The Academy Awards are upon us, and the two top contenders for major awards—The King’s Speech and True Grit—are both excellent films with significant moral and/or spiritual overtones. In fact, Lisa Respers France at CNN.com’s Religion Blog suggests that many of this year’s Oscar nominees have “deeply spiritual overtones.”
As an aside, last year’s most profoundly and transcendently religious film—conspicuously not nominated by the Academy, though it’s won lots of other awards, including the jury prize at Cannes—makes its American debut this weekend in New York and Los Angeles: Of Gods and Men. If you live anywhere in the New York or Los Angeles area, go see it. This weekend. I’m not kidding. I’ll write more about it soon (and I’ll be talking about it this afternoon on Kresta around 5:40 EST), but for now the best mainstream take on it I’ve seen is Kenneth Turan’s (LATimes.com).
Citing a number of writers and teachers whose work links faith and film, France argues that the current crop of Oscar nominees “explore themes that many contain elements of spirituality”:
There’s the power of transformation for a ballerina seeking the role of a lifetime in “Black Swan,” the battle of good versus evil in “True Grit,” and humility and the bonds of humanity in “The King’s Speech,” the story of King George VI, his stutter and his friendship with his speech therapist.
Three nominees - “The Kids Are All Right,” which focuses on a gay couple and their children, “The Social Network” based on the founding of Facebook, and “Toy Story 3” – explore issues of love, friendship and fellowship.
Perception versus reality is a theme in “Inception,” in which a thief steals information via people’s dreams. The faith needed to overcome difficult circumstances figures into the trapped-in-the mountains thriller “127 Hours.” And there are echoes of that faith in “The Fighter” and “Winter’s Bone,” in which a young girl struggles to keep her poverty-stricken family together.
Um. I dunno. To start with, I have no idea what might be meant by “the power of transformation” as a “spiritual” theme in Black Swan. France quotes a professor of Judaic studies who says that “transformation” is “part of great drama” and is “really at the heart of many of the world’s religions, certainly the western religious tradition.” Maybe that was taken out of context, but the “Western religious tradition” (which I take it here means Abrahamic monotheism) isn’t deeply concerned with “transformation” in the abstract, but with what Ezekiel calls “a new heart and a new spirit” and Saint Paul “a new creation”—something Natalie Portman’s sick, disturbing progression in Black Swan has nothing to do with.
Likewise, one can talk about the moral and spiritual questions raised by a movie like The Kids Are All Right, including a child’s need for a father and a mother, but the film’s same-sex marriage agitprop sucks most of the air out of the discussion.
Ironically, The King’s Speech is one of the most pro-marriage Hollywood films in recent years, not only because of the loving, supportive marriages of the two protagonists, Prince Albert and Lionel Logue, but also because of the crisis occasioned by Prince Edward’s immature, narcissistic indifference to social norms regarding marriage and divorce. It’s a terrific film about duty and social responsibility, with both positive and negative examples in Albert and Edward. In short, it’s about a lot more than “humility and the bonds of humanity.” (Apologies that I still don’t have a review! Very soon, I hope.)
The King’s Speech isn’t the only film whose spiritual themes are undersold here. Half the Westerns ever made are about “the battle of good versus evil,” but True Grit is about justice and grace, the cost of revenge, sin and redemption, and the hand of Providence. Inception is about reality and illusion, but also about the leap of faith that takes us beyond solipsism into relationship with the other.
127 Hours is not just about faith but about the need for faith, specifically the need to acknowledge our dependence, our neediness—to ask for help, to express gratitude. Toy Story 3 is about friendship and community, but also the obligations of conscience over community pressure; ultimately it touches on solidarity in the face of mortality.
By the way, our special one-hour Oscar episode of “Reel Faith,” in which David DiCerto and I discuss our predictions and favorites as well as snubs and such, airs this weekend on Saturday, February 26th at 8pm & 11pm & Oscar Sunday, February 27th at 6am, 9am, 2pm and 6pm. You can catch the broadcast online at the NET homepage; not sure when the episode will be posted at the Reel Faith website. (If you haven’t caught our last episode, now’s the time.)
Any thoughts on the Academy Awards?
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Hey, just noticed the new pic - looking good, Steven!!
The only movie we’ve seen from the list is “The King’s Speech” which was lovely, wonderfully acted and an amazing story about a forgotten, yet important piece of history. My dh and I were also struck by the loving relationships displayed in both families. From Lionel Logue’s interacting w/ his sons to his delightful ‘embarrassment’ with his wife. You see Prince Albert talking ponies w/ the princesses and struggling to tell a story despite his stutter which brought real tears to my eyes (my own loving father has a small stutter). Beautiful!
It was wonderful to see not only marriage upheld so lovingly but an intact family unit.
This Oscar telecast is going to stink. I was already upset that Nolan wasn’t nominated for best director but then I read this: http://www.deadline.com/2011/02/snorefest-oscar-show-rundown-exclusive-spoilers-from-the-annotated-schedule/
Nope. Not watching.
@ Adolfo: FWIW, take Nikki Finke’s condemnations with a grain of salt. Snark is her stock in trade. And even she only says it will be “yet another snorefest”; I’m not sure she’s saying it will be worse than usual.
FWIW, this is probably the first year in a long time where I actually like 80% of the Best Picture nominees, and really like the two front-runners. I think I might actually watch this year, and I usually don’t watch (often because I’m too busy, but this weekend I actually have some breathing room; in fact, I’m planning on going to see Of Gods and Men a second time!).
P.S. Rachel M - Thanks!
“Black Swan” is seriously misrepresented there. It has spiritual significance, all right, but it has nothing to do with themes of transformation. I believe it was Eve Tushnet who pointed out that “Black Swan” is, in its way, radically countercultural; Nina embraces her sexuality and begins thinking of herself rather than others, just like our culture says that women should, but it destroys her.
Nolan’s not up for best director and Scott Pilgrim isn’t up for best visual effects :( On the the other hand, Toy Story 3 got a best picture nomination. Normally, I would have liked to see it get Best Picture and have Best Animated go to Dragon, but I actually see several other films I enjoyed up for Best Picture this year(I still need to see the King’s Speech though). Inception ought to get the Best Screenplay IMHO.
I am certainly no expert on these things, but I am of the belief that, if “Of Gods and Men” is getting its American debut this weekend, that means it wasn’t eligible for this year’s Academy Awards.
@ Paul Marrack: Nope.
Ah. Thanks, SDG.
@ Rachel K: I disagree with Eve Tushnet’s take on Black Swan. Calling Black Swan countercultural in this way seems to me like saying that The Kids Are All Right is countercultural because it shows the children of lesbian parents wanting to know about their father. Because we can find elements of truth attested in a film doesn’t mean that the film embraces those truths. Black Swan is not a story about a woman learning to “think of herself rather than others”; she never thought of others. You could just as easily say it’s about a limited, repressed artist sacrificing herself to achieve greatness.
Let me reiterate what Steve said about OF GODS AND MEN. Depending on how a second viewing holds up (it’s coming to Washington in a couple of weeks), this is going real high on my 2011 Top Ten. Here’s a snip from my review when I saw it at a festival in September.
OF GODS AND MEN (Xavier Beauvois, France, 9)
Contrary to appearances, I’m not just putting out for the Catholic film about holy martyrs, for a film about an Islamist terrorist attack on an Algerian monastery of Cistercian monks. I actually had some serious reservations going in about OF GODS AND MEN and several ideas about where it could go wrong — as an easy ecumenical homily ...
But ... the film is as liturgically structured and as theologically engaged as the monks’ lives. It’s not as rigorous on that front as INTO GREAT SILENCE (how could it be), but there’s more than enough of it to make clear that these are men of serious religious conviction, not social workers, in Mother Teresa’s famous formulation. The prayer meetings, masses and readings often turn out relevant, and the theology is not scrimped on.
And here is the release schedule, so those of us outside New York and Los Angeles can plan ahead.
The only downside ... the thing is from the Frenchland.
But I like a little snark mixed with my entertainment coverage! ;)
I’m pleased as punch with most of the nominees for best picture this year, though I think Inception is a better film than Social Network and ought to be contending for King’s Speech instead. I won’t be upset when King’s Speech wins, though.
@ Victor: Thanks for your comments, and for the release schedule! I’ve been planning a second viewing of Of Gods and Men for tomorrow with my three oldest kids, and possibly friends from church. And yeah, I can’t possibly imagine anything dislodging Of Gods and Men as my #1 film of the year.
Just read Eve’s post on BLACK SWAN (http://bit.ly/hTvEqt) and it’s a little more complex than either Steve or RachelK are giving it credit for, which would leave one thinking Eve was taking it for a melodramatic denunciation of selfishness (which would be every bit as simple-minded and stupid as people think the film is).
Rather Eve’s point is something about horror and insanity, that “the mind is its own place, and in itself/Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.” The sense in which it is against its times is NOT that she learns to think of herself (and gets destroyed for it) but that she only ever had a self to think about (and gets destroyed for it).
Question: is Of Gods and Men an Into Great Silence-like experience that needs the immersive environment of a theater, or would I not miss anything by waiting for the DVD?
Pach:
I’ll answer your question since Steve’s video stardom apparently has gone to his head and he has, as you can see, gone around the bend. I blame all that #winning and #tigerblood personally ... but be that as it may.
OF GODS AND MEN is a very immersive, quiet, liturgically-structured film that WOULD lose a lot at home, although it’s obviously less so than INTO GREAT SILENCE (so is practically every other movie ever made).
Even apart from that, I would still really encourage you to see OF GODS AND MEN in a theater rather than wait for video because we (Catholics, other Christians) should want this film to be a success and show exhibitors and distributors that people WILL turn out for a seriously religious film that isn’t “Junk for Jesus.”
I’ll answer your question since Steve’s video stardom apparently has gone to his head and he has, as you can see, gone around the bend. I blame all that #winning and #tigerblood personally ... but be that as it may.
*laughs and claps, thinking that Mr. Underhill has taken as much ale as is good for him*
Thanks for the advice. I’ll follow it if I possibly can; transportation is often a non-trivial issue for me.
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