilberforce. As Wilberforce inspires me.
Two movies.
One Hollywood blockbuster - "Ghostrider" - unserious about evil, and thus evil.
One smaller independent film - "Amazing Grace" - about good.
I wish I would have saved my money tonight instead of wasting it on evil and used it, instead, to help someone else get into "Amazing Grace" to learn about good.
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