Karl Barth, the eminent theologian, said we should preach
with a newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other. Maybe we could extend
that to movies, as here we go with another look at a new film. Movies are
screens where we can see ourselves reflected. The silver screen is a place
where we can project our deep fears and fond hopes in the dark, with no one
else to see.
We went to see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing MO on
Thursday. If you are sensitive to foul language, then this movie will burn your
ears away. the fallen characters would be rendered mute if they did not pepper
their short sentences with an everflowing fountain of expletives. A very
popular book Hillbilly Elegy knows these characters on the underside of America .
The acting is uniformly good. Frances McDormand is a force
of fierce nature throughout. Woody Harrelson, the police chief embodies his
tragic role. Sam Rockwell uncovers some semblance of humanity in a nightmare of
a power mad cop. Peter Dinklage does good work in a role that demanded more for
his prodigious talent.
While it is set in a beautiful natural area, this is a
Calvinist movie in that human nature is shown to be depraved. Nature itself has
already turned on the police chief, with a deadly illness. Most of the people
are damaged goods. They live in a damaged set of interactions; one cannot call
them relationships. Social life is marred by prejudice. People regard others as
either obstacles or tools of an ill-thought scheme. Alcohol fuels their demons,
or helps them escape in sleep or passing out.
In this case, the expletives are emblems of hearts of
darkness. these characters are more than flawed; they are consumed by their
detour into the abyss. the lead character has suffered tremendously, as an
abused wife but more recently, the mother of a raped and murdered teen
daughter. For her grief has transmuted her into a bundle of frayed nerves,
hate, and revenge.
A dimwitted ten gives the movie its center: ‘anger just
begets greater pain.” These characters don’t have to worry about keeping anger
bottled up, as it incites them to beings absorbed in it, no catharsis just
increasing levels of rage.
If a few tender, good moments help these people one day at a
time, in their lurid universe you know that something terrible is going to
happen. This is more than a chaotic world; it is a world that is tilted toward
trouble.
More than anything else, it shows that we are unwilling and
unable to accept apology or recompense for the evil inflicted on us or that we
inflict on others. Hatred escalates. Revenge is a thirst that is never slaked.
It even reaches beyond the grave. Justice rarely appears in this movie, only
retribution. In that sense, it reminds me of the dark side of the old Westerns
and vigilantes arrayed against the adult force of law. From a Christina
perspective, as we move toward Lent, it shows that we cannot fix ourselves, as
the illness within us seems too deep, maybe ineradicable. That is why the story
of Jesus seeking to reconcile the gravity of the human condition with God’s
vision for us touches such a resonant chord within us.
I understand that some folks go to movies to get away form
their troubles. some of us go “to forget about life for a while.” In a tough
world, they offer escape and maybe some hope for a happy ending. At times, they
put our worst at a safe distance on the screen, and that allows us to do the
hard work of self-examination, in the safety of a darkened theater.
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