Faith and Movies - Oscar Nominees

The Oscars were awarded recently, and this is my cue to think about how our faith intersects with the movie theater.  The final Harry Potter movie wasn't nominated for any of the big awards (and didn't win any at all, not even make-up!), but I’d like to honor this impressive eight film series, filled with all the best British actors.  It is a tale of good and evil that has gripped a generation, and it imparts a sacred truth.  For all that Harry Potter and the villain Lord Voldemort have in common, their primary difference is that Voldemort sacrifices others for his own gain, and Harry Potter sacrifices himself on behalf of others.  In the climatic film that bears all the marks of the gospel, love triumphs over death.  Harry Potter’s last movie is a great one.

Spoiler Alert on this movie clip...

The Help

Best Picture nominee The Help, based on a novel about the African-American servants to wealthy Caucasion families in segregated Mississippi, asks some important questions.  While showing us the courage of people on both sides of the race line to confront the evil of prejudice and discrimination, The Help also shows us characters who agree that the situation is morally wrong, but don’t have the courage to act on it.  The movie reminds us that people with good hearts can do evil, and that sometimes we are captive to larger forces.  This is what the New Testament refers to as the “powers and principalities” of the world.  This is what causes good people to do bad things, when they feel caught in something that is out of their control, and it’s what the power of God works to dismantle.

Tree of Life

Good people doing bad things is a recurring theme in the most overtly religious best picture nominee: Tree of Life.  This movie is a meditation on the questions raised in the book of Job, why is there evil in the world, and why do we sometimes commit evil ourselves, against our own wishes?  Tree of Life is an unusual movie, told in beautiful fragments of memories and images, more like a poem than a story.  Centered on a couple raising three sons, the movie also reaches back to the creation of the universe in order to struggle with the two ways of life: the way of “nature,” doing whatever it takes to get ahead, and “grace” which finds strength in forgiveness.  Tree of Life is available to watch at home.  If you’re willing to try a different kind of movie, one that leaves you thinking without a clear resolution, Tree of Life is very rewarding.