Film Friday Having recently seen the seventh Mission Impossible movie, Dead Reckoning, in which Ethan Hunt and his buddies motorcycle off cliff edges, battle their way through tumbling railway carriages, and peel of their various rubber faces, it set me thinking about the nature of films. This is a pure bit of escapism, a story to get your nerves jangling as you perch on the edge of your seat. Some films help us to forget life, while other films help us think through the nature of reality. Some films manage to do a bit of both. And I’m not saying that action films can’t speak of life and God: the opening sequence of MI2 features Tom Cruise climbing a mountain, and shows the struggle and risk involved in that. It reminds me that life can be a struggle at times, and it can involve risk and difficult choices.
Just as Jesus’s parables were stories from life that can lead us closer to God and his ways, so a moment from a film has the power to do that. God still loves using stories to enlighten and inspire us, I believe.
I recently came across a prayer for our film watching in a book called Windows of the Soul by Ken Gire. In that Ken offers a chance to pray that we will not just be entertained, but also enlightened by our streaming and cinema-going. Here’s my version of it:
Lord, when I watch a film at home or in a cinema, help me to be enriched at times as well as entertained. And if you want to speak to me in some way next time I sit down to what a film, then help me to hear you and notice what you’re saying to me. Help me please to be aware of the many different ways that you can to speak to us. Quicken my spirit and soften my heart through what I see, and nudge me towards the truth and grace that only you can bring into our lives. Amen.
You could of write your own version of this relating to God speaking through all kinds of things.
But back to escapist films for a moment, there are certainly times when it’s good to be whisked out of reality for a while, taken out of ourselves. But there are times too when what we see and hear may well bring us to another place. One that can help us and inspire us as we face the daily rigours of ordinary life.
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