![\"selfless_pin\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/485\/2015\/07\/selfless_pin.jpg\")
<\/a>by Helena Burns, FSP<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThe idea and ideology of \u201ctranshumanism\u201d: that human beings are basically just brains in containers, and that if we could just find a way to upload our brains into computers or robots or such\u2013we could live on forever\u2013is the subject of the new film \u201cSelf\/less.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was also the subject of the recent film \u201cTranscendence.\u201d (Incidentally, Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google, is a transhumanist\u2013that is, he holds this view of the human person and is seeking to make it happen.)<\/p>\n
The trailer to this film looked intriguing and the premise clever, but I\u2019m sorry to report that the actual execution of the film is a shambles.<\/p>\n
An older, powerful New York business tycoon, Damian (Ben Kingsley), has six months left to live. He lives alone and has one grown daughter whom he rarely has contact with\u2013a fact that he begins to regret. He decides to look into a company that does \u201cshedding\u201d or life extension.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all very secretive and extremely expensive, but the company\u2019s head tells him they aren\u2019t as interested in the money as they are in prolonging the existence of \u201cthe world\u2019s great minds\u201d (eugenics, anyone?). Just what Damian has ever done for humanity (or will do in his new skin) is unclear.<\/p>\n
ONE LIFE TO LIVE<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The shedding process is basically putting Damian\u2019s mind\/consciousness into a younger man\u2019s body (supposedly one grown in the lab). The younger man is played by Ryan Reynolds (Canada\u2019s Ben Affleck).<\/p>\n The process goes well enough until Damian starts to have flashbacks and memories that are not his own. In order to keep these flashbacks at bay, he must take pills provided for him by the company, who dole them out very sparingly. It starts to become very clear that Damian wasn\u2019t told, and presumably didn\u2019t ask, all that \u201cshedding\u201d entails and what the future really holds for him. The company is ever-present in his life and we start to see that he is practically owned by them. He is a guinea pig, an experiment.<\/p>\n A woman and her little girl enter Damian\u2019s life, and he begins to realize that they are something worth living and perhaps dying for. The girl is like a stand-in for the daughter he never spent much time with, so there\u2019s a kind of redemption here. But if we only have one life to live and we refuse to repent\u2013will we really repent in our extended life? (Failure to repent while you can is probably the worst kind of procrastination.)<\/p>\n \u201cIt is appointed for men to die once.\u201d \u2013Hebrews 9:27<\/p>\n \u201cYou are merciful to all, you overlook our sins and give us time to repent.\u201d Wisdom 11:23<\/p><\/blockquote>\n HOLE-Y PLOT, BATMAN<\/strong><\/em>!<\/p>\n The way it\u2019s presented, it doesn\u2019t seem like we are supposed to \u201clike\u201d this idea of shedding\u2026however, I wonder if some people in the audience might be saying to themselves, \u201cYeah, I\u2019d do that.\u201d How it actually occurs scientifically is never explained and the process (two MRI-like machines for the two bodies) is reminiscent of the 1950\u2019s sci-fi movie machines that \u201cjust do the job.\u201d By not giving us any details, it\u2019s a bit of a leap for the imagination, but the leaping doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n The plot has as many gaps and holes as a slice of Swiss cheese. Also, important plot points are not made crystal clear and it takes us a while to catch up. The one thing you don\u2019t want audiences to keep saying to themselves over and over is: \u201cBut why don\u2019t they just\u2026?\u201d and I found myself repeating that internally many times.<\/p>\n Even though it seems we\u2019re supposed to have big misgivings about \u201cshedding,\u201d it\u2019s stated over and over in the film that the body is a \u201cprison\u201d and an \u201cempty vessel.\u201d Bad Theology of the Body! Bad Theology of the Body!<\/p>\n The human body can never be reduced to mere matter. It is a spiritualized body, just as a person\u2019s spirit is so closely united to the body that they can be described as an embodied spirit. -Saint John Paul II, \u201cLetter to Families,\u201d 19<\/p><\/blockquote>\n F<\/strong>ROM TRANSHUMAN TO INCARNATION<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Recent convert from atheism to Catholicism, HuffPost writer and Yale grad, Leah Libresco, had to have a \u201ctranshuman to human\u201d conversion in her thinking:<\/p>\n My two biggest obstacles were the two heresies that tempted me most: Gnosticism and Pelagianism. Ultimately, I knew I couldn\u2019t be both Gnostic and Catholic, and I wound up more confident that Catholicism was true than that Gnosticism was. A faith that has God deliberately make these bodies part of who we are and has his own Son come down to meet us, incarnate as we are, doesn\u2019t look favorably on having contempt for this aspect of creation.<\/p>\n After I made up my mind to convert, I got sourdough starter and started baking regularly, since putting more effort than was strictly necessary into eating (rather than refueling) seemed like the most anti-gnostic thing I could do on short notice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Full interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n THERE\u2019S A GOD AND WE\u2019RE NOT HIM<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n There is lull after lull in the action and tension, even when characters are in mortal danger. There are good isolated scenes and sequences, but the storytelling seems to get lost in these semi-detours. The woman\u2019s character is totally laughable. She is, well, a dumb brunette, and her lines are ridiculous and empty. She seems to accept all the preposterousness visited upon her extremely well. Her reactions and engagement with the drama are full of false notes.<\/p>\n I wish I had a dollar for every time she whines: \u201cWHAT\u2019S GOING ON??!! IS EVERYTHING OK??!! Another example of female air-headedness in dialogue was the stereotypical character of Damian\u2019s neglected daughter. When Damian tries to make things right with her shortly before his shedding, she spouts (for the audience\u2019s sake) these \u201con the nose\u201d lines: \u201cSure. You were never there for me when I was growing up. You hardly ever try to get in touch with me. You think your money can solve everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of the story is predictable. I was able to keep guessing what would happen next (something I don\u2019t usually have a talent for): \u201cI bet\u2026yup!\u201d so there was very little element of surprise, except for the ending which has a sizeable twist. One good takeaway was: Our choices effect others, a whole web of people, even when we think we are just making choices for ourselves. There\u2019s no such thing.<\/p>\n Also, perhaps a film like this can give us pause: Do I accept my bodiliness, the conditions of my creatureliness, my limits? Can we accept the reality we\u2019re living in as the Creator designed it? (Satan couldn\u2019t. Adam and Eve couldn\u2019t.) Of course we want to be immortal and God wants us to be, too. But He\u2019s got the plan for it. Do we even know when we\u2019re playing God anymore?<\/p>\n People in my audience were guffawing at super-serious moments, and a few people simply left early\u2013I almost did, too, which is something I never do. I rarely tell people not to bother with a film, but if you\u2019re at the cinema? Keep moving past \u201cSelf\/less.\u201d There\u2019s nothing to see here, folks.<\/p>\n OTHER STUFF:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u2013Ben Kingsley\u2019s New York accent is hideous, affected and hammy.<\/p>\n \u2013Not a big screen thriller.<\/p>\n \u2013Ironically, what does it really mean to be \u201cselfless\u201d (in Christian understanding)?<\/p>\n \u2013I love how people are the evilest hitmen or victims just about to die, but\u2026gotta fasten that seatbelt.<\/p>\n \u2013I love how round after round is shot in gun battles and car chases at point blank range and no one ever gets hit.<\/p>\n \u2013I actually caught myself subconsciously (is that possible?) looking for that slidebar at the bottom of a YouTube to fast forward the film! (And I was in a theater.)<\/p>\n \u2013This could\u2019ve been a pumpin\u2019 good ride. But it warn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u2013\u201cYou\u2019re not a savior, you\u2019re a psychopath.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The idea and ideology of “transhumanism”: that human beings are basically just brains in containers, and that if we could just find a way to upload our brains into computers or robots or such–we could live on forever–is the subject of the new film “Self\/less.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,526,437,306,1],"tags":[610,607,430,1084,612,614,609,608,1080,611,613],"class_list":["post-2855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-guest-post","category-movie-reviews","category-theology-of-the-body","category-uncategorized","tag-ben-kingsley","tag-helena-burns","tag-leah-libresco","tag-movie-reviews","tag-ray-kurzweil","tag-ryan-reynolds","tag-selfless","tag-sr-helena-burns","tag-theology-of-the-body","tag-transcendence","tag-transhumanism"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nGnosticism, and its attendant hatred\/suspicion of the body, has made intuitive sense to me ever since I was little. I\u2019ve been interested primarily in the abstract and the intellectual, so I\u2019ve tended to think of my body as the thing that carries around the real me\u2014my mind. I wanted to keep it in good enough repair for it to not inhibit or interfere with me, but, beyond that, I saw it simply as a tool, and one I wouldn\u2019t care about switching for an engineered, robotic one, if the opportunity ever presented itself.<\/p>\n<\/a>Helena Raphael Burns, FSP was going to be an ornithologist, but God zapped her\u00a0and now she belongs to the Daughters of St. Paul, an international congregation of religious women dedicated to spreading God\u2019s Word through the media: www.pauline.org<\/a>. She\u00a0gives workshops to teens and adults on Media Literacy, Philosophy, and Theology of the Body. She is\u00a0finishing an M.A. in Media Literacy Education; has\u00a0a B.A. in philosophy and theology from St. John\u2019s U, NYC; and has\u00a0a Certificate in Pastoral Youth Ministry from the Center for Youth Ministry Development. Sr. Helena\u00a0studied screenwriting at UCLA and Act One, Hollywood. She is\u00a0the writer\/producer of www.MediaApostle.com<\/a> and a co-producer on www.The40Film.com<\/a>. She tweets at\u00a0@SrHelenaBurns and blogs at Hell Burns<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"