Every Church an Evangelizing Community!
Not everybody who enjoys The Lord of the Rings knows that J.R.R.Tolkien described it as “a deeply religious and Catholic work.” This booklet draws out the Christian underpinnings of the story. Timed to coincide with the release of the third movie in 2003, but intriguing wherever Tolkien’s work is loved.
For the full text of this booklet in PDF format, click here. |
 “The Simpsons” is arguably the most religious as well as the most popular show on television. Gerry Bowler looks at spiritual themes from the show, and illustrates what the Simpsons have to teach us about such things as faith, prayer, hypocrisy, belonging, church going, and figuring out the meaning of life.
For the full text of this booklet in PDF format, click here. This booklet is out of print and not available for sale. |
One Montreal church tried a different approach to a Lenten study series this year, one which lends itself to endless possibilities for outreach throughout the year.
“What’s So Amazing About Grace?” Our church applied itself during Lent to contemplation of this exuberant question that Philip Yancey posed as the title of one of his books. In addition to emphasizing grace in our sermons and in our Adult Education, we went to the movies . . . right at church!
Each Friday at 6 p.m., some fifteen parishioners and friends gathered in the church boardroom, where chairs were arranged theatre-style, to watch and discuss a feature-length video. Pizza was ordered and enjoyed during the film so that the evening would not run too late.
Grace in action
Yancey’s book poses this question: “If grace is God’s unmerited favour and love for the undeserving, then what does it look like in action?” We had discussed where we could watch and discuss grace in action in these present times. Besides the sermons and learning sessions, what other activity could we call on? The approach I chose sprang from a seed planted at a conference some three years ago, where a speaker showed several clips from feature films and, in each case, commented on the recognizable presence of our Lord in those scenes. “See what he looks like and what he is doing,” we were told, “and show this to others.”
Evangelism and the movies? It might seem an odd pairing considering some of the movies being made these days. We were reminded over the six weeks of Lent that God is wherever people are, in whatever circumstances they land. Many movies are hard to take. Much of life is hard to take. Each film showed us the human condition through story, the medium Jesus himself used to catalyze heart and mind, bringing people to plumb their own depths for understanding. We need informed compassion in order to serve.
Grace showed up in some unexpected people and places in the films we saw. We finally got quite good at seeing when it was there and when it was not there. In watching the protagonists ascending and descending through their situations, we gained an intimate look into the unknowns underlying each character’s visible attitudes and behaviours. Most of the films left some of us in tears–not always because of the tragedy portrayed but because we saw grace in the midst of it all. “How precious did that grace appear,” indeed.
A messy Christian
The films challenged our inner response to the people depicted. Take The Apostle, for example. What a messy Christian that Sonny is–no self-control, a holy “talker,” a lustful womanizer, and eventually a criminal on the run. But wait! Is there any falseness in his preaching? Does he not persevere despite himself, and grasp or create opportunities to give glory to God? He is a faithful servant in some ways, but not in others. Does that describe anyone we know?
By the end of the film, I could only ask God’s forgiveness for my judgment of that fictitious man, because it was the same judgment I sometimes bring to bear against those in real life whose biggest flaw is being human. The lesson I learned that evening was underlined a few days later when a Christian friend was anguishing over how readily people stand unengaged on the sidelines, criticizing and mocking others who stumble along the way, struggle to their feet and keep going in his service until they stumble again. That’s The Apostle.
Besides The Apostle, where else did we see grace in action?
The discussion was relaxed. Indeed, sometimes there was little to add to what had been “said” by the film. St. George’s mission statement is “To know Christ and to make him known.” Our movie-goers entered more fully into the first half of this statement to become better equipped to pursue the second half. We had seen, and so now can go out to be and do. Having had concrete portrayal of grace and its absence, we can also go back into Scripture and revisit some difficult concepts with fresh insight. By 9 p.m., we had given thanks for a fine time and were heading home, replenished.
A continuing ministry
When the series was over, there was unanimous agreement that we want to continue our Friday movies once a month (with the pizza, of course), alternating venues between St. George’s and an affiliated community centre a few blocks from here. And now that we have learned the ropes, so to speak, we can choose some more difficult movies, more themes and more variety, perhaps even a comedy or two! We will also be distributing fliers inviting people in the surrounding office towers to come share movies and fellowship with us.
There are several matters to work out, however. Should we announce that we will be looking at specific themes in the films or simply allow discussion to flow freely? How do we reach out through the films so as to encourage and attract? How do we balance an evening of fellowship with our desire and our mission To Know Christ and to Make Him Known? Fortunately, we know that, as in all things, he will be with us at the movies, too.
“Jesus Christ, Superstar, do you think you’re what they say you are?” Thus goes the chorus of the title song of Jesus Christ, Superstar. Who indeed is Jesus? For many, both inside and outside the church, Jesus is known by name, but his identity is still under dispute. Spoken or unspoken theological assumptions are made about Jesus’ identity. It is the unspoken ones that are more difficult to address in pastoral situations.
One of the best resources for opening up a discussion about the historical Jesus with both Christians and non-Christians has been provided by, of all things, the motion picture industry. For over one hundred years cinematic depictions of the life of Jesus have graced the silver screen and, for the last thirty years or so, have also appeared in the homes of millions through the ever pervasive icon of North American culture – the television. These films, most available now on video and DVD, present a range of Christological understandings that can generate a multiplicity of discussions.
The film industry has its roots in Jesus-films, with at least sixteen films in the silent era (1897-1919) based on Jesus’ passion. Although the 1920s saw the rise of some significant Jesus films that carried a social apologetic, in the thirties and forties Jesus appeared less often as a subject, primarily due to the fear of censorship for any seeming heterodoxy. The fifties began the era of the great epics, shot in cinemascope and technicolor. The wider screen and vivid colors allowed for much more creativity of style, although the portrayals of Jesus remain quite wooden. The exception is the black and white The Gospel According to St. Matthew, by the Italian communist Pablo Passolini (1966).
Jesus films from the seventies reflect the diversity of cultures in the western hemisphere, from the hippie-style musicals of the age of Aquarius to the more staid and pious “bathrobe clad” presentations directed by Zeffirelli and Sykes. The Monty Python troupe shocked audiences with Life of Brian as did Martin Scorsese a decade later with The Last Temptation of Christ. Denys Arcand’s Jesus of Montreal was somewhat less controversial, despite taking greater artistic license with the story, and to my mind remains one of the better Jesus films.
The turn of the millennium was a catalyst for a number of new renditions of the old, old story. Some reflect the piety (and bathrobes!) of the earlier biblical epics, although The Miracle Maker uses clay figure action and contemporary archaeological and biblical scholarship to present a captivating portrait of Jesus through realistic dialogue and an interesting storyline.
What is clear about all of these Jesus films is that they are all different and they all have merits and faults. In each case, they reflect the peculiarities of their directors, their principal actors, and their cultural contexts. Nevertheless, in many ways so do the four canonical gospels, which all tell the same story, but do so from different perspectives. It is this diversity that I find so inviting as a means to engage others in a discussion about Jesus’ identity.
One of the most effective means to initiate discussion of Jesus films (and even of the gospel texts themselves) is to have participants break into small groups and, form a list of the major events and speeches in Jesus’ life, pick the 6-10 that they would include in a (small budget) film about Jesus. This not only helps focus on the storyline itself but allows people to understand the kinds of choices that directors must make in composing their film. One can also discuss who would star as Jesus – does one cast a big-name star or an unknown?
A short introduction to the art of film making can be followed by a more detailed film analysis. There are a number of lenses through which to analyze Jesus films. The following represents a synthetic summary of some of the recent approaches discussed in detail by Tatum (1997), Telford (1997) and Stern, Jefford, and DeBona (1999).
(1) The first lens is that of narrative – what is the plot, characterization, point of view? This generally gets participants started in discussing details of the film.
(2) This segues nicely into the artistic lens in which aspects of film composition are examined (e.g., mise-en-scène, framing, lighting).
(3) The historical lens examines the portrayal of the life and times for accuracy in light of recent archaeological and biblical studies, and usually blends with the inter-textual lens, since the most obvious literary sources for many (not all) of the films are the gospels themselves. In the latter lens, interest can be focused on what sources were chosen and how they are used.
(4) The move to the modern world begins with the cultural analysis which observes how the film intersects with the context(s) in which it was first made and whether our own times and cultures reflect that same ethos.
(5) The ideological lens pushes deeper to examine the depiction of gender, race, sexuality, religion, and the like.
(6) However, the most interesting discussions arise with the final lens, theological, with a probing into such things as the film’s Christology or soteriology.
Clearly not all of the lenses will be used in a single discussion, although it is helpful to probe each of them a bit in preparing to lead a discussion (or after watching a Jesus film for oneself for that matter).
Not everyone will equally enjoy every film made about Jesus. In fact, some may be offended for any one of a number of reasons (e.g., the doubts Jesus expresses, the sexual tension between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the overt religious message of the film). One must choose a film well to fit with the intended discussion partners. This means, above all, a basic familiarity with some of the major films.
A good place to start is with the resources at the end of this volume, or you can consult the “Jesus: Real to Reel” resource web page at http://post.queensu.ca/~rsa/realreel.htm.
Major Jesus Films
| Title Director Year “Jesus”
Passion Play of Oberammergau Henry C. Vincent 1898 Frank Russell
From the Manger to the Cross Sidney Olcott 1912 R. Hederson-Bland
Intolerance D.W. Griffith 1916 Howard Gaye
The King of Kings Cecil B. DeMille 1927 H. B. Warner
King of Kings Nicholas Ray 1961 Jeffery Hunter
Greatest Story Ever Told George Stevens 1965 Max von Sydow
Gospel According to St. Matthew Pier Pasolini 1966 Enrique Irazoqui.
Godspell David Greene 1973 Victor Garber
Jesus Christ, Superstar Norman Jewison 1973 Ted Neely
Jesus of Nazareth Franco Zeffirelli 1977 Robert Powell.
Jesus Peter Sykes 1979 Brian Deacon
Monty Python’s Life of Brian Terry Jones 1979 Ken Colley
Last Temptation of Christ Martin Scorese 1988 Willem Defoe
Jesus of Montreal Denys Arcand 1989 Lothaire Bluteau
Matthew (The Visual Bible) R. van den Bergh 1996 Bruce Marchiano
Mary, Mother of Jesus Kevin Connor 1999 Christian Bale
Jesus Robert Young 1999 Jeremy Sisto
The Miracle Maker Hayes & Sokolov 2000 Ralph Fiennes
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Watching a movie may seem like a simple thing to do. But for those whose goal is to “bring every thought captive to Christ,” that watching will be different, and not simple at all. One experienced movie watcher suggests some guidelines.
I think I was fifteen. I remember moving a 12-inch black and white portable TV into my bedroom one night and setting my alarm for 3 a.m. to watch West Side Story on the late, late show. There in the eerie, blue glow I sat transfixed. A few years later, in a university auditorium I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho for the first time–finally, a bigger screen and more of the same wonder. On both occasions, it wasn’t simply the story but the telling that grabbed me: the script, the choreography, the camera movement, the editing, the angles–the film itself. I knew that, somehow, this kind of storytelling was different and I wanted to learn the language. Okay, I admit it. I didn’t grow up reading the Narnia Chronicles or even L.M. Montgomery, or any of that other formative fiction over which everyone waxes so fondly. Nope. I was weaned on the channel 29 Saturday afternoon Creature Feature. Deep in my bones, I’m a viewer–movies, videos and, yes, even television–and I don’t think I’m alone.
Learning a new language
To a large extent, North American culture communicates visually but in many cases, as viewers, we’re only partially literate. We don’t often know how to talk about film on its own terms. In youth or campus work, movies are often used as filler-entertainment or as vehicles for discussing issues, and while these uses are completely valid (hey, in a 30-hour famine, sometimes you need a little Indiana Jones in your back pocket!), I think we lose part of the tale by ignoring the telling. Films can entertain us, numb us, excite, inspire, shock and even haunt us. So can literature. So can music or theatre or painting or dance. But Picasso tells a story differently than Duke Ellington does. Similarly, film communicates in a way that differs from all of these other, older art forms while also drawing upon elements of each. Whether we are Sunday matinee junkies, diehard channel-surfers or video novices who can hardly figure out how to turn on the VCR let alone program it, we need to view films (and other visual media) actively, rather than passively. By honing a few critical skills, we can learn to watch with our eyes open.
Watching a movie is a multi-sensory experience, and as such, film engages our imaginations and emotions on a number of levels. The story is told, seen, heard, felt–even tasted or smelled, depending on the popcorn. For this reason, films can affect us deeply–both positively and negatively–and it is important to understand what we as viewers bring to the experience. For example, film requires us to process a great deal of information at once (sensory, cognitive and symbolic, for example) and different viewers have different “thresholds” or levels and intensities of information that they can process without feeling overloaded. Think of the first movie you ever saw in a theatre. Depending on when or where you were born, that film might have been, say, Mary Poppins or Star Wars. Both films require the viewer (in this case, our generic 8-year-old) to process information, but the character and intensity of that information in these films are vastly different (compare Mary Poppins’ umbrella to the Millennium Falcon). A child who begins his or her movie-watching career with Star Wars simply begins the journey with a higher (but not better or worse) threshold.
As viewers (and as Christians), it is helpful to understand, respect, and in some cases, question our own thresholds. When it comes to certain kinds of information (images of violence, for example) some of us may have seen too much; our thresholds may be too high. In other cases, we may need to take a calculated risk and watch something which will challenge our assumptions. Self-awareness and dialogue are crucial to active viewing. Rather than blindly watching anything and everything (or in the reverse, turn our backs on the whole medium), a critical awareness of our own assumptions, expectations, tastes and thresholds can help us begin to view films more intentionally.
It is also helpful to remember that films are constructed by people: writers, set-designers, cinematographers, editors, actors, key grips, directors, producers, distributors and so on. All these people make decisions about how the story will be told. As an active audience, we should feel free to agree or disagree with these decisions. In determining the value or success of a film, we need to take both the “story”–the ideas, assumptions, ideologies and so on.– and the “telling” into account.
The art and the message
When it was released in 1994, The Crow quickly became a cult favourite among high-school and university-aged audiences. Visually, the film is quite fascinating but in the end, the entire story is fuelled by an unquestioned vengeance; the hero spends the whole film tracking down his killers and doing them in. So is it a good film? In many ways, yes. Technically, the “art” or production values, such as sets, lighting, costuming and makeup, are really compelling (okay, at points the script is a little dumb…) but the “message” of the film–that good guys still have the right to slaughter bad guys–is pretty ugly.
Conversely, there are some very well-intentioned films out there (many of which might be available at your local Christian bookstore) that may have really good messages, but are embarrassingly bad art. Just because Bob sincerely loves God doesn’t mean he knows how to run a camera or write a script. Considering a film in terms of both “art” and “message” can be a helpful start in gaining a critical perspective. (Bear in mind, however, that these “good/bad” “art/message” distinctions are overly blunt. It doesn’t really work to separate “art” or production values from “message” quite so neatly, since the two aspects really are interdependent. Lousy communication will muck up any message, no matter how good it is, and even the greatest “art” isn’t so great if all it communicates is a merely trite or even poisonous message. Still, these distinctions do provide a starting point for dialogue, and that’s what we’re after.)
When looking at the “message” of the film, think about the issues/questions that the film raises about life/reality/human relationships and so on, and then evaluate how it chooses to deal with or respond to those issues/questions. By doing so, you may find astonishing nuggets of truth, truth that resonates with truth revealed in scripture and in Christ, nestled in some highly unlikely, even unpalatable places, while also recognizing some very cunning and attractive deceptions.
The point of this whole exercise is not to become film critics. Rather, it is to become more active and informed participants in our culture. Film both reflects and shapes our world; it is a currency by which meanings, values and mythologies are traded. If we are to live and speak meaningfully in these times, then we had best learn the language.
No theme has come in for such frequent treatment in the movies as the life of Jesus. More than twenty titles over a hundred years interpret his words and deeds. One diocese recently held a workshop on this topic, providing fresh ideas for both teaching and outreach.
The School of Lay Ministry in the Diocese of Ontario recently sponsored a workshop on Jesus and the movies, led by New Testament scholar, Richard Ascough. The day offered participants the chance to examine excerpts from film versions of Jesus’ story in light of contemporary biblical scholarship. Richard was an excellent facilitator whose love for both the scriptures and film shone through.
What they said about “Real to Reel”
Early in the day, Richard challenged his audience to consider which events in the life of Jesus they would include if they were doing a movie about Jesus’ life, and why. One participant commented that this exercise “encouraged me to think about whether my choices revealed more about Jesus or about me.”
Participants said that they valued learning “how to view films with a more critical eye” and looking for the “underlying meaning in what the film is trying to portray.” Those with a biblical background found the films gave them a fresh perspective. “Interesting!” wrote one: “I felt my eyes being opened to another kind of looking at the story of Jesus.” Another valued the workshop for “sensitizing me to the way I will read the Gospels and look at the movies.” In addition, participants affirmed “the ability of film to present the Gospel in spite of the shortcomings of the medium” and recognized “the value of film in presenting Jesus’ teaching, especially to those who were never exposed to traditional Bible teaching.”
Response to both the topic and Richard’s teaching style was so positive that we plan to offer the program again in the fall. By then, judging from participants’ responses, video stores in our region should be showing a noticeable increase in the number of Jesus films on loan!
Internet resources
Those interested in using film in teaching and evangelism will be interested in the website http//www.textweek.com/, which Richard highlighted Not only does it have links to sermons and commentaries on the lectionary readings, it also has two databases which allow you to search for movie titles and descriptions by theme, and for artworks by topic. This feature is great for people who would like to choose movies on spiritually significant themes either for personal viewing or for a parish event. It is also a gold mine for preachers who would like to find a film clip or perhaps an artistic image to illustrate a preaching point.
Happy viewing!
How can the average priest or pastor use movies in ministry? This article offers some practical pointers.
Previous generations might have used a flannelgraph to illustrate a sermon for children. Any generation in any culture can teach by telling a story, as long as it is appropriate for the culture. But for our postmodern, postliterate age, movies are one of the most helpful resources for teaching and preaching.
There are three ways in particular that I use movies in my own teaching and evangelism:
1. Analogy
Jesus said, “The Kingdom of heaven is like . . .” and told a story. So for us, we may say, Sin is like this, or, The coming of Jesus into the world is like that.
In an internet poll, The Shawshank Redemption was voted the best movie of all time. Although there is a lot of violence in the movie, there are some wonderful scenes too. In one of these, Tim Robbins, playing an unjustly imprisoned banker, has been trying for years to persuade his congressman to donate some used books to the prison. Finally, the congressman responds, and, among the books, Robbins finds some records, including a set of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. He is in the warden’s office at the time, so on impulse he locks the door, puts the record on the turntable (remember those?), and then switches on the prison PA system so that every prisoner can hear the music. As the prisoners stop whatever they are doing and listen spellbound, Morgan Freeman, the movie’s narrator, says, “For one brief moment, every man in Shawshank felt free.”
The coming of Christ into our world was a bit like that. He too had done no wrong, but he came and shared our conditions. He too brought a song of freedom that drew everyone to him. And he too was shut down by the authorities who understood the implications of the song. It’s not a perfect analogy, of course. There are none. But it does illustrate a couple of important points about who Jesus is. And that’s a good beginning.
2. Stating a problem
Robin Williams’ movie, Patch Adams, begins with the se haunting words:
“All of life is a coming home. Salesmen, secretaries, coal-miners, sword-swallowers, all of us. All the restless hearts of the world, all trying to find a way home.”
This theme of home and homelessness is never picked up again in the course of the film, so we are left to speculate whether by the end of the movie Patch Adams has in fact found a place he can call “home.” Maybe we are meant to conclude that it is the hospital he founds where his principles of medicine can be practised. We don’t know for sure.
Yet this theme of home, homelessness, and longing for home, is one that speaks to our culture very deeply. Does the Gospel have anything to say to it? Of course, supremely in the story of the prodigal son. Thus while the movie may not answer its own question, it is very helpful in raising the issue in such a clear and compelling way.
3. An allegory
Some films, because they adopt a story line that sets up a problem then resolves it, bear some resemblance to the shape of the Christian story, with its motifs of creation, fall and redemption.
The Jim Carrey movie, The Truman Show, did this very effectively. Truman is the star of a 24-hour a day soap opera based on his life, except that he doesn’t know it. But in the opening scenes of the movie, he increasingly gets the sense that something is not quite right with his world (the same sense that Neo has in The Matrix). Into his artificial world comes a young woman, Lauren, who tries to convince him that his life is only make-believe, and that there is another, bigger, more real world “outside” the one he knows. The powers-that-be, of course, do not want Truman to know this, and Lauren is forcibly whisked from the scene. Truman’s curiosity, however, has been aroused, and he sets off to discover Lauren and the possibility of a bigger world than the one he has know.
The shape of The Truman Show is thus (a) something is wrong with the world (b) an Outsider comes to tell us the truth about the world and what is wrong with it, but is removed by those in power and (c) the main character sets out on a pilgrimage to find truth and the Outsider who told him about it.
A most helpful resource for using film in this kind of way in teaching and preaching is Videos That Teach: Teachable Movie Moments from 75 Modern Film Classics. It is by Doug Field and Eddie James (Zondervan 1999). The book is primarily intended for use in youth groups, but its applications are far wider. Each two-page section offers (a) a theme, such as anger, making a difference, consequences, justice or prayer (b) a summary of the relevant movie (c) precise instructions for locating the pertinent section (d) several relevant Bible passages and (e) half a dozen helpful questions to get discussion going. I have to confess, the book is a kind of Coles Notes to spiritual themes in the movies. But my guess is we’ve all known times when Coles Notes are the best place to start.
Esquire magazine called The Truman Show the movie of the decade, and, in spite of the lack of Oscars it received, I can understand the claim. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the story of one man, Truman Burbank, who has been the central character in a 24-hour a day TV show since the day he was born, although he doesn’t know it. The story is really the story of how he discovers the truth about his life and what he decides to do about it. People love the movie for different reasons: it’s a great satire on materialism, it’s a powerful story of breaking free from oppressive patriarchy; some love the way it plays with reality, and, if all else fails, it’s a delightful romantic comedy.
I enjoyed it for all those reasons, but as a follower of Jesus, I read it another way too. What I want to offer you is my “reader response”, if you like. You don’t have to like it or agree with my reading. However, I offer it to you because it may be a new way of thinking about Christian faith. Most people who don’t consider themselves Christians are not unbelievers because they’ve examined the historical and philosophical evidence and found Christianity intellectually lacking. More people are unpersuaded by Christian faith because they don’t have any good metaphors, any helpful pictures, of what it means, what it claims, what it offers. Part of my job as a teacher of Christian faith is not just to convince people that it’s true but to find metaphors that make them say, “Oh, that’s what it’s about. I never thought of it that way.”
So that’s why I want to offer you three powerful metaphors for Christian faith taken from The Truman Show.
The first has to do with the fact that:
1. Something is wrong with the world
Everybody agrees the world is not the way it should be. Whether we think of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, starvation in North Korea, or the destruction of the rain forests in Brazil, our world is full of problems. The Truman Show shows another aspect of what’s wrong with the world, but not one that hits the headlines as often as the others: we have lost our sense of what is real.
The creator and producer of Truman’s world, Christof (Ed Harris), right at the beginning of the movie, invites us to compare our world and Truman’s world:
We’ve become bored watching actors give us phony emotions…While the world he inhabits is in some respects counterfeit, there’s nothing fake about Truman himself. It isn’t always Shakespeare, but it’s genuine. It’s a life.
Towards the end of the movie, Truman will ask Christof about his life in that world: “Was nothing real?” and Christof will reply: “You were.”
The irony is that Christof thinks Truman’s world is less artificial than our own. Yet in Truman’s world, everything is phony, from the sun in the sky to the traffic reports on the radio to his relationship with his best friend. All the characters except Truman are professional actors “giving us phony emotions”. More than that, they are actors acting in an extended commercial. Everyone apart from Truman is programmed, down to their exact steps and words and reactions, and to the careful product placement.
There’s a wonderful moment when the production team, who have just engineered a tearful reunion between Truman and his father, are moved by the artificial scene they just created! Truman is simply a living work of art: manipulated, used, commercialized, spied on by 5,000 cameras even when he’s asleep.
The sense of unreality is heightened by the fact that you can buy anything you see in the show, from the actors’ clothes to their whole homes, out of the Truman catalogue. The unreality gets even more convoluted. When Truman begins to question what is going on, his friend Marlon makes an emotional speech which ends with the words: “The last thing I’d ever do is lie to you.” But even that is scripted! The sentence “The last thing I’d ever do is lie to you” is itself a lie.
So when Christof says Truman is “real” all he means is that Truman isn’t scripted…but all of his real, unscripted responses are all to phony situations. His reality is very relative, very limited. He’s a real person, but in a totally plastic world.
Christof says to Lauren: “The world, the place you live in, is a sick place. Seahaven is the way the world should be.” But in fact the world is already more like Seahaven than we might like to believe. Seahaven represents the tendencies of our world taken to an extreme. As so often, when we laugh, it’s because we recognize the truth: we’re laughing at ourselves.
How is Seahaven like our world? Because for us too it’s difficult to distinguish between the real and the phony. Are we real? All of the time? Are our friends genuine? All the time? Can I trust myself to people? Are they just using me? Secretly mocking me? Jim Carrey himself raises this question: “I don’t think there’s any one of us who hasn’t at one point in our lives thought we were the only real person and everyone else was an actor in some kind of experiment of the gods.”
Or take another example. Truman thinks he is free, thinking for himself, making his own decisions. But, at least up until the start of the movie, he is wrong. Everything-his fear of water, his friendships, his choice of a job, his marriage-have all been calculated and manipulated by someone else. We too like to think we are free and can make our own decisions. But where did that come from? Who told us that? Generally speaking, media, professors, friends, books: they imposed on us our so-called freedom (without explaining why they thought that was true), they told us we could think for ourselves (with an authority that, strangely, we didn’t stop to question). It reminds me of The Life of Brian, where Brian is trying to get rid of his admiring followers, and he says, “You’ve all got to think for yourselves” and they chant back, “We’ve all got to think for ourselves.”
Like The Truman Show, Christian faith says something is wrong with our world which is more than any particular symptom. The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. There is a systemic problem, and Jesus’ explanation was that at the heart of it was something to do with our attitude to God. Nietzsche, rather surprisingly, illustrated Jesus’ conviction very powerfully in the parable of the madman, when he said that, in our attitude to God, we are like planets that have cut themselves off from their orbit around the sun and are drifting off into space. The planets are free in a sense, but they are also drifting aimlessly away from the only source of light and warmth, of stability and life, that they could ever have.
In Jesus’ vocabulary, the technical term for this condition is sin. Many people misunderstand the word, and think it means doing things wrong, specially sex, unless you’re married, and even then you shouldn’t enjoy it too much. But no, in Jesus’ understanding sin is the attitude of wanting to be independent of God. That’s what ultimately causes our sense of unreality. After all, God created reality, and God is the source of all reality, so it is only in relation to God that we can experience true reality. G.K.Chesterton once said that sin is the only Christian doctrine that can be empirically proved. By which he means that we all feel it and experience it and know the effects of it: whether it’s in our sense of unreality, our fear of being manipulated, or our distrust of relationships.
But this is not all. There is a second theme running through the movie which resonates for me as a follower of Jesus. It’s those things that sociologist Peter Berger calls:
2. Rumours of angels
Little by little Truman’s perception changes. Little by little he gets hints that the world he is grown up with is not the whole story. Cracks appear in the facade of his reality. He becomes dissatisfied with his life in Seahaven. Things happen, with things and with people, that don’t fit. He gets hints of a bigger reality than he has experienced so far.
I counted thirteen of these signs (but there may be more), these signals of a world outside Seahaven. We saw one of these already: the lamp falling from the sky. Later, a sudden rain shower rains on him and nowhere else. He notices that his wife’s fingers are crossed in their wedding photo. Cops he’s never met before, miles from home, know his name. And then, supremely, there’s Lauren. She is from the world outside. She cares about Truman, she feels sorry for him, she wants to rescue him. And, more clearly than anyone or anything else, she tries to tell Truman the truth about his life, until she is forcibly dragged away.
Truman figures things out in his basement. His secrets are kept in the basement: family photos, toys, map of world, compass, Lauren’s jacket. In pop psychology, down often represents the subconscious. It may be significant that the basement is the only messy place we ever see in Seahaven. It’s in the basement that he tries to reconstruct a photograph of Lauren with pieces torn from fashion magazines. In a sense this photograph is symbolic of what’s happening in his relationship with Seahaven. Little by little the pieces of his old world are falling apart; little by little, he’s putting together the pieces of a new world. Truman is facing a classic paradigm shift: he’s about to exchange one picture of reality which no longer works, for a bigger one which makes better sense of the data.
In the same way, Christians believe God is trying to communicate to us that there is a bigger reality than this world-a reality that doesn’t deny the physical (C.S.Lewis said Christianity is the most materialistic of the world’s religions) but puts it in a spiritual context. There is a different way of reading things that makes better sense of the data. And maybe in a sense we all have basements, a place where we collect the clues and try to piece them together.
People who become followers of Jesus often look back and realize how things led up to that point. Often, like Truman, they have a sense of reality shifting piece by piece, till the old way of looking at the world doesn’t convince any more and the pieces of the new reality fall into place.
A recent graduate, Nicky, wrote me recently and described how this happened for her. At the age of 18, considering herself an atheist, she went to church and heard a sermon about the resurrection of Jesus that made her wonder whether it might actually be true. She went to university and found she was sharing a room with a Christian {“and a cool, Christian at that! She was really friendly and bubbly and outgoing. I thought she was far too trendy to do a square thing like-go to church!”). Nicky got to know other Christians and asked them questions all the time. “They were all so kind and loving and friendly-quite the opposite of what I expected.” Then “Sarah suggested I start praying and reading a little bit of the Bible each day. Again I thought NO WAY, but soon I began reading it now and again-in secret-only when Sarah wasn’t in the room [in her basement]. And-you know the amazing thing? First, my prayers started being answered, and secondly, I realized that the Bible is quite an amazing book.” Well, I don’t have to tell you how that story ends, do I?
That kind of thing happens all the time. Things don’t fit: we meet a Christian with integrity and a sense of humour. We read a religious book that actually makes sense. Startling coincidences happen. We begin to wonder what’s going on. Have I been wrong? Somewhere in this changing perception of life, people get a fresh view of Jesus. Not surprising, really, because Jesus is like Lauren! Telling us more clearly than anything else about the bigger reality which is God, and on the first Good Friday ripped away from us by those who wanted to preserve the lie.
God is trying to get through to us. In a world of appearance and unreality, or deception, manipulation and distrust, God is saying, There is more. “I am a rock, I am a sure foundation. Base your life on me, I am reality. Come, walk with me.” I am bringing a new community into being where people are learning to be real, nurturing values that are not based in material things and advertising. I want you to be a part of it. But we have to respond.
Christof admits: “If [Truman] was absolutely determined to discover the truth, there’s no way we could prevent him…He could leave at any time.” But it’s not easy to pursue that new reality. So the third metaphor I have called:
3. Breaking out of the bubble
There are two responses to Truman’s growing awareness of what’s really going on. There is his own determination to get out, and the determination of those around him not to let him. His wife Meryl, for instance, says: “Let me get you some help. You’re not well…You’re having a nervous breakdown.” Of course. Society doesn’t like deviants of any kind because they challenge the status quo. One response is to interpret the deviance as sickness, and treat it.
On Truman’s side, he tries to get out. He tries to leave by plane-but, strangely enough, there’s no plane for a month. He tries by car, and is stopped by a fake accident at a nuclear power plant. He gets on a bus to Chicago-and the driver deliberately strips the gears so the bus can’t leave. The one thing no-one expected was that he might try to leave by water because everyone knew he was afraid of water. So he sets sail in a sailboat called-what else?–the Santa Maria: like Columbus, he’s going to discover a New World. And now the forces against him get pretty violent.
Still he perseveres, until he comes to the end of the world–literally. There, finally, Christof speaks to him. Christof asks, “Truman, where are you going?” And, of course, Truman doesn’t know: he knows he has to go, but he doesn’t know where it is or what it’s going to be like. Christof says: “You belong here with me.” He wants Truman to stay in the world that is safe and familiar and comfortable, the world also where freedom is an illusion and nobody is real.
It must be tempting for Truman. It’s not going to be easy for him to fit into the bigger world. He’s like an animal that’s been in captivity all of its life and is suddenly released into the wild. There are so many things he doesn’t know about, starting at the very basic level of how to relate to ordinary people who are not professional actors! And then he’s going to bring old, unhealthy patterns of behaviour with him from Seahaven into the new world, and little by little they’ll have to change. It’s going to be painful-all we know for certain, all he knows for certain, is that he will have the friendship and support of Lauren.
There is a similar conflict when a person thinks seriously about becoming a follower of Jesus. If you are thinking about it, let me warn you, there will be opposition. Parents will sometimes try to get their child to a psychiatrist. William Willimon is the chaplain at Duke University, He observes that the only problem parents phone him about is when they “get involved in religion.” The child may be drunk every night, or may be totally promiscuous, but the parents don’t try to get help on campus. But religion sets off all the alarms, presumably because drunkenness and promiscuity don’t really challenge society’s status quo, whereas religion does, and at the most fundamental level.
Not surprisingly, Jesus warned about this conflict of realities. He said it would be hard. He said you have to be prepared for difficulties. He said it can feel like death. After all, it means, like Truman, turning your back on security, entering a realm where for a time everything will seem new and strange-and it takes some getting used to.
Is it worth it? Was it worth the risk for Truman? Yes. I would say, and millions would say, Yes, it is worth it. It means learning to be a real person because of the reality that comes from knowing the friendship of the Creator. It means learning to live as God’s person in God’s world in God’s way. And that’s the most amazing adventure a human being could ever have.
Conclusion
Two comments in conclusion, both from characters with initials JC.
Jim Carrie said of this movie:
The thing I find important about the film is the point, of you’re not happy with your life, it’s time to go into the unknown. That’s where you really get rewarded, when you separate yourself from others’ wishes and follow your own heart.
Jesus Christ said to those who were just beginning to trust him and follow him:
If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth and the truth will set you free.(John 8:32)
On the level of Seahaven, that’s what Truman came to experience: following the clues led him to the truth about his world, which set him free. On a much bigger level, of which Truman is only a pale metaphor, that’s what we can discover too.
The button Lauren is wearing in that scene in the library asks, “How’s it Going to End?” At that point, it’s the crucial question for Truman. But it’s also the question for us: How’s it going to end? To stay trapped with only the reality that society allows us to experience? Or to break out into a bigger reality in friendship of God the creator?
(The Church at the John, McMaster University 2001)
