Review of "Hollywood Worldviews" by Brian Godawa

Brian Godawa's book Hollywood Worldviews is a book about "watching films with wisdom & discernment," but it is about much more than just movies.  In some ways it can function as a refresher from some of your old English Lit classes in high school and college because it talks about the art and mechanics of story.  It is also a fair introduction to philosophy.  It's not a comprehensive introduction to philosophy by any means, but the whole book is about seeing the philosophies behind the movies.  As such, it occured to me as I read that this would be a great way of sneaking in a little philosophical instruction to someone who is bored with philosophy.  It shows that philosophy is indeed a very practical subject.

But more to the point, the book is about interacting with movies from a Christian worldview or philosophy.  Godawa makes the point that movies are simply stories, and stories can't help but communicate a worldview or philosophy.    

After spending two chapters discussing the art and process of storytelling, the rest of the book deals with the dominant worldviews communicated in movies.  Per Godawa, some of the dominant worldviews that come across in movies are:

Existentialism - Forrest Gump, Being There, Grand Canyon

Nihilism - Woody Allen movies

Postmodernism - Pulp Fiction, Blade Runner, The Matrix and some of the genre-spoof movies like Scream, Scary Movie and Shrek with their focus on the story as story only and  not as a means for communicating reality.

(Impersonal) Fate - Cast Away, Serendipity, Pulp Fiction

Monism - (the view that all all of reality is one and we all need to realize our oneness with creation) - Powder, Phenomenon

Neo-Darwinism - Dinosaur

Neo-Paganism - The Craft, Practical Magic, Chocolat, The Cell.

As to the way Christianity is portrayed in the movies Godawa says that it is portrayed negatively for the most part, but there are exceptions.  He suggests Les Miserables as an exemplary portrayal of the grace of Christ.  Also, he points out that sometimes, when Christianity is portrayed negatively there is something good we can take from it.  He cites The Big Kahuna as an example of a movie where a Christian character treats Jesus as a product, and evangelism as a sales pitch.  Though this particular character was portrayed negatively, Godawa finds it instructive and helpful for Christians who need to learn to treat people with love and concern.

There is a good section on the portrayal of the supernatural in movies, focusing on angels and demons and the like.

A helpful appendix is included on sex,violence and profanity.  Godawa includes this because many Christians believe that movies containing those elements are inappropriate for Christians.  Godawa contends that the bible itself gives accounts including all of these things.  As regards sex, many translations euphemize biblical passages that have overt and explicit sexual overtones, but they are in there.  The bible gives graphic accounts of violence.  And while we may not find words that we would call "profanity" by today's standards the bible describes certain insults and strong language that is rather crass.

He is not arguing that it is ok to engage in illicit sex, violence and profanity, only to say that the artistic portrayal of these things is not necessarily sinful.  It all goes back to context.  Portraying these things merely to titilate or exploit is wrong, but the bible puts these events in contexts where the portrayal of sin serves a godly purpose.  Godawa also gives appropriate warnings.  Some of us may use our freedom in Christ as an excuse to indulge a besetting sin.  If the viewing of a movie entices us to lust or commit some other sin then Christian freedom does not give us the right to indulge.

I pretty much agree with the above and yet it raises an issue I wrestle with.  I agree that, since the bible portrays illicit sex, violence and profanity, that the artistic portrayal of these things is not always wrong.  On the other hand what do we say about the actors who portray such things in movies?  Suppose we come up with a scenario where there is a valid context for a portrayal of sex in a movie?  If an actress disrobes in such a scene and simulates sex with someone she is not married to, is that ok?  I find it hard to justify such a thing.  On the other hand I realize my own inconsistency here.  When I watch a movie where an actor portrays a murder I don't usually think of that as sin.  The reason is that I understand it is all make believe.  That wasn't a real knife, that's not real blood and no one was really wounded.  Yet is the portrayal of a make believe murder any different than the portrayal of make believe sex.  On the other hand, we can all envision how an artist could portray a make believe murder, but is there such a thing as make believe sex? 

To look at this another way, suppose I, as a married man and a Christian, were an actor in a play or movie who had a passionate kissing scene with a woman not my wife - would that be ok?  It wouldn't be ok in real life, so is there some realm of "art" where it would be ok?  I can't see my wife being ok with it in either situation and I surely can't see myself being ok with it if it were my wife in such a situation. 

The biblical portrayals of sin are not artistic portrayals of sin, they are are more like documentaries.  It seems to me that there is a big difference.   I don't see how we can justify a Christian participating in a sex scene. 

But this raises another question?  Can a Christian view something they would not participate in.  In that case the playing field gets a little more leveled between the bible and art.  There are all kinds of things we read about in the bible that we wouldn't participate in.  So yes, I can see some rationale for a Christian being allowed to view or read about something they couldn't participate in.   At the same time, each individual Christian has to know his limits.  In viewing such things we may entice ourselves to sin, so the viewing becomes a sin.

These last few paragraphs are not meant to detract from Godawa's work.  I am mainly thinking via blogging.  Those are issues I haven't heard addressed by Godawa or others I have read, of if they have addressed them I just missed what they said.

And, having said all of that I agree with Godawa that we need to look deeper into movies and look beyond the sex, violence and profanity to the story itself.  He points out, as many others do, that stories are all about redemption.  A more profitable way to view movies is to view them in terms of their themes of redemption instead of the scoresheet mentality of how many sex scenes, violent images and uses of profanity are in the movie.  We can view them more intelligently by looking at who or what is in need of redemption, what is the problem or conflict they are being redeemed from, what they are being redeemed to and how that redemption is accomplished.  Analyzing films this way will help us get at the underlying message of the stories in the movies we watch.