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Christmas Carol, A (2009)
Box, The (2009) Fourth Kind, The (2009) Men Who Stare at Goats, The (2009) Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by S... Youth in Revolt (2009) Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) Amelia (2009) Antichrist (2009) Astro Boy (2009) Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant... Saw VI (2009) Motherhood (2009) Paranormal Activity (2009) Law Abiding Citizen (2009) New York, I Love You (2009) Stepfather, The (2009) Where the Wild Things Are (2009) Couples Retreat (2009) Education, An (2009) 
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Good art," argues cultural critic Kenneth A. Myers, "takes us to a world we wouldn't have imagined ourselves." It not only criticizes, it holds out a better moral vision. At their best the movies do this. |
 GOOD ART LASTS LONGEST
| Good Art Last Longest. |
Good art," argues cultural critic Kenneth A. Myers, "takes us to a world we wouldn't have imagined ourselves." It not only criticizes, it holds out a better moral vision. At their best the movies do this. Veteran screenwriter and teacher John Truby insists the films that leave the greatest impression teach a clear moral lesson and highlight values the average person can understand. A brief review of some major Hollywood films across the decades bears this out. Many cite the 1941 movie Citizen Kane as perhaps the best American picture ever made. Orson Welles presented a cinematic parable of the rise and fall of a larger-than-life figure, newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane. The dark lighting techniques and the flashback method accentuated the simple theme that moral choices and actions have consequences. In the end, Kane's ambition to become president is thwarted by scandal. The message seems to be, "A man reaps what he sows" (Galatians 6:7). Many film critics argue that Casablanca, 1943's Academy Award winner for best picture, would have fizzled at the box office if--in the end--Humphrey Bogart's character had not sacrificed his chances for happiness with the woman he loves. In the dramatic conclusion, Bogart forgoes fighting for his true love and strolls off dramatically in the night to fight the Nazis instead. Gary Cooper won the Best Actor award in 1952 for his riveting portrayal of integrity in action as a small-town Western sheriff left alone to face outlaws bent on revenge. High Noon pioneered a new style of filmmaking, the adult Western. And what about 1959's best film, Ben Hur? Here was presented in lavish spectacle and epic scope a filmed retelling of a classic American novel. The film shows the hero's life interacting with the ministry of Jesus. Both lives are set against the political powder keg that was first-century Judea. In spite of a slightly sentimental ending, such issues as leprosy, the Roman occupation of Judea and the corruption and intrigue of the first-century world lend an air of reality to events depicted in the Gospels. Surprisingly, in the midst of the secular, radicalized 1960s--the era of "God Is Dead"--Hollywood offered two classics of the silver screen, both of which touched on religious figures: The Sound of Music (1965) and A Man for All Seasons (1966). Both films won Academy Awards for best picture. A Man for All Seasons was a fictionalized but dramatic celebration of the religious convictions of an English Catholic. The Sound of Music's perennial contribution to wholesome family entertainment is well-known. In the 1970s, the movie industry showed it could hold up a questioning mirror to society as well as serve up high-tech epics such as Star Wars and the Star Trek saga. \Such titles as Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) were wrenching portrayals of crumbling family life and offered fresh glimpses into women's changing roles. The titles themselves stab like a knife. Chariots of Fire (1981) was an unabashedly positive celebration of the successes of two British athletes--the missionary's son Eric Liddell and the Jewish loner Harold Abrams. Liddell's courageous refusal to run qualifying heats for the Olympics on his day of worship is treated with considerable artistic license but is still a superb study of conviction under pressure. The late 1980s screened two different looks at the problem of race in American culture. First came the sober chronicle Mississippi Burning (1988) an evocation of a dark era in race relations. The other was the kinder, gentler Driving Miss Daisy (1989) which won the Academy Award for best picture. The 1995 drama Apollo 13 paid tribute to real-life heroes of the space program. The lesser-known Cry, the Beloved Country was a remake of a parable of reconciliation in South Africa, while Dead Man Walking, with Susan Sarandon playing a real-life nun known as the "Angel of Death Row," offered evidence that movies celebrating honor and integrity can succeed at the box office. We need more of them. More on Sex, Violence and Sleaze |
Why Hollywood Jesus is Not Moralistic Interview with Michael Madved Disney Boycott, Yes or No?
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