Literary and Cinematic Portrayals of Evil

Christians debate how, and to what degree, evil ought to be portrayed in their books and films.  We all want stories where the good guys win and virtue wins out, but for a story to be captivating good guys need bad guys to fight and virtue needs vice to overcome.

But how bad can a bad guy be before the Christian can no longer watch or read?  How much vice is too much vice?  I don't know. I am tempted to go off on a tangent discussing the portrayal of sex and violence but don't want to get off on a tangent.  I came across a Books and Culture Review of the movie To End All Wars that had some helpful things to say on this.

Speaking of the film, Eric Metaxas writing in Books & Culture

It is to the film's inestimable credit that it can portray Christian love palpably and effectively. But this is only possible because it has portrayed evil effectively first.

We live in a culture where actual evil is almost never portrayed except to give us a frisson of something amid the nothingness, where it is still believed not to exist at all—pious 9/11 caveats notwithstanding—and where the bumpersticker aphorism, "Mean People Suck," is about as out-on-a-limb as most folks are willing to go in that judgmental direction. The innocents who cling to this attenuated version of what the Spanish call realidad would do well to sit through this movie, because the evil level in it is about two-and-a-quarter headspins shy of The Exorcist—and it is all the more affecting, because these horrors are not sensationalistic spookhouse shenanigans but solid, documented, historical facts.

And yet there is something literally demonic in the cruelty and inhumanity of the Japanese soldiers here depicted. Their code of Bushido—a hypermoralistic worldview that is unspeakably racist, unspeakably cruel, and utterly power-worshiping—is what gives the contrasting biblical outlook such relevance and resonance and punch, that gives the few heaven-sent beams of light a cavern of blackest darkness in which to play.

What Christian films—and Christian "art" in general—have lacked is a willingness to portray evil convincingly. It was Milton's Satan and Dante's Inferno that made them two of the most powerful Christian artists of all time. Because they understood evil and did not shrink from it, their depictions of goodness had power. In order to be redemptive, art has to convince us there is something real from which we need redeeming.

In his post "Images, Words and Time,"  Doug Groothuis has some wise words about the appropriate and inappropriate portrayal of, for lack of a better word, gruesomeness.  To End All Wars has gruesome scenes in it which I don't think are gratuitous and do illustrate the evil of evil, although I am sure there are some who would disagree.

But for the most part I agree with Metaxas here - for redemption to shine forth in a book or a movie, it needs a stark backdrop of evil to contend with.  Something of the beauty of the story of redemption in the Bible would be lost if there were no book of Judges, which offers one of the most convincing portrayals of evil in history. 

Of course this can cross over into a gratuitous portrayal of evil, but Metaxas point is still well taken.  The light of the redemption shines brightest against the blackness of evil.

Comments

[David]

I think your insights are right on target:

My church recently completed a summer series on Hollywood films that depict biblical themes. They opened up with The Shawshank Redemption, which by the way, is my all-time favorite.

The speaker emphasized the theme of hope that is central here, and I think one of the reasons Andy's hope for a better life is so inspiring is because it's portrayed in the midst of such great evil and corruption.

Only by depicting prison life in this manner--with the perversity of the "Sisters" and the scheming of the Warden Hadley--are we able to truly appreciate the film's worthy message.

Virtue only makes sense in the context of vice.

[jason]

I think Mel Gibson wrestled with this idea in his portrayal of evil in the Passion of Christ. In the end, he selected an ugly man/woman carrying a demonic baby, starring with dark, wretched eyes as Jesus was tortured by the Roman Soldiers. For poetic value and personification of evil, I think he did well.

[Jack]

In general I agree that we shouldn't be afraid to portray evil realistically, but I think saying a portrayal of evil is necessary in order to show good by contrast gives a bit too much credit to the enemy. Christianity is not Manicheanism where the good and evil principles are evenly matched and eternally at war. Evil has a begining and an end and is under God's control at every point in the middle. The bible is bookended with a description of unmitigate bliss in its first two and last two chapters. Evil is a sad, but transitory interruption in that greater story.

That said, it is often quite useful for an artist to portray evil in order to gain the attention of the audience. Flannery O'Connor points out that in a complacent society that thinks it can get along fine without God, the grotesque is often the only thing shocking enough to bring people to their senses. I happen to have a taste for that kind of thing, but I do think it is more along the lines of speaking the truth in the vernacular of a pagan culture (which only knows the choice between the gods of Egypt or the gods of the Amorites) rather than anything inherent in Truth itself.

[JosiahQ]

See, I'm a fundamentalist when it comes to my approach to art, in that, if its in the Bible, then its OK to portray in film/art/etc. Violence, gratuitous(sp?) sex, and most importantly: really wacky end-times imagery. I love me them Left Behind movies.

[DLE]

While not a "Christian" film, "Schindler's List" certainly did not flinch from portraying evil. From shooting the woman architect in the head, to the nakedness of the prisoners in the "gas chamber," to the child forced to hide in the excrement of the outhouse, there was little that was left to the imagination. I think Christians rallied around that film.

That said, there has been much discussion in Christian fiction circles of late whether we need more "realistic" depictions of life. I fear that any attempt to descend will erase the lower limit altogether. The tendency of Man is to cross the line, get accustomed to the new limit, then cross the new line. Presto chango...slippery slope.

Sadly, I can imagine all sorts of perversity being portrayed frankly as Christian authors and filmmakers dash to explore the new bottom. We have to be remarkably careful or in our rush to seem relevant we expose ourselves as having nothing better to give to people than what the world already gives. I'm not sure we can be that careful.

[Scott McClare]

Schindler's List is an especially good example because it portrayed evil realistically. Amon Goeth, the commandant of the labour camp, shoots people (like the architect) matter-of-factly - it's just part of a day's work. I understand that many SS officers at the camps spent their spare time reading Goethe and other such literature - they were educated and intellectual brutes. Real evil is more frightening than the black-hat-wearing, moustache-twiddling caricature.

[michaelsfoster]

What I always find so strange about this debate is that the content of the Bible is often rated R. Rape, Incest, large scale wars, a woman's body being divided into pieces, and the like all adorn the pages of Scripture.

[Mwalimu Daudi]

What disturbs me is the tendency (sometimes) to make evil into good and good into evil. Sexual "liberation" in books and films is a prime example of this. Satan's ability to transform himself into an angel of light is his deadliest skill.

[cavman]

Scripture can be a helpful guide in this matter. Scripture never shies away from unspeakable evil- child sacrifice, rape, murder, adultery etc.
But it never gives vivid descriptions of those acts. It portrays evil as evil, and does not glamorize it.

In a film, or novel, a good writer/director lets you know evil is taking place without necessarily showing the act itself. You can clearly depict the fact of rape w/out showing the actual rape, murder w/out the spurting blood etc.

American Beauty depicted the ugliness of adultery- and it could have done it w/out showing the actual act. How the wife and her boss spoke to one another said it all.

It is often (exclusively?) our sinful nature that wants to see the evil itself. We are captivated, fancinated by evil. We will often be tempted to push the envelop in the name of realism. Scripture is real, w/out being graphic.