On the Beach

I watched the liesurely but horrific 1959 film On the Beach last night. The movie, starring Gregory Peck, Fred Astair, and Ava Gardner, has the last remaining survivors of a global nuclear holocaust awaiting their certain deaths in Australia as radiation creeps towards them. The government issues everyone in Melbourne poison tablets to kill themselves rather then enduring radiation sickness. Peck as a submarine capitain heads back to the United States with his crew to die as the movie fades to black. It wasn't exactly a feel good movie. However, it seemed to resonate with a certain dignity, with no one rioting or hoarding, and everyone performing their duties as well as they could under the circumstances. In the movie, Fred Astaire as the scientist Julian Osborne says "Who would ever have believed that human beings would be stupid enough to blow themselves off the face of the Earth?" The horror of the movie lies in the knowledge that humans can indeed be that stupid.

Juno

Reluctantly, I went with my wife to see the movie Juno. I was reluctant to see this movie because what little I knew about it involved a unplanned pregnancy. I usually don't like to see chick-flicks with a message. But I'm glad I went, and I recommend it.

The jist is that Juno MacGruff, a 16 year old, discovers she is pregnant by her friend Paulie Bleeker. She decides to have the baby and puts the child up for adoption with an affluent
couple. However, Mac, the father, decides to divorce Vanessa, who wants to adopt the child. Vanessa ends up keeping the baby boy and Juno and Paulie struggle to return to a normal, caring relationship.

It could have easily turned into a pro-choice or pro-life tract. To the contrary, it put both extremes in a poor light. Little of the movie dwealt on what led to the pregnancy. It seemed to be a combination of boredom and soft music. Neverthless, the consequences of keeping the child was portrayed in such a way as to make any teenager think twice about becoming pregnant. The movie all of the cross currents that attend such pregnancies-- the struggle to maintain respect from parents and peers, combined with fear, doubt, sickness, hopelessness, and hope.

I thought Ellen Page who played Juno was especially good. It wouldn't surprise me if this movie won an Academy Award or two.

PS I Love You

I was one of the the only guys watching this schmaltzy, improbable chick flick. But we liked it, and a lot of people left the theatre dabbing their eyes. The reviews have been rough. However, I recommend it if you want to show your more tender side to your date.

The Ending of The Mist

Can someone tell me how Steven King's new movie The Mist ends? This bit of spoiler information seems to be shrouded in secrecy, and I abhor secrecy as I do death threats:

King: "Frank wrote a new ending that I loved. It is the most shocking ending ever and there should be a law passed stating that anybody who reveals the last five minutes of this film should be hung from their neck until dead."

If you really want to know what the end is, here you go. You've been warned.

Boycotting The Golden Compass

I got this e-mail today.

My hunch: It's an attempt by the TGC publicity department to generate buzz. I saw a trailer for it last week, and it looks like its going to need all the buzz it can get.

For anyone with kids, grandkids other relatives or friends who this may concern, I have checked it out at snopes.com and it is true.

"The Golden Compass" - Theatrical Release Date: 12/07/2007

All,

There will be a new children's movie out in December called "The Golden Compass". The movie has been described as "atheism for kids" and is based on the first book of a trilogy entitled "His Dark Materials" that was written by Phillip Pullman. Pullman is a militant atheist and secular humanist who despises C. S. Lewis and the "Chronicles ofNarnia". His motivation for writing this trilogy was specifically to counteract Lewis' symbolisms of Christ that are portrayed in the Narnia series. Clearly, Pullman 's main objective is to bash Christianity and promote atheism. Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that "my books are about killing God." He has even stated that he wants to "kill God in the minds of children". It has been said of Pullman that he is "the writer the atheists would be praying for, if atheists prayed." While "The Golden Compass" movie itself may seem mild and innocent, the books are a much different story. In the trilogy, a young streetwise girl becomes enmeshed in an epic struggle to ultimately defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God. Another character, an ex-nun, describes Christianity as "a very powerful and convincingmistake." In the final book, characters representing Adam and Eve eventually kill God, who at times is called YAHWEH. Each book in the trilogy gets progressively worse regarding Pullman 's hatred of Jesus Christ."The Golden Compass" is set to premier on December 7, during the Christmas season, and will probably be heavily advertised. Promoters hope that unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the movie, that they will enjoy the movie, and that the children will want the books for Christmas.

Please consider a boycott of the movie and the books. Also, pass this information along to everyone you know. This will help to educate parents, so that they will know the agenda of the movie.

The curious thing is that C.S. Lewis had more than a few ideas that would annoy some Christians. Take for example in The Last Battle where Aslan encounters a Calorman, somewhat equivalent to a Moslem. He says:

"Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons as my great desire for wisdom and understanding I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One, and said: Lord, is it then true as the Ape said that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said: It is false. Not because he and I are one, but becasue we are opposites, I take to me the services that thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds, that no service that is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swears by Tash and keeps his oath for the oaths' sake it is by me that he has truly sworn though he know it not and it is I who reward him, and if any man do a cruelty in my name then though he says the name 'Aslan' it is Tash whom he serves and it is by Tash that his deed is accepted."

Lewis' friend and fellow Christian JRR Tolkein felt that the allegories diminished the series. Personally, I think it works, not so much of the allegories to his religion as echoes to other stories and myths, as was true with Tolkein's writings, of course.

Well, actually, we do believe we're worshipping the same deity as Christians. We just think the Son and Holy Spirit bits are additional false deities.

Correct. Genesis 16 has Abram (Abraham), at the age of 86, sire Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arabs, so it is claimed. At the age of 99, he sired Isaac, the progenitor of the Jews, both creating separate nations. So, from a Jewish and Islamic perspective, both share the same God, which evolves into the triniterianism of those Christians who no longer share the monotheism of their spiritual ancestors. Thus, there is according to the Bible but one God.

And also that Christians' god was akin to a kindly and magnificent lion and their own god was akin to an evil man-eating vulture.Yes, that would be problematic in even the most liberal Muslim's theology, I daresay.

But not to Hindu theology where the vulture and its victim, good and evil, life and death, are all inseperable in the rhythm and essence of existence.

It still seems to leave out atheists, though. It seems Lewis approved of good, decent people who happened to worship the wrong god, but he disapproved of good, decent people who worshipped nothing.Wasn't there a slam against the arrogance of atheists in the last book? I half-remember something about dwarves stubbornly wandering in the dark forever."

I think Lewis was suggesting that ethics trumps religion-- that goodheartedness trumps worship. I'm sure there are all kinds of interpretations as to what Lewis meant, and I'm not sure that even Lewis knows what he "meant"-- or if there is necesserily a meaning. At one level, after all, he was simply writing a book for kids as informed by his deep knowledge of mythology and the classics. I do know that he had an infatuation with Platonism, and perhaps that is how to interpret the dwarf episode, rather than a slam against atheists. In the last book, the kids run into a bunch of dwarfs who believe they are in a dark smelly stable rather than in a meadow on a bright sunny day. This is also played in the last few pages where the kids find out that back in England their parents have died. "There was a real railroad accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are-- as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands-- dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning." The interesting thing is that in the last years of his life after the death of his wife Joy Gresham, Lewis developed a crisis of faith, deep-seated doubts that there really was any other world than the shadowlands, evolving from the sterile apologetics that "pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world" to "we can't have the happiness of yesterday without the pain of today. That's the deal."

The Worst Movie

AI (Aritificial Intelligence) was the worst movie I've ever seen. If I ever meet Steven Spielberg, I think he should pay me $10.99, the amount I paid in the hotel room to see this. I have heard the critics defend it, and yes i "get" it... but I don't like it.

Can you expand? I wouldn't say it was the best movie I've seen, but I think it is the best that Speilberg has produced.

For those not familiar with AI, here is a round up of what the critics thought.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ai_artificial_intelligence/