Rare is the movie lover who hasn\u2019t glared at the television and muttered: \u201cIf I could pick the Oscars, things would be different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (usccb.org) urged Catholics, and anyone else who heard about the online poll, to cast their own votes for the major Academy Awards.<\/p>\n\n
And the winners are? The best picture winner was \u201cMillion Dollar Baby.\u201d Clint Eastwood won best director, for \u201cMillion Dollar Baby.\u201d The best actress honor went to Hilary Swank, for \u201cMillion Dollar Baby.\u201d In a big switch from the real Oscars, the Catholic-poll voters didn\u2019t pick Jamie Foxx as best actor for his work in \u201cRay.\u201d They selected Clint Eastwood, for \u201cMillion Dollar Baby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The bottom line: It was a knockout for the sucker-punch melodrama in which a gritty boxer (with a gold cross around her neck) asks her surrogate-father trainer (a daily-Mass Catholic) to kill her because she does not want to live as a quadriplegic after tragedy ends her meteoric rise to fame.<\/p>\n\n
Meanwhile, the bishops\u2019 own film critics gave \u201cMillion Dollar Baby\u201d an \u201cO\u201d \u2014 morally offensive \u2014 rating and warned that its \u201cguilt-wracked, but ultimately permissive\u201d take on euthanasia \u201cwill leave Catholic viewers emotionally against the ropes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This movie did not have the catechism in its corner.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe praised it on the artistic level and, in many ways, it is a fine film,\u201d said Harry Forbes, director of the USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting. \u201cBut we also felt duty-bound to give it the worst rating we can give, in terms of moral content. \u2026 In the end, we did not believe it was propaganda for the euthanasia cause, although we know some people did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Thus, the office\u2019s review said: \u201cThe pain and devastation of those involved is achingly evident. However, in spite of all the soul-searching that precedes it, the deed itself is presented as an act of reluctant heroism. \u2026 Our sympathies and humane inclinations may argue in favor of such misguided compassion, but our Catholic faith prohibits us from getting around the fact that, in this case, the best-intended ends cannot justify the chosen means: the taking of a life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Catholic ethicist Thomas Hibbs went even further, calling \u201cMillion Dollar Baby\u201d a trip into a \u201cnihilistic hell\u201d in which Eastwood meditates on life in a chaotic, amoral and ultimately hopeless universe. At the movie\u2019s heart is the ultimate question: \u201cWhat if God does not exist?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The fierce debates about this movie underline a sobering reality, said Hibbs, author of \u201cShows About Nothing: Nihilism in Popular Culture from The Exorcist to Seinfeld.\u201d Modern consumers are more likely to find guidance at the mall or multiplex than in a religious sanctuary. Thus, whether they admit it or not, artists such as Eastwood are moral leaders when it comes time to wrestle with America\u2019s most divisive issues.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhat happens in pop culture shapes so many of our debates \u2014 even political debates \u2014 about these kinds of issues,\u201d said Hibbs, dean of the Honors College at Baylor University. \u201cSo maybe you haven\u2019t seen this movie. But you\u2019ve heard about it on the news, seen it on magazine covers and read about it in the checkout line at the grocery store. And an Oscar-winning film like this influences other films. \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe have a vacuum in our society and this is what fills it \u2014 politics and movies. Where is the church in this picture?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Forbes said feedback to the Conference of Catholic Bishops indicates that many readers do consult its film reviews. The Office of Film and Broadcasting critiqued 225 movies in 2004, publishing its reviews online and through Catholic News Service. The staff suspects that many of these readers are parents, looking for that friendly \u201cA-I\u201d rating that says the church believes a movie is appropriate for all ages.<\/p>\n\n
Movies for adults are another matter.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThere was a time when what the bishops said had more clout,\u201d Forbes said. \u201cThey could say, \u2018Don\u2019t go to see that movie\u2019 and it would be so. We\u2019re in a different age and people go see what they want to see. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rare is the movie lover who hasn\u2019t glared at the television and muttered: \u201cIf I could pick the Oscars, things would be different.\u201d This year, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (usccb.org) urged Catholics, and anyone else who heard about the online poll, to cast their own votes for the major Academy Awards. And the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1532,240,361,431,1542],"class_list":["post-1323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholics","tag-clint-eastwood","tag-films","tag-hollywood","tag-movies"],"yoast_head":"\n