PASADENA, CA (December 16, 2003) – The Christmas season announces the arrival not only of a Savior, but also a host of blockbuster movies that send millions to theaters all over North America.
Robert K. Johnston, an ordained Evangelical Covenant Church minister, has been among those in the religious community most aware of the significance of the latter phenomenon. Johnston, who served for 11 years as dean of North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, has been a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena since 1993. He served as provost at the school from 1993 to 1995 and is currently professor of theology and culture.
Johnston co-authors film reviews for The Covenant Companion with his wife, Catherine Barsotti. Johnston’s notoriety in that realm has also received national attention. His book, Reel Spirituality, addresses movie mediums and religious implications for the church. He received the first-ever Spiritus Award during the 2002 City of Angels Film Festival in Los Angeles. He recently discussed the important role movies play in our society’s spiritual life during a telephone interview with Craig Pinley, staff writer for the Department of Communication.
Johnston co-authors film reviews for The Covenant Companion with his wife, Catherine Barsotti. Johnston’s notoriety in that realm has also received national attention. His book, Reel Spirituality, addresses movie mediums and religious implications for the church. He received the first-ever Spiritus Award during the 2002 City of Angels Film Festival in Los Angeles. He recently discussed the important role movies play in our society’s spiritual life during a telephone interview with Craig Pinley, staff writer for the Department of Communication.
Pinley: What makes the movie industry so important in terms of determining the spiritual pulse of North America?
Johnston: The advent of video – and more recently DVD – has changed the way movies function in our society. Rather than being simply one form of possible entertainment on a weekend night, movies have become the primary storytelling medium for our culture. Even if you miss a film the first time around, a recommendation from a friend is sufficient enough reason for you to drive to the nearest Blockbuster to rent a movie. Where novels functioned to explore the depth of life’s meaning 30 or 40 years ago, now our best sellers tend more to be “pulp fiction.” Think of the leading authors of the 1960s and 70s – John Updike, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Flannery O’Connor. The best selling authors today are Danielle Steele and John Grisham – theirs is simply escapist fiction (writers). They’re fun reads, but not particularly deep or significant. Of course, there are a host of movies that function similarly – Bad Santa (a recently released movie) is not meant to be deep or life changing. On the other hand, there are a number of movies that are providing a vision of humanity – how it is supposed to be. These provide an important expression of our spiritual pulse. They reveal our myths and pictures of life.
Pinley: But movies have been around for years. What makes them especially significant now as a medium?
Johnston: For persons over 40, watching a movie is one possible way of using your discretionary time. For persons under 40, however, it’s often like eating, sleeping, using your computer – it’s simply part of life, an expectation of what happens. And perhaps it’s worth noting that computers are included as one of those givens for those under 40. They also would not be part of life’s expectations for those over 40. If television is ubiquitous, it functions more as background noise. We might spend more hours there, but we take it less seriously . . . even though we see fewer movies, movie viewing demands more attention. It focuses our energy to a greater degree, attempting to usher us into greater understanding of truth. When you go to a theater, the lights go down, you expect to be shown something and when you’re not, you feel cheated. The movie has the possibility of making you see something you otherwise would have overlooked. In that sense, it’s a particularly powerful artistic medium, perhaps the most powerful.
In a novel, you can pause to daydream. When watching a play, you can focus your attention on any of the actors present on the stage. When you watch a movie, the filmmakers point you to what you are to see and demand your attention. And the music and editing simply guide your response. Here is why Blockbuster is so significant. Thirty years ago, you had no ongoing access to a movie. On the other hand, today you’ll see a movie and know you’ll be able to rent a DVD and get what you’ve missed. If you missed a movie and a friend tells you the movie made him cry, you go and rent it. This has transformed the way films function in our society and around the world.
Pinley: A couple of generations ago, movies were seen as blasphemy by many churches. Now, you’re telling me that churches can’t afford NOT to be aware of the movies that are out there. What can the church learn from the movie industry that can be taken back to the pulpits and the pews?
Johnston: If you asked someone how many sermons you can remember in the last two months, and then how many movies they remember in the last two months, most persons under 40 will do a much better job recounting the movies they’ve seen, the plots they covered and what was significant. Movie going is, in this way, putting significant pressure on church communicators on how they tell the greatest story ever told. It is being demanded that we return to a more narrative form of preaching. We might have used a story as an illustration or a throwaway 30 or 40 years ago. If we’re not using narrative as a significant portion today, many are simply tuning us out.
Pinley: Are there any recently released movies you would recommend?
Johnston: Let me comment on two movies my wife and I have recently seen. In Elf you have this innocent elf/human, played by Will Ferrell, who remains true to his vision of goodness throughout the film, even when he’s put into the foreign environment of New York City. The movie is a comedy, it’s meant to be hilarious. It’s not a “message movie,” but it functions, nonetheless, in a way that holds up an image of wholeness or possibility.
In The Master and Commander you have a road movie, only now the road is the open sea in which the center of power and meaning in the movie is the relationship between two buddies, the ship’s captain and the doctor. The adventure takes a backseat to the importance of human relationships. When push comes to shove, both are willing to forgo their professional ambition for the sake of the other. Viewers leave the movie theater with a sense of “here is how life is or should be,” at least with regards to the importance of friendship. These movies are more significant than many suppose. Their stories provide us with an interpretive background that we can base our reality on – the same way nursery rhymes function for little children or C.S. Lewis wanted his “Chronicles of Narnia” to function.
Pinley: What about the much-heralded Matrix movie and the upcoming Lord of the Rings film – The Return of the King – which comes to theaters on Wednesday?
Johnston: Both the Matrix and The Lord of the Rings are important movies for Christians to see. Both have significant religious dimension that invites and demands our dialogue. Christians lined up at the gates for Matrix 1 were frustrated by Matrix 2, and now in Matrix 3 their initial interest seems somewhat vindicated. On the other hand, as many have pointed out, where Matrix 1 was revolutionary in its filming, in both Matrix 2 and Matrix 3 the screenwriters have much lost of their originality. The sequels seem to suffer from a lack of a convincing story. Nevertheless, we are given a vision of rebirth, sacrificial death and redemption that invites dialogue with the Christian faith. We also have shown to us images that help the society understand something of the spiritual depth in all of life. We do, in fact, wrestle against principalities and powers in high places. There are forces of good and evil that exist in the world. But speaking personally, because Matrix is so obvious in its religious allegory, I have not been as interested in it. It hits you over the head.
In that sense, The Lord of the Rings is more effective. Readers of J.R.R. Tolkien have marveled at his ability to provide a mythic alter reality that gives us the taste and feel of a Christian worldview without expressly naming it. In that way, it functions to provide a read on reality that is consistent with the Christian story. Having experienced the trilogy, one might more easily be able to hear the Christ story in new and enlivening ways. It’s giving you the feel of truth.
Pinley: Any others?
Johnston: The Passion will be a significant religious experience for all who see it. I saw it several months ago. Mel Gibson is a faithful conservative Catholic who has created an homage to his Lord. It’s a Catholic presentation – think of the crucifix, which is typical in a Roman Catholic Church, as opposed to an empty cross. The divinity of Christ and his resurrection are everywhere assumed in the movie, but the focus is on the final 12 hours of Jesus’ life. In particular, there’s almost an hour given over to Jesus’ torture and death. Those with any interest in, or commitment to, the person of Jesus will simply be overcome by the extent of his sacrifice on our behalf.
The movie also is unique because it doesn’t put the language of Jesus into modern English, encouraging us unconsciously to recast Jesus in our image. We’re instead forced to experience him cross-culturally. It’s a different time and a different place and a different voice. We’re invited into Jesus’ world, rather than recrafting Jesus into our own. I found this to be compelling. It was at times even breathtaking. I think the movie will be too much for some. The cruelty and inhumanity has a terrible “beauty,” but it’s still terrible. Surely, there has never been a Jesus movie with such craft and care.
At the same time, those who found Braveheart too gory might have trouble with Mel Gibson’s current role as a violent, redemptive superstar. Others, however, will find their faith being strengthened as they see a suffering that produces redemption.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.