Yesterday morning, Aaron led our Christianity Matters class (aka Sunday School) in a conversation about Christians and drama (and at times the “arts” in general). He set out a few very important principles and dangers Christians should be aware of, many of which are provocative and controversial in Evangelicalism. In light of some things he said and given what time of year it is in Hollywood, I would like to zoom in a little closer on the motion pictures.

At the beginning of every new year, Hollywood pauses to acknowledge and award various, outstanding persons and films in the motion picture industry. This year is no different, with the exception of last night’s abbreviated Golden Globes because the continued Writer’s Guild strike and the pending damper on next month’s Oscars. I like to take the time, usually every year, to lay out a few principles I have for viewing movies. (Here are some posts from last year: “Christian Themes in Film” and “The Oscar Buzz”.) For the next few posts, I want to describe what it looks like to view movies through a critical lens.

As a Christian, I’m not concerned primarily about the entertainment “experience” but the movie’s “message”. You don’t have to read film critics with any regularity to notice all the talk about things like casting, screen writing and script, pace, cinematography, photography, musical scoring, costume, editing, and acting. Most critics spend all of their time focusing on those aspects and judging them by some fixed standard. All of those aspects of movie making are very important. A story told at the wrong pace can make for a slow and tiring movie. A character’s role can be fascinating, but if miscast then it’s dull and possibly unbelievable. In the end, however, these things aren’t a Christian’s primary concern.

Our concern is for the message. Motion pictures are modern-day stories by modern-day storytellers. And stories convey a message. A worldview is being portrayed before our very eyes. So what’s the message? Is the worldview compatible with the Christian worldview? What were the writer and director saying about ________? Those are some of the questions I always ask myself after I watch a movie. Part of what it means to be a critical viewer is to be proactive in discerning the message.

Now I’m not trying to imply that film critics don’t care about the message/story. Far be it! Nearly every review begins with the line “So And So is a story about…” But a critic’s review is less about the message’s content and more about it’s entertainment quality, and that’s only fitting. He or she is a critic in, of, and for an entertainment industry. So that which makes for an entertaining experience qualifies as a good movie in the critic’s eyes. But for a Christian, the entertainment industry doesn’t set the standard by which we judge the content of the message. It’s anything goes in Hollywood. And our responsibility is to be discerning, critical viewers of what goes.

(My next post will give tips on how to discern the message.)

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