America is lazy and wants to be comfortable. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, in fact I am exactly what I just described. We have progressed so much as a species that it seems that we deserve a good break isn’t that right? Why not, we work hard to create a world that is comfortable why shouldn’t we take full advantage? It seems that our careless comfort has actually become an issue for certain areas of society.

I believe that art has suffered in the last 10 years. In general people want art to be easy and unchallenging. Why should we have to think about what art means when we can put a sign under it telling us. Why watch a film with subtitles when we can get it dubbed (and then we get to turn it into a comedy because lip sync doesn’t match)? Why should we read books when there are cliff notes and movies made of them. (even comics!? How Lazy Are We?)

I remember the day that our local theatre in Scottsdale Arizona opened with brand new seats. I remember it was so exciting because watching a movie in a theatre would be just like watching it at home on the sofa. I remember being inordinately happy that I would no longer need to sit on my folded legs to see over the person in front of me. Im a short guy and learned to sit in unique and uncomfortable positions for long periods of time. I also actually liked sitting in the front row for the same reason. I still do actually:)

Old theatres were pathetic! Musty, hard walls that bounce sound in uneven ways unforgiving to THX sound, hard chairs that reminded you that you did in fact have a rigid skeleton that wanted to be free of its flesh suit and the quickest way was apparently sitting in those seats for 2 hours. In these theatres you could hear every wrapper crinkle like it was in your own lap. And the slanted floors were deadly for combinations of shoes and spilled drinks flowing from the rows behind you. The hard wood and steel clapped and creaked with every movement of the fidgety kid (me) and old man who needed to take another trip to the bathroom.

New theatres were the second coming. I never saw a head in front of me again. The silence of the theatre was beautiful (Yay THX certifications for theatre envrionments)! The seats were silent and felt like sitting in an alpaca chair stuffed with clouds in comparison to the rat trap wire and wood creations of old.

I have another soapbox that discusses the problem with in home entertainment, really just films in the home. The main focus of that diatribe is that I think that not only do we want to be more comfortable in life we want to have the option to ignore those around us. Let’s face it that is often the most comforting thing we can imagine (especially if we are Faust fans as many of us are admittedly or not.)

The issue is that since movies were in the home we could start to ignore people as a whole when we were being entertained. We no longer had to hear those annoying laughs, constant comments, people eating their food, or foot tapping, etc. We could limit our entertainment annoyances to those we knew and not have to deal with strangers. You have to admit it is easier to hear a friend eat popcorn than a stranger do the same. Other people are disgusting, horribly rude, loud, smelly, fat and should be put out of their misery. Ourselves and our friends are just fine though.

Movies used to be made to be seen in community. There was time for laughs and cheers and part of the film was the experience of the theatre. You could learn what was appropriate and not by the reactions of those around, you could spent time before and after chatting about the film. Now theatres are inside other distracting and entertaining centers where you are tempted not to spend time talking about the movie afterwords. Besides you wouldn’t want to offend someone with your opinions or be found to have the wrong opinions. Truly a fate worse than death.

Now the Theatre is a place where you go with a group of people so that you can be alone for 2 hours (just like at home). And if you get tired of (nervous about) talking about the film afterwords…”Hey let’s go shopping!”

New theatres are horrible. They are designed so that the minute that you walk in the door you can begin your journey into the depths isolation so that you can see a film all by yourself with the satisfaction of crediting yourself with some “family time” or something of equal value.

Movies have suffered. The people have suffered. The solution is simple…burn them down!! Wait, no never mind that would be worse.

The solution is simple. Regardless of the institution and how it has ruined itself be the handful that actually treat the theatre like it should. A place for people to congregate and learn more about being human by great Myth and Story, let the characters guide you for a few hours and them see how others were affected and how they may be different because of the experience that you, as a community, shared together.

Wow. Let me tell you this movie was a real surprise!  I thought I would be walking into something rather simple and lame.  I thought it was going to be advertising for Nappa.  What I found was a really quaint histo-drama on a very special unique time for California and for America.  It was kind of like Seabiscuit without the national pride.  Now that I think of it that doesn’t surprise me.  It is a movie about selfish people trying to make a difference without knowing how.  It is typical of how California thinks of itself in terms of the country it is part of.  The fact that on their site they compare this moment with the moon landing and 1980 hockey win seems a bit of a non-sequitor.  But I digress from my thoughts on the film.

So this film was pretty amazing in one spectacular detail.  I have been researching to see how true the facts are but have found squat, so I will just go with it an hope that it is based on real events.

Spoilers follow:  as in total spoilers:

So as I walked out of the theatre I felt way better than I should and as David Wilcox would say “I was bugged for metaphorical reasons.”

You see I had just saw something really beautiful and didn’t know why it was beautiful.  It wasn’t until 2 days later that it struck me.  Christ was the entire focus of this film he was the driving story the reason these people were in community and he taught them about love life and how to be better human beings. He even was a perfect creation that died and rose again in this film.  And it was because it was perfect that it HAD to die and rise again.

Now by no means am I saying that this is a Christian Film, I would never condemn a film like that. :)  what I think is that these filmmakers knew the power of Christ imagery and of the story that so much of the world is familiar with that it became their story.  I am sure a lot of it was coincidence or just playing on tradition western storytelling, but it is there.

Ill be short with the explanation then let you play with it a bit on your own.

The grapes and wine are Christ.  OK for all you sacramentals out there you say “Of course Marshall!” I hope so beacuse this movie mad me want to take communion ASAP.  so the one quote about wine from Galileo “Wine is sunlight held together by water” is ever so meaningful. That image Christiologicaly is very cool.

If Christ is the wine in this story some things need to be there.  Well the wine is brought into the world by the unequipped and unprepared.  People society would never imagine a savior coming from.  It should be prophesied.  It should polarize people.  It should die. it should rise again. and finally it should save people’s lives because of the death and rebirth.

In the film the wine does all these things and more.  it even goes through a 3 day death and rebirth.  AND durring its death it is still sweet and beautiful.  In fact the reason for its necessary death is its perfection. and it literaly saves a “nation.”

So due to some missunderstanding of my message caused by my terrible writing I would like to present this again.  This version is much the same but more clear in its intent and purpose.  Thanks!

So when you say porn most people think of sexually explicit romps viewed by college kids and creeps.  and I guess we could say yea that is pornography. but I have been having discussions with people about the media lately and what we decided is that there are more than one type of porn.  Let’s start with a definition to work with.  I’m going to state that porn is something designed to distort reality (read: Goodness Truth Beauty) intending to create a sudden and heightened physiological reaction in the viewer. This by definition should be a bad thing.  I think most people agree on this.The reason that it is wrong isn’t in the actual acts or events but in the representation of reality.  The reality of Pornography is damaging to the viewer if they begin to think the real world is like the porn world.

Sexual Pornography

The first type of porn is the obvious easy to avoid pornography. It is intended to arouse the viewer sexually and draw a compulsive audience.  It has that specific purpose and intent in its creation.  The reason that it is so powerful is that it has shadows of truth in it.  Sex is good, men and women should enjoy a sexual relationship.  But obviously we are no supposed to be marketing, selling or watching it. At the very least porn cheapens sex and makes it boring.  One of the bigger problems that sexual pornography is that with prolonged exposure the distortion of reality is inevitable. If sex becomes a performance or an instrument of personal pleasure instead of a relationship and a communication of love and a expression of Christ’s love for his church then we have lost the whole meaning of sex.

So what other kinds of porn are there? There are a few subjects that can stray into the porn arena that usually are not really considered porn but should be.

Violence Pornography

Movies have a history of dramatizing violent acts.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with this in and of itself.  Violence in films can have it’s use and serve a purpose. Heck the bible has some of the most incredible scenes ever of battle and carnage.  Though the current trend in films is rather disturbing.  We have taken the reality of violence and distorted it into something that audiences seek out for pleasure.  This is disturbing from this filmmakers perspective because this constant distortion of violence changes the  audiences perception of violence in standard films.  The thing is that films like Saw and Touristas, and Death Race distort reality, and to a culture of people immersed and saturated in violence pornography The Godfather turns out to be silly and ineffectual in its message. The most terrifying scenes are now Laughable to my students because they have been exposed to horribly graphic violent acts.  Violence pornography does not just ruin the current films on the market, they actually affect the classics when viewed by modern audiences and this is nearly intolerable to me personally.

Propaganda Pornography (news porn)

The news media has been in the business of propaganda for a long while now (like when it started…or before).  I will leave it at that for this one.  (as a note Colbert and Stewart get a free pass because they are satire not “news” although yes most people my age get their news from them).  Sadly most news suppliers are only thinly veiled propaganda machines with agendas reliant on creating sudden heightened reactions from their viewers.  At least The Daily Show and Colbert Report are honest about what they do.  Don’t tollerate being lied to or decieved, don’t let a talking head distory reality in your home.

Emotional Pornography

This type of porn is what I like to call the Hallmark channel porn.  This type of media is designed to represent a world that does not exist.  This type of media is purely created to infect you with constructed realities designed to withdrawl the highest possible phisiological response from the viewers as possible.  this cathartic emotional enema is nothing more than a cheap drug.  This is damaging because with prolonged exposure viewers will start to look at the world in the same way that the hallmark channel represents, and they will yearn for those carthic moments in real life.  When they dont get them they think there is somethign wrong with their reality so they go back to the media to fill that void.  This creates the same vicious cycle that all of the above create.

Christian Pornography

This is the one that bothers me the most.  You know the type media that I am talking about by now.  As a Christian it bothers me that this type of media has become the most recognizable part of christian culture.  these films represent a world that is only fractionally true.  It presents a picture of being a christian that is false.  It shows Christianity as a push button answer to all the worlds problems.  The scary part is people are acclimated to this type of Christian media and fall into the false reality the same as others fall into sexual or emotional pornography.  This one is the most terrible in my opinion becaus eit deals directly with our creator and redemer.  if our perception of him is manipulated by these films, and we are no longer able to see reality clearly then we could danm others by our actions and words.  we could lead others astray so easily with this type of media and exposure to this media.  my only comforting thought is that the bulk of this pornography is so poorly made that it should be obvious how false its reality is.  but when we make emotional christian pornography it can be like a drug for some people.

I’m not sure what can be done to reduce the effects of these types of pornography besides education people about personal responsibility.  I think it is important to show people that there are some very dangerous types of pornography that are equally as damaging to society and to yourself as any other.  These should be avoided and spoken against.  We should not tolerate it in our community and if we see people consuming this type of media we should speak to them in love and do what we can to help them rehabilitate themselves to the truths of the world. Our goals should be to help those struggling to see the truth and have been led astray by harmful worldviews that can corrupt their life.

If you are finding yourself as a consistent viewer of one of these take some time to consider the way you view the world, and honestly evaluate your actions.  If you find that you are affected by this media in your everyday life you may have a problem.  I know it sounds silly and a little to serious but I believe that the last three forms of pornography mentioned are the most prevalent and dangerous because they are not commonly thought of as dangerous and have been accepted into society.

Be strong and call out porn when you see it and drive it from your life.  Refuse to be manipulated any longer.  Reality is not a construct it is tangible Truth! Don’t let something take that away from you.

Bring your thoughts to the table!

The Dark Knight is a profound film in that it attempts to tackle 2 icons of American pop culture in one film.  because of this I am willing to give Nolan the lenience that he deserves, although he out performed my personal expectations.  DK is a complex film that asks much of the viewer, and I appreciate the challenge because this says to me that Nolan is not making the mistake of creating an “American Blockbuster,” rather he is attempting to make a great film.  I believe that Nolan has raised the bar in comic films although he did not do anything especially spectacular as far as standard filmmaking.  His film is excellent yet I could only say that it is an excellent American film.  I believe that it may raise audience standards and many American filmmakers standards I have to say that this film is not the messiah of American film people are making it out to be.

Because there is not much I can write about the film as a standard review that hasn’t been said in the last few weeks I would like to propose a few ideas to you and share some thought on the characters, comparisons with past versions of these American Icons and some possibly unconventional thoughts on the film and structure as a whole.  before I do let me fully disclose my admiration for the film and my and absolute fanboy addiction to Batman.  I tend to border on the over analytical as I have given lectures on Batman before and really find that there is some great power to his story.

There are fundamentally different ways to view this film and my biggest problem watching this film is that it didn’t seem to me that Batman was absolutely the main character.  In this film we don’t see the film through any ones specific viewpoint so it is a true 3rd person film but we are not 3rd person omniscient as we can tell through specific elements being hidden from us on purpose.  And interestingly we are kept in the dark about things the primary characters are going to do so we are not let in on anything until we are in the midst of the event itself.  So here are some ideas on viewing the film through a specific characters perspective.  I am not supposing that these characters are the eyes we see through but these are the characters we are meant to attach to and will empathize with at different times.  So do not take these as literal but next time you watch the film try and see it from a different perspective.  After all you never know what the person next to you may relate to in the film and this exercise can help foster some great discussion here and other places.

We are The Batman/Bruce Wayne

I propose that we are Batman.  Batman and Joker are not diametrically opposed as one may think.  They both are rule breakers, are not willing to confront their problems using society’s conventions, have complete freedom within their fantasy they have created, and only have one thing to loose, and are willing to die for their beliefs.

Batman desires Justice with a big “J” yet he is never sure what that truly is although he is presented with multiple answers and usually chooses one that fits the particular story he is in or situation he is in.  As we walk through these stories particularly DK we have to continually ask ourselves ‘What is Justice?’ That has to be our driving force.  In DK we actually see a rare thing for Batman and for ourselves.  Complete submission.  Bruce is willing to completely submit himself to the greater good so that the community can be whole again and safe.  When can we say that we ourselves have ever submitted so wholly to someone’s idea of Justice or any other virtue.  Through Batman’s example Nolan has taken an opportunity to show us something unexpected from a “hero,” humility.

We should remember that Batman is a free man.  He has more money than he can fathom and he uses it to maintain his freedom not only to be The Batman, but to manipulate his closest relationships.  We see this in small ways in his interactions with Dent and Dawes but it is brought to fruition in his relationship with Fox as he uses money to push that friendship to its breaking point and then to pull Fox back to him.  There are obvious things we should be making ||’s to so I wont go further into this.

Lastly we desire Justice in the world and believe that the world is not “fair,” and we  want to resolve our problems as well as others.  This is where Batman has become a servant of others as well as himself.  Batman has chosen himself and placed himself into this position of the defender of Justice.  As he is still unsure of what true Justice is he delegates that duty to the only people he can trust, those he relies on completely.  Batman lives by a strict set of rules and uses those rules to dictate every action he performs.  Batman does what he does only so that eventually someone better than him can implement true Justice in his place.  Sadly his own actions will always keep this from ever happening.

We are The Joker

I propose we are the Joker.  Joker is an agent of chaos, rules do not apply to him and he seeks to destroy all rules. There is something more important in his character that should be examined first.

Who is the Joker?  In the comics and other interpretations of the character there is usually an abnormal almost unjustified amount of time spent on how the Joker became who he is.  This seems necessary for American audiences because it is comfortable and we can think about half baked Freudian explanations for a disturbed individual.  What are the implications of a person who comes from nowhere?  A man with no history can be the most dangerous man in the room.  Think about it, when we meet people we like to know who they are but really we want to know what makes them who they are now.  To trust someone we like to be confident in who they were and if that corresponds to the person we see.  Also on the more manipulative side if we can know someones past we can manipulate them or we can predict their future actions.

Something that scares us about Joker is that he comes from nowhere.  Joker realizes this about himself and uses it to his advantage.  He terrifies us with his constructed pasts that he creates for his own purposes and as the audience we may relate to this because so many of us have tried to re-construct our own pasts.  We do not want to be constrained even by reality or society’s perceptions.  making these ||’s should start to scare you a little.

Joker is as free as Batman.  The Joker only has one thing that he is fearful of and that is Arkham, but that is only in the comics.  In DK The Joker has no fear he is free of everything all rules and constraints.  Particularly money, and that sets him apart from Batman in an interesting way.  The Joker is an explorer of ethical boundaries without restraint.  In the film Joker actually acts out multiple textbook Ethics problems.  In an of it self exploring the ethical dilemmas of the world is not evil, actually enacting them is.

We are The Joker in that we are also creations of the media and creators of the media.  The Joker has a theme of manipulating the media and being affected by the media.  His desire to be a part of the news, and using the news to his advantage shows him to be actually controlled in a simple way.  The Joker may not fear anything in this interpretation but he has a weakness.

Just as Batman desires to seek justice the Joker desires to be a victim.  Joker actually seeks out opportunities to be throttled by Batman and he manipulates Batman into those situations by using Justice.  He thrives on fear and uses fear to drive society and to drive himself.  At his most threatening moments he is nearly trembling in a fear euphoria.  The joker uses others rules against themselves our their inhibitions.  This is why he thrives on Batman capturing him, because he knows he will take Batman to the brink of his sanity and that gives him immense pleasure but because he does not fear death from Batman (because he can’t dish that out) he allows himself to be placed simultaneously in his worst fear and that is capture (because he can’t create chaos in captivity he hasn’t constructed)

Please feel free to discuss in the comments, I cant wait to hear from you!

Continued next time:

We are Gordon/Two face/Dawes

We are Gotham

What is There to Learn