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"Be nice" (and other movie wisdom)
By Rich Kennedy | A cursory analysis of God's love and message conveyed in the movies would include, in a lump, "The Hiding Place" and some others on the list of old Billy Graham Films. One could add vintage and recent stories of the Tribulation and Armeggedon (not the Bruce Willis movie, but the one in Revelation). These films have touched lives and even led to encounters with God among those who do not know Him, I am sure.
But more rewarding for me have been those moments in a theater or at home when some small truth hits between the eyes in a film, great or otherwise. The little moments are easy, such as the first desert horizon shot in the restored version of "The Wild Bunch": in spite of the gruesomeness just seen and more yet to come, this shot is composed as a testimony to the beauty of God's creation on some of the earth's most spare surfaces. At least, that is what struck me. (Mr. Peckinpah had other designs, I am sure.) More profound moments surface in other unexpected places. Let's take a look:
"Road House": Please, don't give up yet. This otherwise forgetable beat 'em up picture has a moment that changed my attitude towards strangers. Patrick Swayze is cast as a character only found in B films like this. He is a famous bar bouncer who cleans up the toughest clubs and keeps 'em that way on his terms, timetable, and very high price. He's that good. He also carries with him a copy of his medical records to make it easy on the emergency room staff when things get rough. His philosophy of bounce, so to speak, is "Be nice". Gotta take it outside? Sure, but be nice about it 'til you're outside. Customer had one too many? Call a cab and be nice. A girl gets too wild and crazy? Be nice as you help her off the table. This is banal and maybe an interesting experiment for the real world, but I saw this the summer of the last mayoral campaign of one of Detroit's most flamboyant and divisive leaders.
City and suburbs, black and white, citizens and Chaldean party store owners were all staring each other down and waiting for the other to make the first wrong move. This particular mayor seemed to love to fan flames of this sort. Dena and I had just come home from our honeymoon where we had seen this film (not the focal point of the trip; don't ask why we decided to see it). "Be nice" stayed in my head. I learned this to be the one thing I could do all the time that could change my immediate surroundings. In this way I could minister to the inevitable surly point of purchase person, the driver who had just cut me off who did not know where he was, anyone who seemed on the edge or thought I was a threat. Folks, it works. Sometimes it is easy, sometimes not. The irony is that, more than sweetening the atmosphere, often you get treated better yourself. Still, you can't be salt and light until you turn on the switch. This is only the first step towards mirroring Christ to the world, but it is an essential step.
"The Third Miracle": There is a lovely moment in the first sequence that shows just a little bit of grace. The story opens at mealtime in a homeless shelter with everyone eating and minding his own business except the kind of guy that makes such places a small hell. We see a scruffy guy with a tray full of slices of apple pie in various stages of consumption bugging no one in particular, yet loudly and constantly demanding a piece of pie. Ed Harris' character is introduced as finishing up his meal. He decides to add his piece of pie to the noisy guy's collection. In response, the noisy guy offers a silent prayer through the ceiling before resuming his requests. Just a moment, just a gesture to someone who may not be capable of fully understanding what he is doing.
"Pay It Forward": It might be easy to find something "spiritual" in this film, just as it is easy to dismiss the thing as cheap and easy spirituality without God. Yet there is an important truth here that has been universally overlooked. I was moved by the act of the junkie on the run who talks a woman out of jumping off of a bridge to intended death. His tugging-at-the-heartstrings "Come on, save me..." speech obscures two things that yield in important truth. First, that the junkie still feels responsible to 'pay forward' even as he is running headlong to self-destruction. Second, our hero has written him off as a proof that his idea has failed. The truth is that this is often how God works in our lives and through us. There is no way in which we can gauge the effectiveness of anything that we do in His name, whether it feels effective or not. In fact, it seems that He is most effective when we feel that we have actually failed. The human species is a particularly self-obsessed being, even with the love of God in him or her. Sometimes it is the best way for Him to accomplish His work in spite of what we are doing in His name.
"The Godfather": I feel sadness for those among us who choose to exempt themselves from 'R' rated movies. They commendably avoid some excesses of violence and sex, but at the expense of some of the most profound and moving filmwork. Back in the '70s when I was young, foolish, and just starting to appreciate what this medium could do, I loudly procaimed to no ears at all that it was the sainted 'G' films that were worthless or objectionable because of their banality and silliness. Films like this one were the noble ones. It was a tough sell.
There is theological truth in "The Godfather". For an example, let us look to the much dissected opening sequence. Much has been made of the "I believe in America" speech and Brando's acting seminar here, but focus on the beleagured funeral director in this sequence and his next big sequence. Here is a man who is forced to act against all that he holds to be true because the defilement of his daughter is seemingly dismissed by the courts. He humbles himself and approaches the Don on the one day that the Don is forced to receive him on his terms. The Don delicately turns the tables on the funeral director while leaving him his self respect and agrees to exact a just revenge in exchange for "a service" that may never be required.
Much later, the service is coldly demanded in dead of night. Fearing the worst, such as the falsification of death certificates or worse, the funeral director submits with trepidation, but without question. Yet the Don, even in grief over the death of his eldest son exerts a delicate touch. No fraud, just the summoning of all the director's skill and knowledge to make Sonny's hamburger body suitable for the possibility of an open casket funeral. ...
God never "tempts us above that which we are able to bear..." despite how it feels to us at the time.
I have more, but I think that this is enough for the moment. I am sure that anyone might discover such moments among some that I have overlooked. I do not claim to be even close to having seen "everything", therefore there is much I have yet to discover. I dare you to find something that touches you. Thank Him, then tell me.
Kevin Reynolds
Rich Kennedy
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READER RESPONSES
"Be nice." The failing of Christianity throughout the ages. When Christ said "turn the other cheek," "be nice" was not what he was referring to. When we were little boys dreaming of adventure, growing up to be "nice guys" was not at the top of our list. "Be nice" does not come from Christ, but from a world bent on turning men into women. Men were not created to be delightful. We were created to be warriors. Christ was not "nice." He was compassionate, understanding, helpful, and even polite, but He was never "nice." The true desires of our hearts come from God, and being nice is a sad twisting of the message. We do not desire to be nice, we desire adventure. Being nice has eroded our manhood. It has weakened the average Christian man. I'm not saying to be mean, or not nice, simply to be a firm, honest, direct man. Be like Christ. The idea of being nice has led to the hundreds of little boys over medicated on mood-altering drugs simply for being boys. Women are delightful. Men are adventurous. As boys, we do not grow up dreaming of being nice, we grow up dreaming to be men.
The English language is an amazing thing! Not only is it the largest language in the world, but its words have multiple, even opposite meanings. Forgive me for taking so long to discover your response, but allow me to refer to the American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd edition for the meaning(s) of "nice". Your argument seems to refer to dffs 1 ("Pleasing and agreeable in nature"), 5 ("overly delicate or fastidious;fussy")and 9b ("affectedly modest; coy"). I took the meaning to be more along the lines of, well, yes 1, but also 3 in particular ("Exhibiting courtesy and politeness")and 6 ("Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive descernment; subtle")an excellent trait for a bouncer in a soon to be high class establishment. As to my intended application in real life, definition #3 is the first order of business of all good diplomats on foreign soil, which is how I see myself as a believer in this world. Nothing wrong with #6 either. Frankly, I am not good at turning the other cheek and never intended to add that to the application. Practicly everything that you use to counter the perceived slight of "niceness" is well within the definition of nice and is exactly what I intended to convey. I am not opposed to soldiering, I just don't see any example of it by Christ in the gospel accounts. Christian soldiering is a Pauline theme. You know, even rump orrifices like Patton and Bull Halsey could be courtly and charming when they wanted something from someone over whom they had no control. I think you might be a little too hung up on the feminisation of boys thing. You're shooting semantic bullets at a comerade in arms on that one. I am just sick and tired of all the uncivility I see and have seen in my 48 years and am trying to clean up my little patch one person at a time. I am fed up to here with fellow believers who proclaim the Truth in rudeness and vitriol and hide behind the thin cloak of speaking the truth and tough love. It may be tough, but it ain't love. This is not a point directed at you, just a general soapbox kind of thing. Kevin, all I can say is that even warriors and guys who think chicks are delightful are bound to fall into the I Cor 13 traps set for the rest of us. I also think the adventurous to be delightful.