The Way Way Back

Rated PG-13.  Our ratings: V -1; L-3; S/N -3. Running time: 1 hour 43 min.

And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; 

you are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:30-31

Duncan meets the man who will change his outlook on life.

(c) 2013 Fox Searchlight Pictures

One of the best comedy-dramas of the year involves poor 14 year-old Duncan (Liam James) and his newly divorced mother Pam (Toni Collette) invited to spend the summer at the seaside cottage of her new boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell). It is very symbolic that in Trent’s station wagon the shy Duncan sits in the very back seat that faces backward. Trent is one of those cocksure guys who’s convinced he’s a blessing to everyone else, so he asks Trent how he would rate himself on a scale of 1 to 10. Flustered, the boy answers, “6.” Trent yells back, “3,” leaving he boy humiliated and enraged.

What a way for a potential step dad to start off with his lover’s son! Trent’s disdainful daughter Steph (Zoe Levin) is just as difficult, snubbing the slightly younger boy. And Pam, asleep up front misses this putdown, but later when she hears others, keeps silent, obviously not wanting to spoil her first serious relationship since her divorce. Several times she realizes that a caustic remark by Trent her son has hurt her son, but she seems powerless to come to his aid, other than by a wistful glance in his direction.

When they arrive at the cabin their neighbor Betty (Allison Janney) almost overwhelms them with her gushy welcome and gossip about the other summer residents. Her daughter Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb), about a year older than Duncan, tries to strike up a conversation with Duncan, but the withdrawn boy barely responds. He would much rather be with his dad, but the latter claims his circumstances do not allow this.

Duncan soon finds escape from the cabin via a bicycle (a girl’s bike, a pink one at that!) that he discovers in the cluttered garage. During his rides around the town and its environs he comes upon the Water Wizz Park where the crazy-talking Owen (Sam Rockwell) works as a jack of all trades. His humor at first falls flat on Duncan and at times almost gets him fired by his long-suffering boss. However, as Duncan returns day after day, the boy finds he has a father figure, an adult who actually listens to him because he cares about him. The sober boy even begins to get Owen’s humor as his mood lightens up. Duncan hires on, finding a supportive group of fellow employees that are in stark contrast to Trent and the others back at the cabin—with Susanna, to whom Duncan slowly opens up, being the exception. He even gains the nickname "Pop 'n' Lock” when he awkwardly attempts to break dance.
None of Duncan’s exploits are known to Pam or Trent, this to me being the weak point in the plot—how could a boy stay out all night or get a job without his mother’s knowledge and consent? Pam does ask him where he’s been or what he’s been doing when he returns at the end of the day, but his generalized answers would never satisfy a real mother: all the ones I know would have been all over him or gone out during the day to find him. Despite this, director Nat Faxon and Jim Rash have given us a good coming-of-age film. The campfire scene in which the transformed Duncan blurts out to his mother the truth about Trent’s philandering, is powerful drama, especially when Trent lashes back with the truth about Duncan’s father, that the man is too busy with his new family for Duncan to come and spend time with him.
This is one of those films that stand out when compared to the usual inane summer comedy. It is mostly devoid of the juvenile anal humor of so many Holly wood films about teens. There are adults who are jerks, but also some who have the wisdom of experience to impart, and the compassion to pass it on. The ending also resists our desire that Pam dump Trent and link up to Owen so that they can “live happily ever after,” the ending being somewhat ambiguous. Even Trent (and I think Steve Carell deserves great credit for playing this less than likable guy) might have learned something from this vacation, cut short by events of the night on the beach.

Note:The complete review with a set of discussion questions is included in the Sep/Oct. issue of Visual Parables.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Rated PG. Our ratings: V-4; L -0; S/N -1. Running time: 1 hour 46 Min.

I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.’ 

Joshua 1.9

Do not seek your own advantage, but that of others.

1 Corinthians 10.24

(c) 2013 Fox Searchlight Pictures

This film version of Rick Riordan’s book, second in the Percy Jackson series, is much better than the critics would have us believe. True, the series is far beneath the quality of the revered Harry Potter, but there are plenty of neat touches that, as I walked out of the theater, made me feel good. There is plenty of action for children (mid school age I would recommend because some knowledge of Greek mythology is a must to understand the story and characters) and a lot of wit in the dialogue for adults. A good example of the latter is what the camp manager Mr. D. (Stanley Tucci) says. The D stands for Dionysus, Greek god of wine, who in a twist of irony was put under a curse by Zeus, king of gods, so that D’s wine turns into water when he drinks it. He says to a centaur, "You know the Christians have a guy who can do this in reverse.” You gotta like a film that includes such comments!

To go back to the beginning of the story, Percy and three other half bloods (as the children of a god and a mortal are called) were being chased through the forest as they attempted to make their way to the safety of Camp Half Blood. As their pursuers gain on them, Thalia stops, telling the others that she will hold off their enemies while they get away. Percy (Leven Rambin), son of the sea god Poseidon, and his two friends, Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), daughter of Athena, and Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), a satyr, reluctantly press on to the camp. Thalia is killed, but even in death she serves her friends by turning into a mighty tree that sheds a barrier around the camp, protecting it from intruders.

Seven years go by, and the self appointed leader among the young demigods is Clarisse La Rue (Leven Rambin) who enjoys taunting Percy, especially when unexpectedly his previously unknown half brother Tyson (Douglas Smith) shows up. It’s hard to tell whether Percy is more shocked by discovering he has a sibling or that Tyson is a Cyclops. In the outer world these one-eyed creatures are regarded as vicious monsters, so Clarisse and her friends ostracize and taunt Tyson whenever they can.

There are lots of adventures ahead for them all, including a quest for the famous Golden Fleece, to be found somewhere in the Sea of Monsters, a.k.a The Bermuda Triangle. This is reached by a long taxi ride with a stop over in Washington D.C. where the UPS store is really the Olympus Parcel Service run by the messenger god Hermes. He asks them to speak with his estranged son Luke who is on the opposing side of the Quest. It seems that with the Fleece Luke, angry that his father had always neglected him, can awaken from his tomb the Father of the Gods Kronos, and…well, it all gets complicated, but lots of excitement.
Going into the film I was not too keen on the idea of glorifying old pagan gods and their offspring, but when it became obvious early on that these demigods had values—beginning with Thalia’s sacrificing her life, and then Percy during a training game making a smaller but similar sacrifice for the sake of another--I was won over. The characters might be pagans, but their values and deeds are very much like those taught by Christ. With its emphasis upon teamwork and friendship, as well as toleration of those who are different, this is a good film for young and old.

For Reflection/Discussion
These questions are to help caregivers discuss the film with young viewers. They should not be all used at once, but worked into a discussion that might begin with, “Tell me what you think of this movie…” Note that question 5 contains spoilers.

1. Which of the ancient Greek demigods does Percy represent? What did he do in the first film that Perseus did in the myth? (Yes, kill Medusa whose stare could turn a person into stone.)
2. This is a film that takes old gods and goddesses and makes them heroes today. How were the old gods very different from the God whom Christians (as well as Jews and Muslims) worship? How are the old stories—myths we call them—more like fairy tales?
3. Who in the film thinks of others and makes a sacrifice for them?
Thalia—how does she give everything for her three friends?
Percy—On the tower in the race to the top what does he do when a camper is in
      trouble?
Tyson—When a villain shoots at Percy, what does Tyson do?
4. Why do you think Clarissa and her followers are so mean to Tyson? Do you know someone who was treated badly because they were different? In what way were they not like others—a dark skin; could not speak well; dressed differently; were handicapped in some way; or---?
5. In the fight against Luke and his zombie crew in the Sea of Monsters Percy and his rival Clarissa grow to respect, and then to like, each other. How do you think Percy’s refusal to hold a grudge against her help them become friends? What do you think of Percy’s letting her take the Golden Fleece back to Half Blood Camp and receive the honor of bringing it back? Who really deserved the most credit? How is what Percy does an act of true friendship?

Elysium: a Review

Rated R. Our ratings: V -7; L -6; S/N -2.  Running time: 1 hour 49 min.

O LORD, you will hear the desire of the meek;

   you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear 

to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed,

   so that those from earth may strike terror no more.

Psalm 10:17-18

 ... learn to do good;

seek justice,

   rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

   plead for the widow. 

Isaiah 1:17

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

   because he has anointed me

     to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

   and recovery of sight to the blind,

     to let the oppressed go free… 

Luke 4.18:

Max must reach Elysium if he is to save his life and that

of others as well.

(c) 2013 TriStar Pictures

I remember from my boyhood the definition of science fiction as the extrapolation of present trends or developments into the future. (I think this was from either influential editor John W. Campbell or an author such as Robert Heinlein or Isaac Asimov.) South Africa-born director/writer Neill Blomkamp obviously understands this, as evidenced by his second film in this genre. Set in a Los Angeles that in 2154 looks more like a Third World metropolis with its overcrowdedness, clogged streets, and befouled air, this dystopia is the  result of today’s trend of the 1 % becoming more and more richer—reportedly they now control 32% of the wealth—at the expense of the middle class and poor. Earth has become so over-populated, diseased, polluted, and overcome by crime that those with the means have retreated into a huge donut-like satellite named after the Greek Elysian Fields, where all is fair and bright. A semblance of order is enforced on Earth by robot cops programmed to deal harshly with anyone on Earth who even looks like he/she might resist the strict laws imposed from above.

Max (Matt Damon) had been raised at a Catholic orphanage where a nun had often assured him that he was special, created for a worthy task. This inspires him to look up toward Elysium and vow to reach it one day. That must seem long ago to him now, working at a factory run by Armadyne, a defense company that planned and built Elysium and all of the robots serving it and enforcing its laws. At this sweatshop-like factory he is brow beaten by a harsh foreman. Once a car thief, Max is trying to put his criminal past behind him, but then comes the day when he is exposed to a high dose of radiation on the job.

Given just five days to live, Max contacts old crime associate Spider (Wagner Moura), who is similar to the coyotes of today’s Mexico in that he sends off ships loaded with desperate people trying to reach Elysium where every lavish home is equipped with a healing bay. Equipped with a MRI-like scanner, a bay can quickly cure virtually any ailment known to mankind. But only citizens of Elysium have access to it: not one of Earth’s hospitals is so equipped. In a poignant scene we see Defense Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) coldly order three approaching ships filled with illegal immigrants (who paid dearly for their berths) to be shot down. Apparently word of the fate of those trying to escape their wretchedness has not reached the masses of others clamoring to leave Earth.

Max and Spider have a plan—to equip the former with a cyborg frame that will greatly enhance his strength, and to kidnap Armadyne’s CEO John Carlyle (William Fichtner).  Carlyle has a chip embedded in his brain that has all the information about Elysium and the program that controls the robot police. Max is to link to the kidnapped CEO’s brain and download all the information into his own modified brain; travel to Elysium; and overcome its defenses with Carlyle’s computerized information. Along the way Max meets Frey (Alice Braga), a nurse whom he had known as a child back at the orphanage. She has a daughter dying of leukemia, a disease easily cured by a few minutes in a healing bay, so there are now three reasons to accomplish his mission—for himself, for the mother and her girl, and for the oppressed of the Earth.

Matters of course do not go smoothly, one of his chief obstacles being the vicious mercenary Kruger (Sharlto Cople), employed by the Defense Secretary as an undercover agent on Earth to ferret out any opposition to her plans. There is an overly violent series of fights and battles before any kind of a victory can emerge for the poor. Indeed, the ending is very simplistic; so it is best not to think too much about this, except to rejoice that the good guys win.

While reflecting upon the film I not only thought of the director’s excellent District 9, also a dystopian film, set in the director’s own country South Africa, still suffering from the effects of apartheid, but also of Tsotsi, the 2005 film directed by Gavin Hood. Mr. Hood, also born in South Africa, shows that even though apartheid has legally been destroyed, its effects still infuse a society terribly divided between the wealth and the poor. His film chronicles six days in the life of a gang leader named Tsotsi who accidentally kidnaps a baby during his car jacking of a wealthy white couple’s RV. Tsotsi and his friends often sleep in drainage pipes and such places, while the whites live in splendor behind their high walls and gates. Tsotsi can touch the walls that separated him from wealth, whereas Max must look up to see the gated satellite, and yet it is just 19 minutes away by space shuttle.

Elysium thus resonates with issues currently being debated—the growing separation between the rich and the less well off; the desperate desire of the poor to cross illegally into America and the attempts of defenders of the status quo to keep them out; the lack of access to health care that plagues so many; and more. This is a film well worth seeing and discussing, though the convener might have to reign in the passions of some members. It is refreshing to find at last a summer blockbuster that is not all CGI-enhanced sound and fury, but has a little more substance to it, even a recognition that the church has a contribution to make to the lives of  “the least of these.” However, I would have loved the film more if there had been shown a church or its leaders working with the poor. Indeed, wouldn’t have been good if the nun had been given a name and more screen time, interacting with Max as he grew older. Wim Wenders made the church an important factor in his post 9/11 film Land of Plenty: his young heroine works in an inner city church that feeds and houses street people. Surely there will be such churches still around 140 years from now.

For Reflection/Discussion

1. What do you think of director/writer Neill Blomkamp’s projection of current trends into the future? How does science fiction often serve a prophet role? Along with 1984, Solyent Green, and Farenheit 451, what other such films can you recall?
2. How must the loving nun have affected Max? How important is her admonition, "Never forget where you come from and never forget how beautiful it is here"? Given what has happened to Earth and its society, what does this reveal about her?
3. In this film cops are robots programmed to deal harshly with dissenters and disturbers of the peace: how do some present day police, even though they are humans, act like robots in their dealings with members of the underclass? Check out the last scenes in the film Fruitvale Station.
3. How is the name of the space station fitting, based as it is on Greek mythology? For those trapped on the polluted Earth, how does the old phrase “pie in the sky” take on new meaning?
4. The film, unlike most sci-fi ones, does acknowledge the church and its ministry. How might the church be functioning 140 years from now?
5. What do you think of the film’s way of overcoming oppression? How is this typical of most films? How might the Christ of the above Lukan passage have resisted—or Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr.? Now wouldn’t that make for an interesting sci-fi film? (Eric Frank Russell provided the perfect text in his 1951 satirical story published in Astounding Science Fiction, “And The There Were None,” which later became the third part of his novel The Great Explosion. No fights or battles or chases, just a people resisting intruders in their own non-violent way. I liked the story so much that I have saved the magazine over the years. For a delightful read you can find the entire text at: http://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.php.)

6. Unashamed commercial: my new book Blessed Are the Filmmakers, due out in the fall of 2013, has guides for numerous films that depict non-violent resistance—Amazing Grace & Chuck; The Buttercream Gang; Freedom Riders; Gandhi; Jesus: the Miniseries; King; The Long Walk Home; and The War, to name but a few of the 40 films (specific scenes of non-violence are identified). The group might watch several of these scenes at the conclusion of the discussion of Elysium..

The Hunt

("Jagten" in Danish & English)

Rated R. Our ratings: V-5 ; L-5 ; S-5/N-1 . Running time: 1 hour 33 min.

My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction,

   and my neighbors stand far off. 

Psalm 38.11

He was despised and rejected by others;

   a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;

and as one from whom others hide their faces--

   he was despised, and we held him of no account. 

Isaiah 53:3

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.

How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 

                                                                           James 3.5

Lucas is a gentle kindgarten who is plunged into a nightmare

world when a little girl accuses him of exposing his privates to her.

(c) 2012 Magnolia Pictures

Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, who also wrote the screenplay with Tobias Lindholm, this film, set in a small Danish town, unfolds between the months leading up to Christmas, ending sometime in the following year at the beginning of hunting season. There is a crucial church scene on Christmas Eve that is a masterful combination of the Nativity and crucifixion, making this a marvelous film for people of faith to discuss.

Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is a middle-aged schoolteacher frequently battling over his cell phone with his divorced wife about the custody of their teenaged son Marcus (Lasse Fogelstrom). Unhappy with his mother, the boy badly wants to live with Lucas. Although the messy divorce cost him his teaching position, Lucas has been able to find work at the local kindergarten where the children adore him. When he arrives they enjoy hiding and then attacking him en mass, clinging to his legs and arms, and piling atop him when he falls to the ground and plays ”dead.” One of the assistant teachers also adores him, the Polish immigrant Nadja (Alexandra Rapaport), the two soon entering an affair initiated by her.

Lucas has a circle of hunting buddies with whom he enjoys drinking, though he is the one who stays sober enough to take the inebriated home. His best friend Theo (Thomas Bo Larsen) is one of these, the man’s wife Agnes (Anne Louise Hassing), gratefully appreciating this. In another scene Lucas rescues a friend from drowning when the man develops a cramp while swimming in a cold pond (it is November). Thus it is no wonder that Lucas is popular with adults as well as children.

Little Klara (Annika Wedderkopp), a kindergarten pupil and daughter of Theo and Agnes, develops a crush on Lucas, often showing up at his house so he can walk her home. During one of the pile-ups at kindergarten, he rebuffs her when she kisses him on the lips. Miffed by this, she repeats to head teacher Grethe (Susse Wold) some pornographic penis talk she has overheard on her older brother’s iPad.  She lies that Lucas exposed himself before her. Shocked at what she hears, Grethe, without informing him of all the details, including the child’s name, orders Lucas to take a leave while she brings up the matter with the other staff, with Theo and Agnes, and then that night, at a scheduled meeting with the all the parents.

Thus, as James observed, the little tongue, or we should say the tongue of a little one, starts a fire that blazes out of control, ruining the reputation of a good and kind man. Only Nadja and Brunn (Lars Ranthe), the godfather of his son Marcus, stand by him—and of course, Marcus also, although his alarmed mother tries to break off the boy’s contact with his father. Also, little Klara, becoming aware that what she now calls “a stupid” remark has caused Lucas much pain, tries to see him, showing up at his door to ask if she can walk his faithful dog. He sends her back home, all too aware that her parents would be very upset at any further contact between them.

Klara recants her story, but Grethe and the others believing in the innate goodness of children will not accept this. Lucas is banned from the kindergarten and also from the local supermarket (even Marcus is ordered not to come back when he shops for his father—the boy refusing to stay away from his dad). The staff at the supermarket beats up Lucas when he keeps coming back demanding to buy groceries; someone hurls a rock through Lucas’s window, injuring him; and worst of all, his constant companion, his gentle dog loved by all the children is killed. The police do arrest and interrogate Lucas, but they have to release him. You will enjoy the reason because it is part of the group hysteria that seems to envelop most of the characters.

Although set in a modern Danish town, the story reminds me of the Massachusetts town of Salem in the 17th century. The Salem girls who initiate the mass hysteria are older than Klara and the effects of their delusions and lies about their neighbors being witches are far more deadly. At least the Danish authorities do not convict and hang Lucas, but the persecution he suffers is severe by 20th century standards. A likeable guy respected by all becomes in the eyes of almost everyone the ultimate outsider of the 21st century, a child molester. Lucas becomes so stressed out that he drives away Nadja when she tries to stand by him, and he even tells Bruun to leave him alone.

Matters come to an explosive head on Christmas Eve, just as much a cultural event centering on children in Denmark as it is on this side of the Atlantic. Most of the congregation has gathered for the service when Lucas shambles in, finding the only pew with room for him almost at the front of the sanctuary. The woman sitting there gets up and moves to another pew. All disapproving eyes are focused on the outcast, including Agnes and Theo. The pastor offers a warm welcome, and this time we gather that the “welcome to all” is not ceremonial----after all, this is a small city and the pastor must know something of what has transpired. The kindergarten children have been formed into a choir, and as they file in we see the radiant little Klara. She spots Lucas and is obviously pleased.

As the children lead the people in a carol about the birth of the Child, the crucifixion of a good man stands in juxtaposition. Theo, fixing his gaze upon his erstwhile friend, remarks to Agnes, “I can see it in his face,” indicating that he now is aware of the innocence of the friend he has abandoned—at that moment I thought of the disciples at Gethsemane who during Jesus’ prayer could not stay awake to watch with him, and then ran away when their master was arrested. The anguished Lucas breaks down. Rising from his pew, he walks back toward Theo, and---.

I don’t know how much director Thomas Vinterberg knows of the church fathers who never sentimentalized Christmas, treating it as we do as a Hallmark moment to glorify children. They never separated the Nativity from Good Friday, often asking in their sermons and their writings, “Why did God become man in order to die?” Medieval artists also sometimes combined themes of Nativity and Crucifixion in their paintings. An artist in Cincinnati a few years ago did this in a mural that he created on the wall of the fellowship hall of his church, as you can see below.

Fred Burnett's "Holy Night"

There is in this film not only the Nativity and the crucifixion (of Lucas); there is also a type of resurrection. I will leave this for you to see, though this is perhaps not as convincing as the depiction of crucifixion, with Lucas obviously welcomed back into his circle of friends. I am not suggesting that Lucas is a complete Christ figure, as in such movies as Cool Hand Luke or Babette’s Feast, because Lucas does not seek crucifixion, it is imposed on him. In the four gospels Jesus is not just the victim, but also the victor who, apparently inspired by the Suffering Servant poem in Isaiah 52 & 53, voluntarily lays down his life. By no stretch of the imagination does Lucas, who is struggling just to get by with his life, seek out the opprobrium he suffers. His suffering is for himself, but it is still a type of crucifixion.

The film’s title comes from the next to the last scene depicting a ritual in which Marcus is now initiated into his father and Bruun’s group of male hunters, a sign of his “becoming a man.” The film ends on a jarring note, which calls into question what seems to be a movie “happy ending.” Maybe “all that ends well is well” doesn’t apply after all here.

The full review that includes 12 discussion questions will be included in the Sept/Oct issue of Visual Parables, available on September 9.

The Attack: A Review

 (Arabic with English subtitles)

Rated R. Our ratings: V -5 ; L-1 ; S/N-1 . Running time: 1 hour 42 min.

Secular Arabs Shamin and Amin seemed like

a happy couple accepted b Israeli society.

(c) 2012 Cohen Media Goup

The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,

    a puzzle that no one can figure out.

               Jeremiah 17:9 (The Message)

In this adaptation of the novel by Yasmina Khadra (pen name of Algerian author Mohammed Moulessehoul) filmmaker Ziad Doueiri’s immerses us in an alien culture, leaving us at the end pondering why someone unexpectedly does the inexplicable. Co-written with Joelle Touma, this is a dark and troubling film about a dark and troubling situation—the hostile relationship between Israelis and Palestinians.
Dr. Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman) is a Palestinian surgeon who has chosen to live and work in Tel Aviv because there are greater opportunities there than in his Arab homeland. He has put aside his Muslim heritage, so he feels very much integrated into Israeli society. Most of his friends are secular Jews. He is about to be given the highest honor for a surgeon, but he is disappointed that his wife Siham (Reymond Amsalem), a secular Arab Christian, is not with him on the night of the award ceremony, she insisting instead on visiting her grandfather in Nazareth.

In the darkened auditorium, moments before the presenter calls out his name, his cell phone rings. Annoyed at the intrusion, he says that he cannot talk, and hangs up. In his acceptance speech he points out that he is the first Israeli Arab to be so honored, proof that integration of the two hostile cultures is possible.
The next day he and his colleagues, hearing a bomb blast at a near by café spring into action when the victims are brought into their hospital.  One bloodied man insists on a Jewish doctor when he sees Amin standing over him. Seventeen people, most of them children attending a birthday celebration, are killed, and even more are wounded and maimed.

In the wee hours of the morning, summoned back to the hospital, Amin is shocked when he is told that his wife was killed in the attack—and that she is accused of being the bomber. Already devastated by the sight of her half-blown away body in the hospital morgue, he collapses for a moment. He refuses to believe that such a loving woman could have blown up herself and so many children and adults. He is certain, he tells Captain Moshe, his harsh Shin Bet interrogator, that she kept no secrets from him—and she is a Christian, not a fanatical Muslim. He himself neither practices his religion nor is engaged in any political cause.

However, the relentless policeman marshals the evidence, while at the same time interrogating the doctor as if he were a part of the plot. After the suspicious police confirm that he was not involved, Amin is released but quickly finds his life up-ended.  Dismissed from the hospital where he had been so recently honored, now only two friends stand by him, Kim Yehuda (Evgenia Dodina), a hospital colleague and Raveed (Dvir Benedek), a police official. The vandalization of his apartment is symbolic of his new status. Then comes the letter written to him and posted from Nablus in Palestine by his wife the day before the bombing.
As a result of that letter Amin sets forth on his parallel spiritual and physical journeys back briefly to his wife’s hometown of Nazareth where he learns that she had not gone there after all. He then pays an unannounced call on his family in Nablus where he intends to confront the person responsible for convincing his wife to commit her terrible deed. The taxi driver transporting him disturbs him by playing a cassette tape containing a tirade of anti-Jewish hate by a Nablus Moslem cleric. Arriving in the Arab city, Amin is disturbed to learn that Siham is considered by the people as a heroic martyr to their cause of liberation from the Israeli occupation. Large posters with her picture are plastered on all the walls, and children are selling postcard-size pictures of her.

His sister is glad to see him, though she reminds him that it has been a long time since he has visited or written to the family. His brother-in-law at the supper table says he is very proud of Siham, and his niece wonders what it is like to live among “them.” His elusive nephew Adel, who admits to being with Sahim on her last night, says, “Something snapped in her head.” They and others whom Amin subsequently meets think that he might be working with Israel’s Shin Bet. Thus Amin is a stranger in his own land, caught between the conflict between the two peoples. In between all this there are flashbacks to happier days with Sahim. In one of these they are on a motorcycle, she sitting behind him in her white wedding dress clutching his waist. He is all the more puzzled at how this seemingly loving woman could have committed such a hateful act.
At the local mosque he tries to talk with the Moslem cleric whose diatribe he had heard on the taxi radio/cassette player, but the security guards stop him. Later in the night, when he manages to catch the sheikh on the street, the man says, "We are a ravaged people fighting for our dignity with whatever we have." He also warns him to leave town.

Amin expects that from a Muslim radical, but even an Orthodox Christian priest, admiring Sahim’s deed and wishing that he had met her, tells him, "We're not Islamists and we're not fundamentalists, either. We are only the children of a ravaged, despised people, fighting with whatever means we can to recover our homeland and our dignity." Even his visit to the ruins of Jenin, a Palestinian refugee camp where the Israeli Defense Forces in 2002 fought a bloody battle with PLO militants, resulting in rumors and claims of “a massacre,” does not explain Siham’s double life that he now realizes she had led. She had never talked about politics or expressed criticism of their Jewish friends.

Amin confronts a truth so terrible that it will scar him forever, making him an outsider to both Israelis and to his Arab family. His fall from grace with his Jewish friends—even Kim is exasperated because he will not go and tell the Shin Bet what he has learned in Nablus—and his anguish that he did not really know the person whom he loved the most will haunt him forever. Did his obsession with his career lead him to neglect his wife and thus caused her not to confide in him her deep concern for their people? Or could his apolitical withdrawal from the conflict raging around him have prevented her from raising her concern over the suffering of their people at the hands of the Israelis?

One of the most spiritually challenging films of the year, Lebanese-born Ziad Doueiri’s film is as helpful for understanding the Palestinian viewpoint as was the 2005 film about two friends preparing to become suicide bombers, Paradise Now, a film in which Ali Suliman co-starred as one of a pair of friends volunteering to become suicide bombers. It would seem that the conclusion of Jeremiah and of our searching surgeon is the same; the human heart is a puzzle with no answer sheet. The film is somewhat like Steven Spielberg’s Munich in that its maker tries to be even-handed, condemning neither one side nor the other—and yet is attacked by both sides. The Arab League was so upset that Doueiri shot the opening scenes in Tel Aviv that the members banned the film in all 22 of its member nations. Thus the tragic conflict goes on and on, with not even the movies able to bring the two sides together. (We will have to see if Secretary of State Kerry’ peace efforts can begin to bridge a gap wider than the Grand Canyon.)

For Reflection/Discussion
1. Most Americans know only the Israeli version of the birth of Israeli, so movingly told in the novel and its movie version Exodus. It is well known that a coalition of Arab countries attacked Israel as soon as it became independent in 1947, but less known are the terrorist acts of Zionist groups against the British occupiers in the 1930s and 40s, as well as against Palestinians. For more information on the troubled past go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun.
Also for an article on Zionist terrorism directed at the British during their Palestine Mandate from 19222 to 1948 see “Kidnappings, Beatings, Murders and Hangings: Attacks by the Irgun and Stern Gang.” This is part of a site called Exodus and Outrage dedicated to telling the story of British soldiers in Palestine and many other nations.
http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Palestine/kidnap.htm
2. As an Arab living in Israel what has Amin had to do in order to be successful? How might this not have set well with his wife? In what ways is this another tale of an outsider?
3. How does he view his journey back to his hometown? How could it be considered a journey into darkness?
4. Were you surprised that the people of Nablus considered his wife a heroine? What suggestions are there for her reason for deceiving her husband?
5. Amin visits the site of the Jenin Refugee Camp where many people, Arabs and Jews, were killed by both sides in April 2002 when the Israeli Army moved in and put it under a round-the-clock curfew. Given all the biased, exaggerated reporting by Palestinians as to the number of casualties, how might this have affected Siham? For a report on the camp and the fighting see the UNRWA report at: http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=118
6. Do you think there can be a rational explanation for Siham’s behavior? What about Amin’s friend Raveed’s statement: "It can fall on you like a tile or grow in you like a worm. Then you don't see the world in the same way. You're just waiting for the moment to cross the threshold."
7. There is more to the Jeremiah quote. Reflect upon it in regard to the film:
But I, GOD, search the heart
    and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
    I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are,
    not as they pretend to be.”
8. The impasse between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland once seemed as intractable as that between Israelis and Palestinians: what happened there that led to the cessation of terrorist attacks by the IRA and the brutal reaction of the British forces? Do you think that can happen in the Middle East? What do you know about the peace movement, among Jews and among Palestinians? (Note that in the documentary film The Power of Forgiveness and its accompanying book there are several sections exploring this.)
9. There is a video of Charlie Rose’s good interview of the director at:
http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi4204112153/

Fruitvale Station: A Review

Rated R. Our ratings: V-5; L-5 ; S/N-2 . Running time: 1 hour 25 min.

The Weinstein Company

I say to God, my rock,

   ‘Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I walk about mournfully

   because the enemy oppresses me?’

                                  Psalm 40:9

Even though the opening cell phone video shows us the tragic outcome of a scuffle with San Francisco transit police, director/writer Ryan Coogler’s film, based on a true story, is a fascinating study of the last day in the life of 22-year-old Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan). We are taken back twelve hours earlier when Oscar and his wife (or girl friend?) Sophina (Melonie Diaz), are in their apartment at the beginning of New Year’s Eve 2009.  Burdened with a history of run-ins with the law, Oscar is trying to turn his life around—although in this scene he is trying to placate her because she is upset that he has had an affair with another woman. Obviously adoring their  4-year-old daughter, Tatiana (Ariana Neal), he is able to convince Sophina that he will not betray her again.

We follow Oscar through a series of ups and downs. He takes Tatiana to school; meets friends; shops for food for the party his mother will host that night; helps a clueless young woman at the supermarket with a recipe by connecting her to his grandmother; tries but fails to get his job back at the grocery from the manager, who had fired him for being late too often; texts his friends about getting together that night; talked over the phone with his sister who badly needed some cash; been tempted to acquire money by selling the bag of weed he had hidden away, but, genuinely wanting to go straight, dumps it into the Bay. Interspersed are flashbacks to his prison days, two low points being his fight with another prisoner and the day his mother Wanda (Octavia Spencer) tells him she cannot bear to come and visit him any more.

That night at his mother’s house in Hayward, a suburb, everyone, young and old has a great time. When he is about to set out with Sophina and their friends to go out to celebrate the New Year by watching the waterfront fireworks, his mother suggests they take the BART instead. She is worried that their drinking would impair Oscar driving. It is a suggestion that will haunt her all her days.

The group has an enjoyable time, even when the train stalls, delaying their arrival for the fireworks display. In the crowded train car an inter-racial harmony prevails—whites, Latinos, and blacks all laugh and exchange greetings together as the New Year. But this is soon swallowed up in the mayhem that ensues when Oscar’s prison past catches up with him.

The film leaves viewers saddened and upset that even though we have elected a black president, racism is still a strong force in our society. It is bad enough when it exists among the general population, but among police officers it can be deadly, as we see by the way in which the young blacks are treated when they are dragged off the train following Oscar’s attack by a man he had known in prison. It would, of course, have been wise if the ill-treated black men had not protested their abuse, but it would have taken more discipline than any of them possessed to have suffered in silence.

As the aftermath of the  Trayvon Martin shooting lingers, this film will add fuel to the debate over the way blacks are viewed and treated around the nation. The film makes clear that even in the 21st century we are far from Martin Luther King Jr.;s vision of the “beloved community.” If black males in America accept the faith of their mothers, well might they recite the words of the anguished psalmist any time they venture beyond their ‘hood, “Why must I walk about mournfully/because the enemy oppresses me?”

For Reflection/Discussion 
1. Despite claims that this is a nation of “equal opportunities,” what burdens does Oscar carry that few white males his age do? How do we see that he is trying to overcome them? What do you think of the claims of some that he is pictured in too positive of a way?
2. Had he not met with such an untimely end, what hope do you see that he might have been successful going straight—especially in light of his family needs and his lack of employment?
3. What do you think of the manager’s turning down Oscar’s request to get his job back? How is his firing the consequence of his own behavior? And yet how is the matter of punctuality also a difference in cultures?
4. What do you think of the blended black and Latino families? How well do we see them getting along?
5. In what scenes do you see grace in operation? (Sophina’s acceptance of Oscar despite his betrayal; Oscar helping the woman at the supermarket;
6. How is the moment of celebrating the New Year on the subway train a foretaste of the kingdom of God (or MLK’s “beloved community”)?
7. How did you feel in the sequence when the BART police officers took the black men off the train? Did they look for the white man who started the fight? Was there any sign of the officers listening to either the blacks or the passengers? Do you think this is because their minds were closed, accepting the basis of racial profiling, facts be damned?
8. Have you or someone you know seen such treatment? What does this suggest that Americans need to do to eliminate such treatment? What similarities, if any, do you see between Oscar and Trayvon Martin? What have you and/or your church done to foment racial understanding?

The Wolverine

Reviewed by Markus Watson

Note by Ed McNulty: I am happy to welcome back to Visual Parables, Markus Watson, the pastor of Northminster Presbyterian Church in San Diego.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21:1-4

(c) 2013 20th Century Fox

The Wolverine is the sixth movie featuring Hugh Jackman as the mutant, Logan, also known as Wolverine (though his appearance in X-Men: First Class was a mere cameo).  In this latest—not last—installment in the world of the X-Men, Logan finds himself in Japan at the deathbed of Yashida (Hal Yamanouchi), an old friend whose life he saved when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and who has now become a wealthy man.

At this point, it is important to understand that Logan’s mutation essentially makes him immortal.  Logan, who was born in the 1800’s, heals from any injury almost instantly.  Additionally, his entire skeleton has been coated with a virtually indestructible metal called adamantium.  One would think Logan would love being immortal.  But he doesn’t.  He has lost more loved ones than he cares to think about.  And he himself has brought death to Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), a woman he loved in the original three X-Men movies (and who makes appearances in Logan’s dreams in this movie).

Now Yashida, at the hour of his death, has a proposal for Logan.  He says he has discovered a way to take away Logan’s mutation, to make him mortal.  But Logan says to Yashida, “You don’t want what I have,” and walks away.

The next day, Yashida dies.  It is at this point that the action really begins, leading to a climactic battle between Logan, another mutant named Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), and an adamantium samurai mech.

Throughout the film, Logan wrestles with his immortality.  When Yashida first makes his offer, Logan briefly considers it.  How he has longed to be mortal!  But he can’t let go of his mutation.  Not long after that, Logan begins to realize he is not healing from his wounds like he normally does.  He’s not sure what to do with that.  Should he embrace his seeming mortality?  Should he resist it?

In the end, he finds a way to restore his immortality, only to nearly lose it again in the final battle.

It is an ironic twist, to see a man with a gift so many of us long for.  The 80’s band Tears for Fears sang, “Everybody wants to rule the world.”  But I think it’s even more true to say, “Everybody wants to live forever.”  Here we have a man who seems to be able to live forever, and yet that very gift is his curse.

How is this different from the eternal life described in the scriptures?  Jesus tells us that those who believe in him will “not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  Sounds like what Logan’s got.

But it’s different.  Logan must live his life of immortality in a world that is broken and ruined by violence and death.  Logan’s immortality has, in a sense, become his hell.  And yet, he can’t seem to let go of the hell in which he lives.

The eternal life of the scriptures, on the other hand, is one that is based in “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1).  It is an immortality to be lived in the presence of a God who is light and life.  It is an eternal—and abundant—life in a world made whole, in which “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

It makes one wonder—what would Logan do if he were offered that kind of immortality?

For Reflection/Discussion:
1. Have you ever thought to yourself, “I wish I could live forever?”  Why is that something people generally long for?
2. When you think of your own eventual death, what kinds of feelings does that bring up for you?  Fear?  Frustration?  Peace?  Relief?  Etc.  Why do those feelings emerge for you?
3. Even though Logan hates his curse of immortality, he can’t give it up when given the chance.  Why do you think that is?  Have you ever struggled with letting go of something that is painful for you?  Why or why not?
4. As mentioned in this review, Logan’s immortality is not the same thing as the “eternal life” that Jesus talks about.  What do you think Jesus meant when he said that “whoever believes in me will not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16)?
5. Look at the “eternal life” mentioned in Revelation 21:1-4.  How does this description of an eternal kind of life differ from the kind of eternal life Logan is trapped in?  What kind of “eternal life” would you prefer—the kind Logan has or the kind the scriptures offer?  Why?