CINDERELLA ALWAYS FINDS HER FELLA IV

We saw early on that the motion picture is a powerful medium. Back in 1915, people chose to riot in Boston, Philadelphia, and in other cities, over D. W. Griffith's "Birth of A Nation," a film so controversial that it was denied release in Chicago, Ohio, Denver, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Minneapolis, and in a total of eight states. Subsequent lawsuits and picketing dogged the film for years when it was re-released in 1924, 1931, and 1938. 

GROWN MEN CRYING

On a calmer level, a recent poll showed the power of film when 73% of the people polled said that they sat in a darkened theater and wept together when Bambi's mother was shot. Grown men said they cried during "Field of Dreams" when Kevin Costner asked, "Hey Dad, wanna have a catch?"  Think about that power--strangers sitting in the dark, eating popcorn, and crying together.

On the other side of the emotional spectrum, in 1943, at the conclusion of "Action in the North Atlantic," people in American theaters,  stood as one and cheered when the Russians rescued Humphrey Bogart's crew and ship. (They didn't know it at the time, but the screenwriter, John Howard Lawson, a communist, wanting to create a favorable impression of Stalinist Russia had manipulated them.)

As a further testimony to the power of the motion picture, we can point to "Philadelphia" as the movie which "almost single-handedly rewrote public opinion about the AIDS crisis and homosexuality," according to Rebecca Cusey in "National Review."

WHY SUCH POWER?

In order to understand another inherent problem with the Christian movie, we need to ask, "Why were the above films accompanied by riots? Why did they produce tears, elicit cheers, and change the thinking of millions?" We find the answer in two words: "The story." The visual stories told in those motion pictures were powerful ones which conveyed a message; for good or bad, they conveyed a message. But it was HOW those movies told the story that's important: it was the story that drove the message, not the other way around. 

Let's think about this.

That's the problem with Christian movies--the message is preeminent, the message drives the story, and overwhelms it, causing the movie to come across as forced, contrived, preachy, stilted, a sermon, and unrealistic. When the message drives the story, we immediately know that the writer of the screenplay has an agenda.

In contrast, in "Field of Dreams," grown men cried at the scene of an adult son and his father playing catch, because when they were boys they played catch with their dads. But no dialogue explained the significance of the scene, yet, it connected with the men in the theater who were thinking, "Yeah! That's me! That's my Dad!" Had some character in the movie explained, "The three points of why looking back at playing catch with one's father is emotional and important," that would have ruined the scene, the story, and the movie. It doesn't have to be explained, it just is. To explain it is to kill it. Speechifying in movies is the kiss of death. The story, the scene, not an explanation or a discourse about it, carried the message of reconciliation with the main character's father.

SIT DOWN, FRANCIS

But by it's very nature, we HAVE to explain the gospel; this is contrary to St. Francis of Assisi's unbiblical dictum, "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words." Paul wrote to Timothy, "Preach the Word." The Christian movie must explain the gospel to the audience and that creates the inherent rub of Christian films. A motion picture is entertainment and is not geared to have people sit and listen to explanations because the more the explanations, the less the entertainment. Many movies fail at the box office because they talk us to death.

In the New Testament, Paul explains the meaning of the death of Christ and the meaning of the resurrection in his evangelistic encounters recorded in Acts, as well as in I Corinthians 15 and Romans 1-8. As Ravi Zecharias said, "In the beginning was the Word, not, in the beginning was the video." So this message-overwhelming-the-story dooms the Christian movie from the start. It doesn't reach and can turn off the intended audience which leaves the theater having been "preached at," and they don't like it. What's happened is that the message has overwhelmed the story. 

The audiences of such films as "Philadelphia," and "Action in the North Atlantic," had been "preached at" too, but they didn't realize it because the skillful script writers did what Emily Dickerson recommended, "Tell all the truth, but tell it slant--Success in circuit lies." (This is not to say that the writers told the truth; it is to point out how they got their message across to the audience--they told the message "slant.") 

Jesus told all the truth, but told it slant many a time. How? The parables. And that's it--a parable IS a story and an interesting one at that! He captures our interest immediately when He says, "A man went up to Jerusalem and fell among thieves," or "A father had two sons and one, in a display of disrespect for his father, wanted his part of the estate right now." We're hooked. We wonder, "What will happen to this arrogant youth?" The truth about repentance is embedded, but not explained in the story of the Prodigal Son.

So, because of this inherent problem of the message overwhelming the story in Christian movies, the question is, "Is film a poor medium to convey the gospel?" 

But wait. There's more.

To be continued. 
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Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, the author of Truthspeak and his new book, The Gospel of Grace and Truth: A Theology of Grace from the Gospel of John," both available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing to Dr. Halsey at michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

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duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

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