Advent at the Movies

In a move that launched us into 1997, our family recently started a Netflix subscription.  The kids needed something for Friday Night Movie Nights, Dad needs to catch up on some films to maintain some shred of cultural currency, and Mom likes to fall asleep to Call The Midwife (while I remain rapt and wide awake at this excellent BBC series).  It’s been a fun adventure having a zillion movies right under your right thumb. 

One film that everyone else has already seen that I’ve just recently watched is United 93 (2006).  In this story of one of the hijacked 9/11 planes, I was struck by the climax of the film.  No, not the part where the hijackers and passengers physically assault one another and the plane crashes into a Pennsylvania field– that was the foregone conclusion.  To me the climax was right before that, when the filmmakers cut back and forth between the two groups as most everyone prayed.  Lips moving quickly over well-worn entreaties to the Almighty, pulses racing, everyone looking for divine endorsement of their immediate plans.   

In that moment–and in spite of the fact that they are pitted against one another as mortal enemies– they have more similarities than differences.  Each person sees themself as justified, earnest, righteous, and protecting something precious that is being taken from them.  Each person is willing to sacrifice their own life, and knows that they are doing it for a holy cause.  It’s a powerful portrayal of the human condition, and of the very thorny problem of fallible people following God.  A clear depiction of the double-edged sword of certainty. 

There’s another film that I enjoyed (and to watch this one we actually paid for springy seats in the discount theater):  Maleficent (2014).  What I loved about this story is the way in which it upends the usual convention whereby an evil witch comes onto the scene in medias res and, well, does evil witch kinds of things (and who conveniently absorbs all of our hatred for the duration of the story and beyond).  In this recent retelling of the tale of ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ this character is introduced with much more empathy:  she is not simply evil, but maligned, mistreated, marginalized.  Rather than acting as a convenient scapegoat, she is a tragic figure.  No less evil, to be sure, but a genuine person with complicated motivations, injured intentions, and understandable impulses of self-protection.  We question her choices, and in time, so does she.

It is a good reminder for us, I think, who live in this Advent world filled to the brim with bad news and manifest injustice and an abundance of finger pointing.  A reminder that everyone has a backstory, that everyone feels justified, that everyone is trying to protect something that is precious to them, that everyone is trying to keep something that seems like it is being taken away.  As such, we need to reject simplistic narratives and convenient scapegoating and see everyone– everyone— as made in the image of God. Including and especially ourselves. 

— Mike Stavlund is chasing the dream of emergence Christianity with Common Table outside Washington, DC, teaching on the topic at Wesley Seminary, and is currently writing a book about the integration of all kinds of grief into our faith and life.