THE B-LIST: QUESTIONABLE MUSICAL MOMENTS #16 – JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET

Okay, so when you see a one sheet that looks like this…

…and you watch a trailer that goes like this…

…there’s a better than average chance you’re going to expect Journey To The Seventh Planet to be a good old fashioned late 50s/early 60s sci-fi flick, one with stiff-necked heroes, toy spaceships, and dubious looking aliens. And you’d be right, Journey To The Seventh Planet is all of those things. What you might not expect is that once the credits begin to roll, this is what you’re going to get for a theme song…

Doesn’t really scream sci-fi epic does it? Of course, once you watch the whole movie, you’ll get it. After seventy-six minutes of rubber monsters, questionable green screen effects, and endless displays of 1950’s machismo (in other words, all that fun stuff you watch these films for), the film takes something of a bittersweet turn in the last sixty seconds as one character realizes he’s lost forever the woman of his dreams. Sure, the tune is undeniably hokey, but the sentiment still manages to work because we all know what’s it like to feel abandoned by someone we loved, whether it because the relationship didn’t work out for some reason had to end or simply because they just plain didn’t like us anymore and dumped us over the phone like a stinking coward (or so I’ve heard that such things happen from time to time, not that I would know from personal experience, so… let’s just move on).

Of course, we all know what to do when something like that happens, don’t we? Favorites include putting on a sad song (it’s scientifically proven to make you feel better) or watching a good tearjerker (ditto) while scarfing down some chocolate. But after that, Father Steven Jones over at Catholic Answers suggests that you need to discuss it with someone. “You need to talk. Tell your parents. Speak it! Go do a Holy Hour and tell Jesus. Find a Catholic Church that is usually empty during the day and go talk it to Jesus, in front of the Tabernacle, for one hour. He heals!… Just tell Him. God understands. Especially tell Him the parts you are ashamed of. Talk it through with Him, and He will bring you peace, and healing. But go to the Church. He is there, in that tabernacle. When you sit down there, let the tears come, and speak it out. You will feel His presence.”

Talking to God about your feelings in such a situation may seem strange, especially since in those moments it mat feel like there’s no God anyway, but keep in mind what season we’re in. One of the last things Jesus did while he was hanging on the cross was to cry out, “My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me?” In part, Jesus’ words represented a theological statement on his divine nature, referencing as they did the messianic tinged Psalm 22. But the fully human dimension of those words can’t be overlooked either. In that moment, with the weight of our sins on his shoulders, Jesus was allowed to feel as if God had deserted him, just as we often do in our worst moments. And if Jesus experienced that, then so too did God. That’s why, when that person we thought we would be with forever lets us down hard one day and then goes out with somebody new the very next day after (which, again, I’ve heard rumored has happened to some people), we should feel free to talk to God about it because He knows exactly what it’s like to feel abandoned. And that’s a strangely comforting thought.