The Catechist Connection
February 2002
Vol. 17, No. 6

The Media Through Gospel Eyes

by Rose Pacatte, FSP
Director
Pauline Center for Media Studies
50 Saint Pauls Avenue
Boston, MA 02130-3491

Anyone who has flown commercially knows the drill. The flight attendant welcomes and familiarizes us, the passengers, with safety measures of the aircraft. Should the cabin pressure decrease, oxygen masks will drop from the overhead compartments. If you are traveling with someone who needs assistance, put your own mask on first then help the person next to you.

It’s the same for engaging faith and media because we often feel like our spiritual oxygen is decreasing in a world of media messages. As a way of coping, there is a popular and politically correct trend in North America today to bash the media. This is often done without consideration for what the media culture might mean to young people growing up in it and from which they probably gain more of their identity than from faith or family. Media foes can also fail to take into account the many other social factors that influence families today such as poverty and the widespread lack of parenting skills.

However, the media-savvy catechist first studies the information/entertainment cultural phenomenon, articulates her own gospel values regarding it and becomes a critical-yet-appreciative media consumer. In so doing, she puts on her own oxygen mask. Then she can teach her students helpful media literacy skills to navigate our media world with faith and dignity.

February flight

I would like to invite you on an armchair trip this month so we can all practice with our oxygen masks. There are four themes we can identify in the gospels this month: the Beatitudes, light and salt, overcoming temptation and transforming light. With the help of Peter Malone, MSC, author of a movie lectionary for cycle A, let’s take a look at four movies through the eyes of the gospel to see how we can begin to plot a course through faith and culture today.

Snow Falling on Cedars

For most North Americans, February is full winter. The gospel for the Fourth Sunday of the Year calls our attention to the poor in spirit and the blessedness that will be ours if we but live according to the teachings of Jesus. One movie that fits winter well is the 1999 film, Snow Falling on Cedars.

The movie is about racial antagonism toward Japanese-Americans during and after World War II in Washington State. Through the relationships portrayed, the drama of a murder trial and the hard-pressed integrity of a journalist, the film comes to an almost haunting yet hopeful end.

A thoughtful viewing of this film evokes the possibility of our own racial bias, an attitude that is unacceptable if the Sermon on the Mount is to mean anything in our lives. Some of the characters in the film do live out these positive Christian precepts. The contrast of those who do not, is striking. Seeing the difference is where gospel "eyes" come in.

Pleasantville

The next stop is the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. With a hint of spring in the air, we arrive in Pleasantville, USA. It is a town straight out of the 1950s when no one had to worry about crude language or violence, smoking or alcohol and Hollywood beds (twin beds) placed sex in "safe" territory (as if these were the only important issues to contend with.) It is a town without color, mature human freedom or light until two less-than-perfect modern teenagers arrive, carried back in time because they fought over the remote control.

Pleasantville shows very well how television, movies and popular music have a way of ‘normalizing’ morals, values and beliefs that in turn can become standards for acceptable behavior. Why were there mostly white people living in suburbia in 1950s television? Where was the rest of America or the world, for that matter? The film provokes viewers to look at the role of television in their lives and to ask if nostalgia television was really better or just easier. We can also ask: how can television and Jesus both help us be light and salt for the world?

End of Days

Our third stop is, of all places, the end of the world where we meet with the inimitable Arnold Schwarzenegger and the devil. On this First Sunday of Lent, we are confronted with Jesus’ 40-day sojourn in the desert, with only the devil and his temptations for company.

The End of Days will not be everyone’s favorite film, but be assured many young people will see it on television, video or DVD. Its comic-book style, poor apocalyptic theology and violence can be distracting. Jericho Cane (J.C., played by Schwarzenegger) is a kind of Christ-figure, though one in need of redemption himself. When Satan (Gabriel Byrne) tempts Jericho, we come to a closer understanding of the dynamics of temptation, discouragement and finally heroism.

In one scene, Satan says to Jericho (who blames himself for the death of his wife and daughter,) "You walked away from the light just like I did." This is a very solid definition of sin found in the midst of what many will dismiss as Hollywood dross. Is this a movie you would choose to see? Maybe not. But by viewing it thoughtfully through gospel eyes, identifying its weaknesses and strong points, it becomes a "space" for dialogue between you, your students, their parents and popular culture. The film becomes then a "safe place" to talk about important facets of the Christian life through cinematic metaphor while at the same time the process engages our critical skills.

Phenomenon

Our last stop is the small town of Auburn, Calif., where the movie Phenomenon was filmed in 1996. Having dealt with the devil, we are ready to be transformed or transfigured by the Lord (Second Sunday of Lent).

George Malley (John Travolta) has a vision of light that transforms him from a likeable, ordinary member of a small community to an intellectual whiz that even the government wants a part of. George wants to celebrate his newfound gifts with his friends, just as Peter, James and John want to build tents and stay with Jesus on the mountain. Alas. The phenomenon that George experiences when he looks into the starry night sky (as God tells Abram to do in the first reading) comes to an end. The light fades for George, as it did for the apostles on the mountain of the Transfiguration.

If we are inspired after viewing a film like Phenomenon, then we have the opportunity to grow, even if every detail of the film is not perfect. After all, Phenomenon is not so much a gospel parallel as a story that can be compared to today’s Scripture readings, talked about and mined for its contribution to our lives as persons and members of the Christian community.

Coming in for a Landing

Dialogue between the Sunday gospel readings and contemporary films (or other media) can help us develop critical thinking skills so that it becomes natural for us to question stories and bring our moral imagination to bear on what we see, listen to and read and ultimately, act.

Information and entertainment media make up the cultural "air" in which we live, breathe, move and have our being. The media are not going away, so we may never come in for a landing! Sunday by Sunday, the scriptures invite us to bring our everyday lives to Mass. This includes our media experiences. Then with the grace of Word and sacrament, we are sent out again, strengthened by divine oxygen, first for ourselves, then for others.