Thesis: Movies are never just entertaining. You never have, and never will go to a movie and be ‘simply entertained’, and to believe you can is unwise and dangerous.
Let me be clear, while I would love more people to become amatuer film critics and spend hours debating whether ‘Fight Club’ or ‘Life is Beautiful’ best depicts masculinity, I am not calling for that here. Neither would I have people stay home and turn off the television to hide from the evils of Hollywood. We are not called to avoid the world or cut ourselves off from culture, but we are called to be be wise and recognize there is a spiritual war zone all around us.
What I am objecting to is the overly casual attitude that some believers have when it comes to the films they choose to enjoy. If we start talking about the merits of a particular movie, and you tell me that you just watch movies for entertainment and don’t really like to think about them too much, then I say that is a cause for concern. If you are really just tired of listening to my opinions and want me to stop talking, well that is probably fair. But the idea that something designed to keep millions of people seated and staring for 90+ minutes might be nothing more than “entertaining” seems naive at best, and I am arguing is actually dangerous.
I could go on about this all day, but in the interest of discipline I will appeal to the “Rule of 3”. To the casual movie-goer, here are three reasons why you should think about the movies you enjoy.
Argument #1: It is Unbiblical to define a movie as ‘mere entertainment’.
Most people who give me a line about ‘just wanting to be entertained by movies’ are basically saying they think most films are morally neutral. But what we choose to do for fun is not somehow beneath the Lord’s notice. We are owned, body, heart, mind and eyes, by the God who notices when a single sparrow falls to the ground. So when Paul Commends us in Colossians 3:17, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him,” he has in mind not only your choice of a spouse and career, but also what time you get up in the morning and what you choose to do for fun.
When you watch a film, you have made a decision. That decision either honors our Lord or it does not. It would be another discussion entirely to think through how we can or cannot honor the Lord by watching different types of movies, and I do not intend to get into that here. But if you have never considered whether or not your choice of movie honors the Lord, it is worth at least the 20 minutes you would spend flipping through options on Netflix to do so.
For your considerations: Eph 6:12, Phil 4:8, Rom 12:2, Prov 4:23-27, Jer 17:6, Rom 14:22-23, 1 Cor 6:12, Mat 5:28
Argument #2: Your Heart is Complicated.
You watch movies that you enjoy. Something in the the storyline, the characters, the visuals, or the jokes resonate with something inside of you. Even if it is as simple as the beauty of ‘boy-meet-girl’ or ‘hero saves the day’. Something in you is saying “yes,” “good,” “beautiful,” or “I want that.”
In a perfect world all delight would be pure and it would be appropriate to simply evaluate movies by how much we enjoy them. But, as it is, we must guard our hearts and examine the things in which we delight. My own heart often deceives me, and I find that my delight is often a mixed bag. Much of what I desire is good, but much of it is also twisted by pride, confusion, or just plain selfishness. If I simply watch movies that I enjoy without examining my heart, I am feeding desires without discerning whether or not they are good. Why do I enjoy Gladiator anyway?
Argument #3: You are being lied to.
Whether or not the creators of a film had a specific message in mind when they wrote the script, every movie worth watching is going to put forth several significant value statements along the way. They have to if the audience is not going to be bored to tears! Can you imaging a movie that did not define anything as good or bad? Nearly every film is moving towards something, and that something is implicitly defined as either good or bad. It may be solving a mystery, getting the girl, finding ‘yourself’, killing Nazi’s, or pulling off an elaborate heist to steal millions of dollars from some really unpleasant guy, but every film presents something as good, valuable, and worth pursuing.
Then, beneath the most obvious level of the main storyline there are a myriad of other values pictured along the way. Ideas of what is normal, exciting, desirable, tragic, awkward, and comical are crafted and presented to as assumptions. Do we recognize how these values are affecting us? How much of my expectations of what friendship looks like, what it means to be a man, what a wedding night would be like, what will make me happy, were shaped by the images formed out of the worldview of writers, directors, producers, and actors whom I have never met? How many lies have I been sold in the form of a movie ticket? How much discontent and disappointment have I experienced by comparing my life to a 2-dimensional illusion created specifically to
‘entertain’ me? The movies are a multi-billion dollar industry built entirely upon affecting the people’s hearts and minds. To think that the images they create to attract you are not affecting you in some way is plain and simple foolishness.
As I said before, I love movies. I am in no ways trying to demonize the film industry, nor would I have people try and block out the evil’s of hollywood. I have seen many, many movies that spoke truth and increased my appreciation for the good things the Lord has made. But living in a fallen world means we must be discerning of the battle going on all around us. Each day there is a battle for the hearts and minds of every person. Will they turn to the Lord and rejoice in His promises or will they turn to the world and it’s vain hopes? In this world nothing is neutral, and what is entertaining is as complicated as your own heart. Until our hearts are fully conformed into the image of our Lord, we must be careful to discern the difference between things we “simply enjoy” and what is actually good.
So when you walk into a theater or gather around the TV do not close your eyes. Rather ask the Lord to increase your discernment so that you both perceive what is a lie and more clearly rejoice in what is true, beautiful, and good.
Thoroughly convincing and, may I say, eye-opening. Leaves me with lots of practical implications to work out- what should i watch, how much thought do I need to give, or is it helpful just to be aware of the dangers, what other aspects of entertainment does this reach into, is it still ok to fall drift in and out of sleep during movies (as I always do)...but I look forward to lots of good examples of biblically watching and thinking through movies in future blogs!
ReplyDelete