Thursday, February 28, 2008

Another Academy Awards ceremony has come and gone, and another graphically violent film has taken home the Oscar for Best Picture. No Country for Old Men is not for the faint of heart, and most definitely not for the whole family.

So what’s going on in Hollywood? Why were four out of five of the film industry’s candidates for top honors palpably dark and gloomy pictures?

I’m pretty sure I know the answer to my own question. One of the cable channels used to show what they called “Movies for Guys Who Like Movies.” I am a guy. And I like movies. I have to admit that the vast majority of films that fit into that category are violent, shoot-‘em-up, payback-at-any-cost epics. They are famous for one-liners that weren’t exactly penned by Shakespeare:

“Good ahead, punk. Make my day.” (Dirty Harry)

“When you’re pushed, killing becomes easy.” (Rambo)

“It’s clobberin’ time.” (The Fantastic Four)

“I’ll be back.” (insert an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie of your choice)

It’s estimated that half of the films that emerge from Hollywood every year include a theme of revenge. Revenge is frequently pursued through force. Theologian Walter Wink calls it the Myth of Redemptive Violence: “It enshrines the belief that violence saves, that war brings peace, that might makes right.” Put more simply, the Myth of Redemptive Violence says that there are Bad Guys out there, and the only realistic way for the Good Guys to win is “clobberin’ time.”

As a kid growing up in the 50’s, I feasted on a steady diet of cartoons and Westerns. It’s fascinating to reflect on the fact that most of the shows I enjoyed – from The Lone Ranger to Gunsmoke to Popeye to Mighty Mouse – followed a familiar pattern. The guys in the white hats would be trapped, or pushed, or cornered, or beaten within an inch of their lives, only to be revived just in time by clever technology, or spinach, or good old fashioned resolve to save the day. It never occurred to me that those characters, realistically, could possibly work out their issues through conversation or problem resolution strategies.

Ditto for James Bond, Mission Impossible, and cinematic practitioners of the martial arts. Our movie hero might be a cop who knows how to avoid bureaucratic red tape; a secret agent who operates outside the system; or a family man who is compelled to rise up to defend those he loves (since the authorities are powerless to help him).

The lion’s share of Chuck Norris and Stephen Seagal pictures promote the Myth of Redemptive Violence. It’s intriguing to note that in real life both men are peaceful and peace-seeking human beings. Norris is a committed Christian; Seagal is committed to Zen Buddhism. But both make their living by making pictures that subvert their faiths, as they bend the rules and pile up body counts. Likewise, in the world of comic books and video games, violence is portrayed as our only protection against those who are plotting our doom.

In Hollywood, striking back is the only way. But it’s not the way of Jesus.

When non-Christians are asked, “What did Jesus teach?” the number one response is, “Forgive your enemies” – a command that Christians are famous for not obeying. Jesus said, “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” But from time to time Christians, to their sorrow, have actually believed that God has wanted them to pick up the sword and attack others. Jesus is all about justice. But not through unilateral violence.

Palm Sunday is our annual reminder of a hugely courageous moment in Jesus’ life. Having been away from Jerusalem for some period of time, he boldly re-entered the city. His aim was to set things right. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s on-screen characters are usually on the same mission. Again and again they vow to set things right: “I’ll be back.” Whenever Schwarzenegger comes back, he’s usually toting a small arsenal, sitting at the wheel of a tank, or guiding a dozen minor characters whose existences are expendable precisely so Arnold can succeed.

How different it was with Jesus. In keeping his promise to come back, he arrived in Jerusalem with no army and no weapons. All he had was an attitude of magnificent defiance toward hostile authorities, an audacious commitment to truth and love, and an unswerving determination to die for the express purpose of ensuring that his twelve minor characters – his disciples – would in fact be the ones who would succeed.

With Jesus, then and now, it’s never clobberin’ time. But in our quest for making things right in our relationships, in our work spaces, in our family rooms, and in our world, it most definitely is listenin’, forgivin’, and reconcilin’ time. Who knows: Maybe someday they’ll make a movie about that that guys will actually watch.