Shaolin

 “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.” – Acts 3:19-20

A great man, victorious and accomplished yet consumed with power and self, loses everything and comes to see the folly of his ways.  He turns to a group of compassionate religious people, repenting of his sins and following after the path of righteousness, working out his newfound faith by seeking to show this better way to those closest to him.

Sounds like a testimony you might have heard at grandpa’s baptist church back in the day, right?  It may be, but it’s also the plot to the Chinese-produced martial arts drama Shaolin.  The religious folks in question are Buddhist monks and the path of the hero is the way of Zen rather than the way of the cross, but the structure of the conversion story is basically identical.  Don’t let the kung-fu flips and big explosions fool you – this is a religious story, not an action-adventure romp.

Given that, and given my stated belief on this site that every story ever written is about Jesus, it would seem this would be the simplest of write-ups to do.  Yet, that would be too easy.  The way that the tale of Hou Jie mirrors what the gospel calls us all to is pretty plain to see, and odds are that you don’t need me to explain it to you.  What really fascinates me about the tale is that it’s Buddhism, not Christianity, that is at the center of this conversion story.  Now, if you’ve bought the cultural line that all religions teach basically the same thing, then that might not seem like such a big deal.  However, Buddhism and Christianity are very different belief systems, and that had me thinking at several points in the movie about how the reality of Buddhist teaching actually undercut the emotional power of the movie.  So, what I want to do is take a look at a few key points in the story of Shaolin and look at how the Buddhist philosophy behind them actually rings hollow when compared to the implications of the Christian message.

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, April 30th 2012 | Posted in Drama

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

“Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.” – Jeremiah 9:6

Human beings are basically good.

That’s what we’d like to think, isn’t it?  Sure, we all know that people do some messed-up things and the world’s not as it should be, but at the end of the day, we’d like to believe that human goodness will override our more nasty instincts.  That’s a nice sentiment, and it plays well on the Hallmark Channel, but there’s one small problem with it.

It’s simply not true.  And deep down, we know it.

I think we betray that knowledge quite often when we dip into the realm of science fiction.  Sci-Fi is about more than just lasers, robots, and spaceships – it’s a tool to allow us to explore some of the most fundamental ideas of human existence in a world that is less bounded than our own.  Science fiction removes our limitations and asks what we would do if we overcame the questions of what we could do.  One common expression of that truth is a story that has us encounter another intelligent civilization.  Often, that means us staving off extinction at the hands of an advanced alien race, but what about the tales where we’re the stronger civilization?  Look at those situations, and you’ll get a good look at what we think of our own attitudes toward each other.

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, February 3rd 2012 | Posted in Sci-Fi

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” – 2 Corinthians 8:9

Ten years ago, after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, a great many individuals volunteered to join the armed forces.  Prompted by the horror of the attacks and the need to seek justice, these men and women became soldiers, and left their jobs and homes to go and serve their fellow countrymen in Afghanistan.  However, one such individual received far more attention than all the rest for taking the same action.  That individual was a man by the name of Pat Tillman.  What made Tillman’s case so noteworthy?  At the time, he was a successful football player in the NFL, a safety for the Arizona Cardinals.  Many made sacrifices, to be sure, but Tillman’s was particularly striking.  Here was a man with a career that brought him fame, public adoration, and great wealth, and yet he laid it all aside to serve his country in a harsh, dangerous desert on the other side of the world, a decision that eventually ended in his tragic death.  Through Tillman, we see that our appreciation and wonder at the sacrifice of another is directly tied to the magnitude of that which is sacrificed. 

We don’t realize it for the first 120 minutes of the film’s 133 minute runtime, but that reality lies at the heart of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.  The overall plot of the film is pretty standard spy-thriller fare – agent Ethan Hunt and his team frantically work to stop a madman from plunging the world into nuclear war.  The film’s twist – and its soul – lies in the explanation of how Hunt got to the point where we find him at the film’s outset.  When we last left Hunt at the end of Mission: Impossible III, he had just married his wife Julia and the happy couple was setting off on a much needed honeymoon, with Ethan unsure of whether he would ever return to his work with the IMF.  Yet, as Ghost Protocol opens, Ethan is locked up in a Russian prison and Julia is nowhere to be found.

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, January 10th 2012 | Posted in Action

Crazy, Stupid, Love

“This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” - Ephesians 5:32

There is nothing more foundational to the human experience than the quest for romantic love.  Across the globe and throughout the corridors of time, people have relentlessly chased the prospect of finding that one person who is a perfect match for their soul, often doing inspiring, reckless, or just plain stupid things in the process.  Nations have been toppled by it.  Wars have been fought over it.  Nearly every song on the radio is about it, it has encompassed entire genres of literature and film – heck, even the Bible has a whole book devoted to it.  Those of us who have found it, treasure it.  Those who have not desperately yearn for it.

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a movie that takes a comedic look at what happens when that dream, that desire, becomes hopelessly broken.  We’re given a look into the love lives of several intertwining characters, all of which are a wreck.  There’s Cal, a complacent yet loving husband whose wife Emily tells him over dinner that she has been having an affair with one of her coworkers and wants a divorce.  Cal is crushed, moves out on his own, and attempts to find himself.  One night at a bar, he meets Jacob, a smooth-talking ladies man who pities Cal (because, we learn later, of a similar brokenness in his own family) and decides to make him his womanizing pupil.  Cal reinvents himself and chases every lady in sight, but feels nothing for them and desperately misses his wife.  While he’s hitting the bars every night, he’s blind to the fact that 17-year-old Jessica, his kids’ babysitter, has a major teenage crush on him.  She’s too afraid to act on it, however, and also pretty busy herself fending off the (very awkward) advances of Cal’s 13-year-old son, Robbie, who fancies her his soulmate.  Meanwhile, Jacob disappears from Cal’s life when he meets a woman who, for the first time, has him engaged on a level that’s more than just sexual.  He decides to leave his old life behind and settle down with her, only to discover she’s Cal’s daughter Hannah (coming out of a dull, static relationship of her own), which infuriates Cal thanks to his up-close experience with how Jacob thinks of women.  And to top it all off?  Emily begins to lose satisfaction with her new lover and secretly pines for Cal to come back.  These stories all end up crashing together in a bizarre climax that only further highlights just how messed up the whole thing is.

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, December 16th 2011 | Posted in Comedy

Thor

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” – Hebrews 4:15

Watch a trailer or two for Thor, and it’s very clear that it’s the god-like powers of the main character that are the primary selling point to audiences.  The mighty swings of his massive hammer and vortex-cloaked flights into battle promise yet another comic book tale of a superhuman savior come to deliver humanity from evil.  Yet, with all due respect for the marketing department, Thor isn’t so much a movie about a god as much as it is about a god learning to become a man.

When we first meet Thor, one of the otherworldly beings from the realm of Asgard worshiped as deities by primitive man, we find him a powerful hero, but not someone we particularly like.  A brash and arrogant prince, Thor puts the peace of his father’s kingdom in jeopardy because of his impulsive need to prove himself both right and valorous.  After his vengeful attack on the frost giants – enemies of Asgard – upsets their uneasy truce, his father Odin casts Thor to earth in exile, stripping him of his great power and banishing him from the realm.

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, October 27th 2011 | Posted in Action

Braveheart

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” – Galatians 5:1

The story to end all stories is the story of Jesus, a savior who came to a world in need, lived, died and rose again in order to save many people.  If that’s true, and the story of Jesus is the central story of human history, then it would make sense that that story would resonate so deeply in the human heart that we would echo it in our own stories more prominently than any other.  It would be so deeply woven into the fabric of humanity that we could not help but connect with it, many times without even realizing it.  Sure enough, one doesn’t have to look far in the landscape of Hollywood tales – and indeed in its biggest successes –  to find larger-than-life figures who struggle, fight and sacrifice themselves for the good of the suffering people around them.  Rarely, however, is that archetype on display more clearly than in Mel Gibson’s 1995 epic Braveheart.

The film is the fictionalized retelling of the story of Scottish folk hero William Wallace, who in the 13th Century stood against English tyranny in an attempt to win Scotland its independence and freedom.  After his bride is brutalized and murdered by an English lord and his garrison of soldiers, Wallace strikes back at her killers, rallying to himself a people who have been abused by their English rulers for far too long and igniting an insurrection.  The parallels between Wallace and Christ are pervasive.  A commoner who rises from obscurity to great fame, Wallace is deeply moved by the suffering of his people, a suffering that he shares in himself.  He is a passionate man with a magnetic persona, drawing people to him from across the spectrum of society, from the poor and downtrodden to those with power and influence.  Even the film’s portrayal of Robert the Bruce mirrors what I imagine the struggle of Nicodemus must have been like in the Gospel of John, as he is mesmerized by Wallace’s passion and persona yet afraid of the way his principles threaten the status quo he has always known.

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, October 18th 2011 | Posted in Drama

Children of Men

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder.” – Isaiah 9:6

The world is a dark place.  Hope has largely left the human race, with death an inevitability that cannot be overcome.  Man fights against man.  Hatred and violence reign.  And yet hope dawns anew from the most unlikely of places – a child will be born to a poor, unwed mother from the outskirts of society, and this child will carry the hopes and future of all humanity before it takes its first breath.

Sound familiar?

One cannot help but conjure images of the story of Jesus’ birth when watching Alfonso Cuarón’s film Children of Men.  In the year 2027, global female infertility has inexplicably stricken the human race, starting a ticking clock to our inevitable extinction.  The youngest person on the planet is now 18, and his senseless death in an assault delivers yet another blow to an already staggered humanity.  Governments around the world have collapsed to war and chaos, pollution cakes the land with an oppressive sense of dread (not much use saving the planet anymore), and Britain, perhaps the final functioning government on earth, becomes a police state, desperately trying to preserve order and keep the hordes of refugees at her shores from overrunning the fragile society.  Amidst this bleak landscape, a group called the Fishes – terrorists to some, freedom fighters to others – finds a young refugee woman who is somehow carrying a child into her eighth month.  Suspicious of the government, they seek to get her out of the country and to an international group of scientists called The Human Project with the hope that her child can provide the answers to solve the world’s infertility and save humanity.

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, October 5th 2011 | Posted in Drama