Reviews

The Apostle hit close to home for me. I spent me teenage years attending churches in the holiness tradition. Since about my senior year of high school, I have grown increasingly skeptical of the emotional and spiritual experiences displayed in these Pentecostal churches. Because of my skepticism, I am glad I watched this film. Maybe somewhere along the journey I dismissed the possibility that God manifests Himself to different people in different ways. In some ways it is easy to dismiss Sonny (Robert Duvall). He is a flawed man. He is divorced, full of lust, and a murderer. However, it is also clear that his faith is enormous and despite his struggles he sees God perform miracles in his mist. Residing within him together with all his shortcomings, Sonny is full of love for God and for other people, especially those who do not yet know Jesus. The amazing accomplishment of this movie is that it shows you Christ in the form of a sinful man. And you can really see it. Over the film's 2 hours and 14 minutes, the audience's love and concern for Sonny grows increasingly stronger. He is a real person; the real Christian everyone wishes they knew because even though they know he is a sinner they also know that he really has a relationship with the God he speaks of. I'm glad I watched this movie. I hope that I am more tolerable to other Christian traditions. I hope that I am more loving and real with people. I hope that in the mist of adversity, in the darkest valley, I know who is with me at all times…Jesus.

I decided to watch this movie because I am very intrigued by the stigmata. Hearing that St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Sienna both were afflicted with it further piqued my interest. However, I don't think this movie was about the stigmata. It instead seemed to be a criticism of organized religion and religious tradition. In a way I could see the film's point. Sure, God is not confined to building; He is present everywhere. St. Francis recognized God's presence in nature very much. Also Christianity is about love not rules or dogmatic opinions. That said, church buildings are necessary; they give people a place to come together. Christianity was never meant to be a me-and-Christ-against-the-world thing. Christianity is about loving God and loving people. The Church is the Body of Christ on this earth and as Christians we cannot survive cut off from the body. According to II Clement Christ is the head of the body from whence nourishment is received and no one can be nourished apart from the body. I was also very disappointed by the end of the movie. To elevate a Gnostic gospel to a position of higher authority than the true gospels is to be ignorant to Church history. It is also important to note that the Gospel of Thomas can be found in most public and academic libraries – hardly violently suppressed by the Church as the film depicted.

Besides just being a stinkin' cool movie, The Matrix is a story of the coming of the Messiah. The film has references to many religions and philosophies, both Western and Eastern. That said, I believe The Matrix is primarily a mixture of Judaism and Christian themes, used to make the average moviegoer ponder his/her existence and reality. First let me explain why I consider this movie a story of the Jews. All of Jewish history is of their oppression and the anticipation of their Messiah. In the film we are presented a race held as slaves by a stronger force. Those who realize they are in bondage talk of the prophecy of the coming of their Messiah. This Messiah will be a warrior who will overcome the oppressor. There are also references to the city of Zion, a place of refuge mentioned frequently in the Hebrew scriptures, and the ship is named Nebuchadnezzar, a king of Jerusalem found in the Old Testament book of Daniel. In a sense the movie follows also bears the influence of Christianity. Besides the obvious reference in the name Trinity (only Christians believe in a triune God), they are some subtler hints as well. When the camera shows the Nebuchadnezzar's name plaque you may notice the reference to Mark 3:11. This verse from the Christian scriptures reads, `Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, ‘You are the Son of God.' This is an interesting allusion to the Messiah and his power over evil forces which are hinted at during the film's final climax. Of course there is also Neo's death and resurrection which parallels that of Jesus'.

I also thought that this film was an interesting, though probably unintentional, knock against Gnosticism. Rather than transcending the physical to be only a mind, the goal in the film is to realize that to be truly living you must be more than just your thoughts. You must a whole person – the body is as important as the mind. It seems the Wachowski brothers gathered pieces from many sources to create this fantastic work of cinematic art. This is a film that will be examined and speculated about for years to come. I wait with baited breath for the sequel.

Batman contrasts two characters to show that the sinful state of the world effects everyone; it's how you are effected that makes the difference. We see in the film that both Batman (Michael Keaton) and the Joker (Jack Nicholson) have suffered life-changing events that effectively cause them to take on the attitudes they do. Director Tim Burton clearly shows the moments that changed each of the character's lives. After Bruce Wayne's parents die, Wayne focuses his anger towards preventing and helping victims of violent crime. As Batman, Wayne takes revenge on all those who commit evil to others while at the same time applying a healing balm to his own emotional wounds. We see in Batman the idea of justice for the oppressed, an idea often expressed in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jack Napier's transformation comes after being betrayed by his boss. The betrayal was so damaging because Napier believed he was respected and trusted by his boss. So after Napier becomes the Joker, we see that his anger becomes his very nature. He lives his life so that others will experience his pain. The movie is very much about coping with hurt. In a fallen world there is pain and injustice. Although understanding is often never found, it is important to know how to continue to live. The Hebrew scriptures give us a pattern for living, `Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.' (Micah 6:8)

Man in the Wilderness is a story about life's journey and about conversion. Zachary Bass (Richard Harris) is left for dead by his entourage after being mauled by a grizzly bear. The film focuses on Bass' journey towards healing and finding the men who stranded him. On the way though Bass experiences the full spectrum of life. This film seems to chronicle the constant struggle that life often is. The pain, both physical and emotional, seems to take center stage. Day after day, Bass experiences the pain but also realizes what a precious gift life really is. He is converted every day. His salvation is not a one-time experience but a living, growing thing. By the end of the movie, the audience has experienced Bass' pain and felt his anger and frustration. And when you expect Bass to strike out against his oppressors, you realize that the beauty found in every day living has converted him. In the dark trials of the wilderness God's grace could still be found working in the heart of a wounded man.

I understand What Dreams May Come as a journey - a journey to understanding the self. There were probably many Christians who had a problem with the idea of Heaven being created by separately by each individual. I don't think that the filmmaker's depiction of the afterlife was the point of this movie though. In the movie I see Chris Nielsen (Robin Williams) discovering his shortcomings and ultimately finding out who he is. After Nielsen dies he is introduced to two guides. The guides are basically like freshman orientators; they show him the ropes of the afterlife. We later discover that they are his two children, but their appearances are not as they were on earth. Nielsen's daughter has taken on the appearance of a flight attendant that her father once said was beautiful. His son looked like the doctor that Nielsen first interned under, because he was the only man that Nielsen ever listened to. Both of his children became what they thought their father would want them to be. This is significant because it helps Nielsen to realize the expectations he weighed his children down with. Nielsen realized he never became the father he longed to be. While in his personal heaven, Nielsen was never truly happy. His heaven was an existential situation where he could everything but what he wanted most. The film shows that although could create for himself a whole world containing everything he wanted but his wife, his wife was his soul mate and ultimately he was incomplete without her. To get her back he must journey into Hell and essentially redeem her. In Hell he redeems her but only by first giving up and joining her in her mind, where the movie claims reality resides. Nielsen makes a journey from heaven to hell and back, but more importantly he makes a journey towards completeness through selfless love. His heaven was not paradise until he learned to be present to those whom he claimed to love.

In a movie about the afterlife you would expect the issue of God to be dealt with, and in fact it was, though briefly. The heaven presented in What Dreams May Come was almost a place between the physical world (which is an illusion) and God. God is said to be up there loving people all the while wondering why the people haven't realized His love. The film presented the idea that heaven was the completeness found in the presence of the people you love the most. Those people are a part of you and without them you are not a whole person. An incomplete person would always desire something and never know true fulfillment, thus would forever suffer.