Faith at the Movies in 2013

When we think about our lives – what we value, what is right and wrong, what gives us meaning – we can get very precise and analytical using the language of theology, ethics, and philosophical terms. There’s a place for that, but we what we really need are stories: parables, novels, fables, and, yes, movies. This is the movie award season, and my annual look at faith in the movies of the past year.

You may have missed Philomena . If you did, I urge you to find a way to see it. Based on a true story, Judi Dench plays Philomena, a woman who tries to reconnect with her child who was adopted from the judgmental convent in Ireland where she gave birth to him. Records have been destroyed, but a journalist helps her to rekindle her search. This movie shows the variety and complexity of Christian faith. Some of the nuns are very cruel in their vindictive judgment, but Philomena herself, despite the harm she suffered, has a mature faith that seeks to live with joy and mercy, even when it is hard.

In one of the best moments, the journalist is amazed by Philomena’s forgiveness for the people who did her harm. He doesn’t believe that they deserve her forgiveness, and he says to Philomena something like “Forgive? You’re going to do it just like that?!” 

Philomena snaps back “It’s not ‘just like that.’ That’s hard! That’s hard for me.”

What a wonderful window into the life of faith, so simple and yet so brave, so demanding of strength beyond our own.

 

In the movie 12 Years A Slave, we are reminded of the horror of American slavery, and reminded that the Christian faith was used to justify and maintain the institution of slavery. On more than one slave plantation, we see what passes for a Sunday morning Christian service which consists of the slave owner reading to the slaves

from the Bible, and always choosing the passages about obedience to the master. These are heartbreaking scenes. They are a powerful reminder that we need to be very careful and critical in our understanding of what scripture means. Just because someone says that this is what it means does not make that the final word.

Finally, Gravity was a beautiful and visually stunning movie about the danger and isolation of astronauts in space, orbiting our planet. It is also a story of the weight of grief, and a metaphor that reminds us that grief can feel like a death of our former life. It also reminds us that beyond death there is new life, a rebirth. It is not an overtly religious movie, but that is the good news of our faith.