WEEKLY NEWSREEL – 3 1/2 TIME-OUTS TUESDAY (VOL. 34)

Good evening Mr. & Mrs. Catholic, and all you other Christians at sea. It’s time for another Newsreel, sponsored once again by the fine folks at Acts of the Apostasy, home of the 3 1/2 Time-Outs Tuesday. For obvious reasons, a number of people around the country this week are discussing the possible effects watching certain types of movies might have on on our psyches. It’s hardly a black and white issue, for while we must acknowledge that every person is ultimately responsible for their own actions, it would be naïve to think the stuff we fill our heads with doesn’t affect us on some level. In fact, a number of recent scientific studies suggest movies do indeed have a psychological impact on us as viewers, some good, some bad, and some potentially ugly. And with that tease, we’re off to press.

I

DATELINE: COLUMBUS – Have recent events gotten you down and you’d like to find something to help you feel better? Well, oddly enough, the solution could actually be to watch something designed to make you feel even worse than you already do. An article in Ohio State University’s Research News reports how “researchers found that watching a tragedy movie caused people to think about their own close relationships, which in turn boosted their life happiness. The result was that what seems like a negative experience - watching a sad story - made people happier by bringing attention to some positive aspects in their own lives.” But wait, if you’re down in the dumps, don’t go reaching for Requiem For A Dream or Sophie’s Choice just yet. “The key is the extent to which viewers thought about their own relationships as a result of watching the movie. The more they thought about their loved ones, the greater the increase in their happiness. Viewers who had self-centered thoughts concerning the movie – such as ‘My life isn’t as bad as the characters in this movie’ – did not see an increase in their happiness.” Or as Associate Professor Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick puts it, “Tragedies don’t boost life happiness by making viewers think more about themselves. They appeal to people because they help them to appreciate their own relationships more.” “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues” the Roman author Cicero once wrote, “but the parent of all others.”

II

DATELINE: NEW HAMPSHIRE – Unfortunately, not all movies have such positive effects. A recent article in The Telegraph reports that researchers from Dartmouth College have “concluded that teenagers exposed to more sex on screen in popular films are likely to have sexual relations with more people and without using condoms. The study, based on nearly 700 popular films, found that watching love scenes could ‘fundamentally influence’ a teenager's personality… [making them] more prone to take risks in their future relationships. They also concluded that for every hour of exposure to sexual content on-screen, participants were more than five times more likely to lose their virginity within six years.” Illustrating that she holds a PhD in understatement, Dr. Ross O'Hara, who led the project, says "This study, and its confluence with other work, strongly suggests that parents need to restrict their children from seeing sexual content in movies at young ages." Since exclaiming “No @#$% Sherlock” is probably inappropriate for a religious oriented blog, we’ll stick with a simple “Amen!”

III

DATELINE: ITHACA – Finally, while not an example of directly affecting our personalities, the next item still shows how our reactions to watching movies can have an impact our lives. According to The Cornell Chronicle, “By applying computer analysis to a database of movie scripts, Cornell researchers have found some clues to what makes a line memorable. The study suggests that memorable lines use familiar sentence structure but incorporate distinctive words or phrases, and they make general statements that could apply elsewhere. The latter may explain why lines like "You're gonna need a bigger boat" or "These aren't the droids you're looking for" (accompanied by a hand gesture) have become standing jokes. You can use them in a different context and apply the line to your own situation.” So what, you may be asking? Well, “while the analysis was based on movie quotes, it could have applications in marketing, politics, entertainment and social media, the researchers said… Although teaching a computer how to write memorable dialogue is probably a long way off, applications might be developed to monitor the work of human writers and evaluate it in progress, Kleinberg suggested.” In other words, we’re quickly approaching the day when some bozo stands behind his presidential podium and answers important questions with quips like "You can't handle the truth!" or “"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." The moment that happens, I suggest we revolt. (At the ballot box, of course, as Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Diuturnum allows, but still, REVOLT!)

III 1/2

Yes, yes, we know that back in 1985 Ronald Reagan made a speech to the American Business Conference in which he stated, “I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day.” But he was an actor BEFORE he was president, so he gets a pass.

And with that we sign off this week’s Newsreel, as is our custom, with the immortal words of the great Les Nessman. Good evening, and may the good news be yours.

THE B-LIST: ACT NATURALLY (PART 3)

Okay, so we’ve spent the last few posts discussing some upcoming low budget horror movies made by Protestants, how such efforts naturally end up concentrating more on the sermon than on the story, and the possible reasons why there are so few equivalent films being produced by Catholics. But just because there aren’t very many of these kind of Catholic “soul winners” out there doesn’t mean you can’t find them if you’re willing to look hard enough. But don’t bother browsing the shelves of your local video store or checking the listings for the nearby multiplex hoping to run across one. Instead, search around websites like YouTube and that’s where you’ll locate a number of short films made by Catholic filmmakers. Most such efforts are dramatic or documentary in nature, but dig deep enough and you’ll see that there are a small handful of Catholic shorts containing elements of some of our favorite genres. Take the following for example.

ZOMBIES VS JESUS - Spirit Juice Studios has produced a number of shorts over the past few years, but none more suited to this blog than their most recent, Zombies Vs Jesus. In this tale “a young man awakens on a Sunday morning to discover that his family has turned into zombies. In a panic, he and a friend seek refuge in the one place they believe they will be safe: the town's Catholic church. There they discover the truth about what they have encountered.”

CAPTAIN CATHOLIC – For anyone out there who ever saw the old Bibleman television series and wondered why there wasn’t a Catholic version (Hey, I’m sure somebody had to right?), then look no further than Tony DeGennaro’s Captain Catholic. “YES folks, it's CAPTAIN CATHOLIC - former Swiss Guard from the Vatican. Cleverly disguised as annoying and klutzy Theology Major, Tony DeGennaro, no one would ever suspect the absent-minded and overly-perky geek of being associated with his mysterious true identity. With the God-given mystical ability of sin sense, Captain Catholic is in fact able to sense sin, at which time he must don his Vatican Flag-covered cape in order to protect and keep a watchful eye over the kind citizens of Scranton, Pennsylvania.”

LORD OF THE WORLD – What do you get when you have a love of early 20th Century Catholic fiction and about $25 in spare change? Well, if you’re YouTube user RomneyGack, you go out and make your very own homemade version of Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World, the 1907 apocalyptic novel detailing the rise of the Antichrist and the final battle between good and evil.

MASS HYSTERIA – Okay, so “pay attention at Mass” isn’t the heaviest message around, but it can still be a fun one as this short demonstrates.

You know, when you think about it, the short feature format is kind of appropriate for Catholic filmmakers with a message to pass on. After all, the theme of this series of posts has been that the films being produced reflect the forms of worship familiar to their makers, so naturally the Catholic movies would be shorter than their Protestant counterparts what with most Catholic homilies being typically briefer than Protestant sermons. In fact, it was only a couple of years ago that Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, the current secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, suggested that a typical homily should run no longer than 8 minutes in length. I know, I know, that probably sounds horrifying to some Protestants (though possibly to others it may sound like paradise), but all we’re really doing is worshiping in the same way Christians have for over two centuries.

St. Justin Martyr, writing somewhere around the year 155, described early Christian worship this way. “On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place. The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, as much as time permits. When the reader has finished, he who presides over those gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful things. Then we all rise together and offer prayers* for ourselves… And for all others, wherever they may be, so that we may be found righteous by our life and actions, and faithful to the commandments, so as to obtain eternal salvation. When the prayers are concluded we exchange the kiss. Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed together to him who presides over the brethren. He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a considerable time he gives thanks (in Greek: eucharistian) that we have been judged worthy of these gifts. When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present give voice to an acclamation by saying: 'Amen.' When he who presides has given thanks and the people have responded, those whom we call deacons give to those present the "eucharisted" bread, wine and water and take them to those who are absent.” Now if that isn’t describing the Mass, I don’t know what is. Who knows, maybe the early Christians decided to start keeping the Liturgy of the Word short after that guy dozed off during one of St. Paul’s marathon expositions and fell out a window to his death (Acts 20:9). But whatever the reason, modern Catholics still follow their lead, revering Sacred Scripture and devoting part of Sunday worship to its study, but giving the most focus to the Eucharist. Which, you know, considering what we believe about the Eucharist, isn’t that bad a thing.

Anyway, I hope everybody has enjoyed our brief detour into the wacky world of low budget religious filmmaking. If I run across any more like these (and rest assured, there’ll always be more), I’ll be happy to pass them along. Until then, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of secular made silliness to keep us occupied.

THE B-LIST: ACT NATURALLY (PART 2)

So, in our last post we discussed how Christian horror movies made by evangelical Protestants tend to fall a little short in the entertainment department, and how the possible reason could be because, just like their church services, evangelical produced movies are all about the preaching. Which left us with an obvious question, since Catholics are also subject to Jesus’ command to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations”, why aren’t Catholic filmmakers out there making the same kind of low budget proselytizers our Protestant brethren are?

Well, again, I would suggest the answer lies in the form of worship. Richard A. Blake, S.J.,  in his essay Finding God at the Movies, explains it this way, “A tour of our churches helps us reach toward an understanding of the phenomenon. Look at Protestant churches, with plain walls and clear-glass windows, with seats arranged facing an unadorned cross, pulpit and lectern holding the Bible. In this world, the Word is supreme. Now come into a Catholic Church. Look around slowly. Here we find stained glass, statues and icons. The scent of incense clings to the carpets. The rituals are reenacted with gesture and ornate vestments. In a Catholic Church, the senses reign, or at least they are encouraged rather than suppressed.” Or to put it in movie terms, in a Catholic mass, you aren’t just told about God, you are shown. And that’s a method of communicating a message that’s custom made for the visual arts.

But the sensual experience of the mass is more than just a choice of style or storytelling technique. The Catholic form of worship is the way it is because it reflects an Incarnational view of the world, a fact recognized by folks like Dr. Jeff Mirus, co-founder of Christendom College. He notes that “the astonishing achievements of Catholic culture over two millennia—in art and literature, sculpture and architecture, education and government, work and play, fast and feast—are one and all rooted in the Incarnational principle. The sense that the human body is itself a repository of grace, a temple of the Holy Spirit, fosters a unique Catholic mode of being in which the mind and spirit are never alone, never cut off. Rather man worships God in his body, and carries all of nature beyond itself in the quest to fulfill the very end of religion, which is for all creation to give glory to God. Not in the abstract, then, is Catholic salvation worked out, but in the concrete; not in the general, but in the particular. The Catholic vision is not one of being “attached” to Christ, but of “putting on” Christ (Gal 3:27), not one of merely receiving an external gift, but of living the Christ life deep within—so that I live, no not I, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20). Each virtue is cultivated, each habit transformed and elevated, each relationship purified, each work ennobled. And the power for this continuous transformation is nourished—no, actually ingested—and formed into community through the Eucharist, the Word quite literally made Flesh, the Body and Blood really and actually present, not in figure or even in grace alone, but in its very substance. Every Catholic is called to a life-long process of incorporating (I choose the word advisedly) his whole self, body and soul, into Christ, and not only his self but his loves, his labors, his own small creations, and the entire world over which he has been given dominion.”

So you can see the difference. Evangelical Protestant services focus on preaching, and so Protestant produced movies naturally preach. Catholic masses instead give equal focus to the bodily person and the incorporation and recognition of God in every action that body partakes in. Transferred to the big screen, this approach allows a Catholic filmmaker to depict just about any situation, even secular ones, letting the events of the story evolve naturally while allowing God (and therefore His message) to come through in the film’s theme or subtext. Oh sure, every now and then you’ll get a Song of Bernadette or Passion Of The Christ, movies that are explicitly religious in content, but even then, if you consider the involving narrative of the former or the intense physicality of the latter, you’ll see that the sermonizing remains secondary to the Incarnational elements. Fr. Blakes believes “many of the best, most Catholic filmmakers know this instinctively, even if they have never had the occasion or ability to provide a theological explanation for what they are doing… Most of them would never consider themselves religious filmmakers, nor do they think of themselves as self-consciously Catholic… [but] whether or not these filmmakers remain engaged with the Church, they have at one time been immersed in this visual, sensual world that is steeped in mystery.”

So, who are some of these filmmakers who have produced works with “Catholic” themes and subtexts, even when their movies weren’t specifically religious? Well, it’s a long, long list, but Google “Catholic directors” and some of the more common names you’ll see pop up include:

Alfred Hitchcock

John Ford

Frank Capra

Fritz Lang

and even Martin Scorsese

Not too shabby a list. And if big names like that fall under the category of filmmakers who produce works (consciously or otherwise) with Catholic themes, then you can rest assured that the producers of many low budget schlock fests and cult oddities do the same. Now if only there was some blog or website out there dedicated to exploring the intersection of Catholicism with THOSE types of films. That would be great! But who am I kidding? Who in their right mind would be nutty enough to waste their time doing something weird like that?

THE B-LIST: ACT NATURALLY (PART 1)

As we discussed in our previous post, low budget horror movies produced by evangelical Christians seem to be a growth industry these days. However, these type of “soul winners” have actually been around for decades. A few years back we reviewed the relatively new Evil Behind You along with the Christian exploitation classic The Burning Hell,  but there are plenty more out there. So if you ever find yourself in the mood for a Christian exploitation film festival, here are some other notable entries in the genre you might possibly (maybe, probably not) find worth checking out.

A THIEF IN THE NIGHT (1972) – Like The Burning Hell, this film was shown primarily in churches, but has since become something of a cult classic among secularists due to its delirious combination of no budget cheesiness with unabashed earnestness. A Thief In The Night and its three sequels(!) chronicle The Rapture and the events following it as imagined by premillenial dispensationalists. The creators of Left Behind freely acknowledge the debt they owe this film series. All the movies are available on YouTube.

HOUSE (2008) – House is adapted from the popular Christian horror novel by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker and, in all honesty, is probably too mainstream and professionally made to be included on this list. But with a story involving a group of stranded travelers who become trapped in a mysterious house with a homicidal maniac who claims to have murdered God, the subject matter is right up our alley, so why not go ahead and include it?  House is readily available for rent and on Netflix streaming.

DANGEROUS CALLING (2008) – I haven’t actually seen this one yet because it’s still stuck in the Very Long Wait section of my Blockbuster queue, but I’ll pass it along anyway. Dangerous Calling  tells the story of a Baptist preacher who takes over head pastor duties at an existing church and finds that somebody is willing to resort to murder over the changes he institutes. From what I’ve seen over the years, this is only a slight exaggeration of what happens in real life in these situations.

IF FOOTMEN TIRE YOU, WHAT WILL HORSES DO? (1971) – From the same folks who brought you The Burning Hell comes this tale of a blood soaked takeover of the United States by Jesus-hating communist rat bastards. It’s hard to pick a highlight, but I’d have to go with the scene in which a dirty commie tries to convince a classroom full of children there is no God because no candy magically appears after the kids are forced to pray for it. Easy to find on YouTube.

STAR CRYSTAL (1986) – I’m not really sure if this flick was made specifically with an evangelical Christian audience in mind or not, but it may as well have been. For over an hour the movie plays out like an ultra cheap Alien knock off (all the way down to a bad imitation of Sigourney Weaver’s hairdo), but then takes a sudden bizarre turn in the final ten minutes when the murderous monster discovers a copy of the Bible in the ship’s computer, becomes a born again Christian, and changes its evil ways. Sola Scriptura In Spaaaace! If you want to risk it, I think you can still find this for rent from Netflix.

Now one of the things that should be obvious is that all of these movies approach their subject matter through the lens of evangelical Protestantism, with nary a single papist to be found amongst them. But why is it that Protestants seem to have cornered the market on bad religious movies? Well, if I had to speculate (and you know I just gotta), I think the answer can be found in the differences in the manner in which Catholics and evangelical Protestants worship at Church. You see, while the megachurch movement has amped up the music and video content immensely over the past couple of decades, the centerpiece of evangelical services is always going to be those thirty to forty minutes (or more if the pastor is feeling “particularly inspired”) of preaching delivered after the collection plates are passed.

To understand how this impacts their movies, let’s consider this quote from the makers of Harmless, the upcoming anti-porn found footage movie. “Why are we doing a project like this?” they ask themselves on their official website, “Because films are not only entertaining but they’re also a way to teach people. Society learns their morals and values through music, film and television. Pornography is such a huge problem that simply telling someone how dangerous it is usually doesn’t work. You have to tell a compelling story to catch someone’s attention and then educate them while they’re being entertained.” There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that statement, but compare it with the one made by Pixar’s Emma Coats, who recently offered advice on how to tell a good story. “Trying for theme is important” she explains, “but you won't see what the story is actually about till you're at the end of it.” Well, if Coats is correct (and you have to admit that Pixar has a pretty good track record telling stories people enjoy), then evangelical Protestant filmmakers are doing things backward, coming up with a message first and then trying to build a story around it. In other words, just like their church services, Protestant produced movies are all about the preaching.

And to be fair, it’s not like they don’t recognize they have this problem. As Protestant author and film critic Scott Nehring noted in Relevant magazine, “Rather than developing organically, the average Christian film is more pushy and sanctimonious than the global-warming agenda movies. Violence is almost non-existent, salty language never happens, unmarried people never struggle with lust and evil is never very bad, because showing various forms of sin is not allowed. By movie’s end, everyone is converted with no residual issues. Life is reduced to an after-school special with prayer thrown in for good measure.” Ouch. I’m glad the Protestant said it and not me. But who knows, people get better with practice, so maybe the new crop of evangelical horror movies we discussed in the last post will be able to overcome these storytelling problems. We’ll see.

But that being said, what about us Catholics? Since we’re subject to Jesus’ command to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” the same as all other Christians, why aren’t Catholic filmmakers out there making the same kind of low budget proselytizers our Protestant brethren are? We’ll get into that in the next post.

THINGS TO COME: LOW BUDGET CHRISTIAN HORROR

When they’re not busy demanding miracles, a large number of militant atheists seem to spend their time haunting IMDB message boards disparaging the release of independent horror movies produced by evangelical Christian filmmakers, spewing vitriol into the forums as if their very lives were threatened by the existence of such films. Which is kind of unfortunate for the oh-so-eloquent “$@*% your religion!” crowd, because low budget Christian horror movies are appearing with more and more frequency these days, as evidenced by the following upcoming releases.

THE MESSAGE

The Message’s official website describes this film as “a psychological thriller of one woman’s journey into the after life. Not since the movie "The Exorcist" has there been such a film that will journey into our darkest fears. For those who have faith there could be such a place to call your next life, but it may not be what you envision. For those who do not believe, hang on, you will not like what you see and may in fact change your beliefs after you see "The Message". A young wife and mother of two children is challenged to overcome her passive beliefs on religion after a serious car accident. Receiving haunting images of her past she is forced to make a decision that will decide her fate. Searching for the true meaning of our existence she comes to the end of her journey and believes she has only two choices in the eyes of God; do not have faith and die or have faith and....die.” It’s interesting to note that the movie promises to disturb Christians as well as non-believers. We’ll see.

LUCIFER’S UNHOLY DESIRE

Another film that might actually make it’s target market slightly queasy is Lucifer’s Unholy Desire, the freshman effort from newspaper publisher and two-time Republican state House candidate Cody Knotts. Lucifer’s Unholy Desire tells the the story of a college-aged teenager possessed by a demon who targets a minister (played by Knotts himself) for seduction. In an interview, Knotts described the movie as “a Christian horror film that deals with possession and ultimately, redemption… I like the idea of a movie about both stark Evil and Good — even if Good has problems… The response [to the trailer] has been overwhelming… They say, ‘Wow. That’s so much better than I thought it would be.’ And I say, ‘Uh, yeah!” Well, here’s the trailer, so judge for yourself.

HARMLESS

While Lucifer’s Unholy Desires has raised some evangelical eyebrows due to its in-your-face depiction of sexuality, it is probably Harmless which has received the most pre-release scorn from non-believers. Why? Well, let’s allow the filmmakers themselves to explain what the movie is about. “Harmless is a feature film shot in the popular found footage style. It’s the story about a husband and father and his battle with a box of porn that is found in the closet. Once opened, the box of porn begins to torment the family, much like a poltergeist. It’s sort of a social commentary on how pornography can destroy a family.” Yep, it’s an evangelical spin on Paranormal Activity & Insidious which attacks the use of pornography. And it seems (at least based on comments left at io9 and the Onion’s AV Club) that while some atheists hate Christian proselytizing, they detest even more the idea that someone thinks porn and the objectification of other human beings might actually be bad for you (which, of course, it is). I guess you gotta draw your lines somewhere, right?

So, what does everyone think? Is there anything here that piques your interest enough to spend 80 or 90 minutes of your life watching it? It goes without saying that I’ll eventually track them all down, but what about the rest of you? And what about this form of evangelization, any thoughts on that? I’ve got few myself, but being a blogger, I’m cheating and saving them for the next post.