Voyage of the Dawntreader - Film Review

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Rated: PG, 115 minutes,

The latest film in the Chronicles of Narnia series Voyage of the Dawn Treader appeared in cinemas in December 2010 and will no doubt soon be available on video. Based on the third published book in the original series of books by C S Lewis from the 1950s, the film is inevitably different to the book in many respects. However, it maintains the spirit of the original and accurately represents its thrust. Many who see the film will not have read the book and may never get round to reading it and so it deserves consideration on its own merits.

As a family film it scores very well in all respects. Inevitably there are moments of what I believe is now known as 'mild peril' but there are no questionable scenes or language, as one would expect with C S Lewis. The whole thing is done very well with the special effects at an optimum level and the acting of a high standard. The presentation as a whole is excellent. We start off in wartime Oxford and spend just long enough there to establish how normal these children are before heading into Narnia by means of an amazing water scene.

Once in Narnia, the story rapidly unfolds, rarely losing pace. The actor playing Eustace (Will Poulter) is brilliant. I would guess Lewis is describing himself as he once was, before his conversion. I was slightly disappointed with the dragon turning into the boy again scene as I seem to remember more about layers coming off (“when he began pulling the skin off it hurt worse than anything … Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off ... and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been … I’d turned into a boy again.”) However, as a starting point for discussing conversion it is still excellent. Temptation and death are among the other vital subjects opened up in this treatment - the temptations faced by Edmund and Lucy, and the passing over of Reepicheep (a fascinating character - perhaps Lewis's ideal of a true Christian - a mouse of great modesty but very brave!).

Towards the end of the film we get what someone has called the John 3:16 of the books "arguably the most succinct and precise evidence of a possible parallel between Narnia and The Bible". When asked by Edmund whether or not Aslan exists in their world, Aslan replies:

"I am ... but there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."

Hopefully this film will also help some in finding the true Aslan and the true Narnia. It certainly will not hinder them at all.

Machine Gun Preacher - Film Review

Machine Gun Preacher Director: Marc Forster Writer: Jason Keller (screenplay) Stars: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan and Michael Shannon

A Hollywood film is currently on general release by the name of Machine Gun Preacher stars Gerard Butler, has high production values and tells the story of Sam Childers, an American citizen but a man who still spends much of his time in Southern Sudan seeking to help children affected by the terrible atrocities that have taken place in recent years in that part of the world. Childers is both a preacher and a man unafraid to use his machine gun. No doubt he is in fact better with his gun than as a preacher.

Most Christians will not want to see this film as it is not only violent but in two sections there is also vile language, reflecting the period firstly before Childers made his decision for Jesus and another time where he seems to lose all profession of faith in Christ.

This is a general problem with films that depict modern life especially where someone has come to Christ from a godless life. Murder and drug taking are easy enough to simulate but without actually committing the sin, swearing is not.

After an important initial episode in Southern Sudan the film begins with Childers on the day he is released from prison. His stripper wife appears to have found faith at a local church but Childers is resistant until eventually making his decision after coming close to a serious crime. It is through contact with his local church that the work in East Africa flows.

Anyone who can get through this unpleasant opening section may find that there is enough stimulus in this thinking man’s action film to keep watching and then discuss with others the issues raised, including man’s depravity – to what extent is it progressive (this in light of the appalling things children have been made to do in Southern Sudan)? Poor theology – how dangerous is it? American self-belief and the gospel – what are the main differences?

One brief section in the film struck me – where Childers tries to teach the children in the orphanage that he founded in a war zone, how to play baseball. They are not interested and only want to play soccer. It doesn’t quite fit but it seemed a partial metaphor for the fact that his American get up and go only takes you so far. Life is complicated and without a rigorous theology, compromise is inevitable. This is not to suggest that theology can solve everything. This film shows that is far from being the case.

This review originally appeared in Evangelical Times in 2012

Courageous - DVD Review

If you are familiar with the work of the Kendrick Brothers and Sherwood Pictures (‘Flywheel’, ‘Facing the Giants’ and ‘Fireproof’) then you will know what to expect from their current DVD ‘Courageous’. The theme this time is fatherhood with the focus on four different fathers, three of whom are in the local police department. Again there is the Albany, Georgia backdrop, the focus on several different characters, the gentle and attractive humour, people praying and being converted and the positive small town American charm. Perhaps the effort to be multicultural and multisocial is more obvious. As ever, the acting is good, the storyline well written and the production values high. The budget was up fourfold this time, to $2 million (but quickly recouped many times over at the box office). However, the project was, as ever, bathed in prayer, involved many extras from the local church, relied on volunteers and has a credit list that still includes people like babysitters and caterers, again from the local church. The film actually ends with a Father’s Day service at the Sherwood Baptist church.

So, a film made by Christians with the laudable aim of drawing attention to fatherhood and what a crucial role fathers can have on the rising generation. What’s not to like? Well, it was a little long I thought. It is relentlessly didactic and even if you agree with the basic premise you might find it a little irritating. The fathers in the film decide to show what committed fathers they are by signing a pledge and making a public commitment. One father gives his teenager daughter one of those purity rings that have been so popular and controversial in the States. All very American and fair enough for an American film, perhaps. My real fear, however, is that with the title Courageous the film is suggesting that all we fathers need to do is to try a little harder, spend a little more time with our kids and everything will be dandy. It is difficult to say whether the problem lies in the Kendrick brothers theology or the medium itself. When you write a story or make a film then you are in a sense acting as God. There is no failure on the part of the writers to introduce conflict and they never suggest that being a father is easy. Nevertheless it would be very easy to watch it and even with the closing text in your head (Joshua 24:15) to think that all we need to do is try a bit harder.

When I was at university studying English I wrote essays that chiefly aimed to convert the lecturer. I now see that was a mistake. That is not what an academic essay is intended to do. Watching and making feature films is surely not a sin. However, we must always remember that Christ conquers sin and wins hearts to himself through preaching not through feature films. Perhaps next time the Kendricks, who are undoubtedly good story tellers, will try and be more subtle and aim more at entertainment rather than trying so hard to convert us all.

This review first appeared in Evangelical Times in 2012.

Noah - Film Review

Paramount Pictures Directed by Darren Aronovsky Starring Russell Crowe Cert. 12A

One of my pet hates is the dinky sort of ‘Noah’s ark’ you see in toy shops and children’s books. The ark in Paramount Pictures’ film Noah is nothing like that. It is a hulking great thing, and when the animals come into it and it floats on the surface of the water in a worldwide flood, it is a great sight to behold.

However, that is probably the best that can be said for a film that most Christians will be very disappointed with. The fact that I need to use the term ‘spoiler alert’ here gives a hint at how far from the Bible account Darren Aronovsky’s film strays.

Wholly fictitious

Turning biblical narrative into a cinematic experience is fraught with difficulties. Indeed, the film’s own ‘health warning’, ‘12A: Contains moderate violence, injury detail, threat’, alerts us to that.

We know too that a feature film will never simply follow a narrative, but needs to build in its own dramatic tensions, so we were pleased not to have to hear an actor giving the voice of God and not surprised to see Noah’s wife (Jennifer Connolly) given such a big part.

We were willing to allow a large part to Shem’s wife (Emma Watson, famous from the Harry Potter films) and can see that there is some room for argument on how Methuselah, Lamech and Ham might be presented, and on whether Noah became a grandfather while on the ark (the film takes us from Noah’s childhood to his drunkenness and repentance, with backward glances to the earlier chapters of Genesis).

We can even overlook inaccuracies, such as ignoring the 120-year gap between the command to build the ark and the flood.

What is much harder to stomach is the blatant rejection of the biblical narrative, in favour of a wholly fictitious presentation of Noah (Russell Crowe) as a man with a death-wish against humanity; and an ark containing seven people not eight, one of them a villainous Tubal-Cain, who stows away for months, only to be murdered before the Ararat denouement!

One of the problems with suggesting, as the film does, that Noah wanted to kill his own grandchildren and so leave the human race with no future is that, far from creating dramatic tension, anyone who is thinking about the plot will be utterly unfazed by all the drama that those playing Noah, his wife and daughter-in-law pour into their parts, since the very fact we are here watching the film dictates the eventual outcome!

Spectacularly wrong

Perhaps we simply have to accept that, when those who are unwilling to treat God’s Word as sacred are let loose on the Scriptures, they will almost inevitably go wrong sometimes; or, as here, spectacularly wrong.

The theological problems with this film are there from the outset. We open with the hopeful words, ‘In the beginning there was nothing’. Everything in the believer cries out, ‘Actually, in the beginning there was God’, but you say, ‘Okay, this is as near as we are likely to get from such a source’.

A few frames in, however, we are introduced to ‘The watchers’, an angel-like race who are fallen and yet redeemable, and who help Noah build his ark. This is highly problematic, as is the film-makers’ inability throughout to distinguish between the miraculous and the magical.

Even when we get a countdown of creation, the idea that the sun and moon were made on the fourth day is firmly rejected, regardless of what Genesis may say on the matter.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the film is the way the Bible’s chief theme of Messiah has been completely removed. The main characters come over as clones of 21st century man, in all his ignorance and arrogance, not as antediluvians longing for Messiah to come.

Damaris Media

I was able to see this film ahead of time, thanks to the efforts of an organisation called Damaris Media (http://www.damaris.org). Led by Nick Pollard, Damaris seeks to capitalise on the existence of films like this, by encouraging discussion of the gospel with people who see it.

The group’s aims are laudable and they have produced excellent materials to accompany the film. I just wonder if the task of getting from the outright fiction of Noah to the true Genesis story will be a step too far in most cases. We do not have to tie our hands behind our backs before we evangelise.

Of course, some people will see the film anyway, and Damaris may be a help in highlighting how to take discussion forward.

This review first appeared in Evangelical Times in 2014

Unbroken - Film Review

Many readers will be aware of the book War and Grace by Don Stephens (EP Books), a collection of short biographies of Christians from the two World Wars.

Its first story concerns an American of Italian extraction called Louis Zamperini. The new edition of the book reveals that he died on 2 July 2014 and mentions the 2010 biography Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, and a forthcoming film of the same name, directed by Angelina Jolie.

Well, this film has now appeared, going on general release in British cinemas on Boxing Day, 2014. We are always looking for ways to introduce Christ to our unbelieving neighbours and so the fact that a biopic about a Christian has appeared is good news.

Sadly, the film, unlike the book by Hillenbrand that it is drawn from, chooses very much to downplay the fact that Zamperini became a Christian after the war and spent much of his life talking about Christ and the forgiveness that can be found only in him.

Don Stephens prefaces his life of Zamperini with seven summarising points: the first five are well covered by the film, the three middle the most extensively — an airforce bomb aimer, decorated for gallantry in action; a survivor of 47 days adrift on a life raft; an ill-treated prisoner of war of the Japanese for two and a half years.

The bulk of the film looks at these periods, most of the time being devoted to his harrowing years as a POW, when a man known as ‘The bird’ did all he possibly could to ‘break’ this prisoner.

Much of this, which includes a great deal of senseless violence, does not make pleasant viewing. Hence it has a ‘15’ certificate. Zamperini had recurring nightmares after his experiences, until he came to Christ. One can imagine some people having nightmares after watching this presentation.

The first two summarising points — a juvenile delinquent in California, and an Olympic runner at the Berlin Games of 1936 — are covered here by means of flashbacks that bring out his Italian background, the racism he suffered, his delinquency and the way his older brother eventually steered him in a better direction by means of sport (leading to some success at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin).

As for Stephens’ final two points — a drunkard who almost wrecked his marriage, and a Christian — these are almost entirely ignored by the film. It ends with the war, although a few subsequent points are covered in a brief epilogue.

All this means that the only Christian elements are a snatch from a sermon by a Catholic clergyman when Zamperini was a boy (blurring the fact that he later rejected Catholicism for the gospel), his prayer in the life raft that he would dedicate his life to God if he survived, and some conversations about God with his fellow survivor Russell Phillips.

It is hard to understand why the film-makers were not keener to depict the moment when Zamperini returned to Japan after the war in 1950 and, having preached to his former guards, warmly shook them by the hand and expressed his forgiveness. They chose not to do it this way, however.

That still leaves us with an opportunity to take advantage of this brief spotlight on Zamperini to draw attention to him and his Saviour, by means of Don Stephens’ book or other materials that highlight his conversion and Christian life.

This review originally appeared in Evangelical Times in 2015