"Match Point"
Monday October 23, 2006
Well, the Internet mysteriously restored itself here at home tonight, so yay for that. We'll get back to regular blogging tomorrow (there was a slew of stuff from over the weekend that I wanted to mention for discussion, so maybe...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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And this is bothering you because...?>
Over the last 3 years, since becoming Orthodox, I have had the same experience. Not just thinking "Hmmm...this is a bad show. I shouldn't watch it." But this same thing...just not being able to watch anymore. The list of shows is getting longer and longer.>
There's a term for it. I really should look it up instead of guessing, but IIRC it's "semantic overload".
The subconsious is processing all the time. We become aware of it only when we have eureka moments, flashes of intuition, or whacky dreams, but it's there 24/7 and it affects us in ways we don't expect.
My bet is that you (Rod, general) are reacting to things without being consciously aware of them, and when you reach a threshold (the overload point), your conscious mind kicks in and you take conscious action around whatever is bothering you.
Others may prefer a Freudian approach, but I just don't want to go there... 8)>
It is possible to become spiritually weary of seeing only the ugliness and crassness of the material world. Even a very well done and masterfully crafted work of art whether visual, written or spoken/sung can grate and set off the nerve endings when one has had enough. The only thing I can suggest is to search for some beauty and behold it for awhile. This may take some time to find a film that qualifies as beauty.>
I'm a PCA guy who thought "Match Point" was brilliant -- another reason for Rod never to consider Presbyterianism!
Rod's assessment is entirely respectable, however, and one I've shared for certain other films. In fact, Rod's mention of "Goodfellas," a film I also greatly admire, lends itself to a comparison of Scorcese's much ballyhooed "The Departed." It's a good film in many of the same ways as "Goodfellas," but I'm not the same man I was when I saw "Goodfellas." I'm now 35 (was 20 when I first saw "Goodfellas," and 22 when I bought a copy on video) with two kids and a third on the way. Sitting in the theater watching great actors give great performances, all in the name of bloody, ecstatic violence, seasoned with tons of profanity, made me a little ill.>
Yeah, I, too, find this kind of thing very uncomfortable and not the kind of influence I want in my home. Sometimes you get something other than what you bargained for when you rent or go to a movie.
In addition to the crassness of the CHARACTERS, could some of the discomfort also be the voyeristic aspect of funding people to be lewd IN REALITY in front of a camera? I bring up a fundamental question about most of the film industry as seen through the lens of authentic Christian faith. The early Church prohibited its adherents from attending the theatre because it was pagan and lewd and, therefore, harmful to both the audience and the players. Is the contemporary reality of most movies any different?
Often, we are like proverbial frogs gradually being boiled unknowingly. Children have a way of shaking us out of our stupor.>
Maybe the reason you reacted so strongly was because Match Point was such a brilliant film. When I saw it a few weeks ago, I found myself pacing back and forth in front of the TV, wanting to turn it off because my anxiety level was turned up to 11. That is exactly how we were supposed to feel. If ever there's been a movie that reminds me why I stay at home and watch movies with my wife, this was it. Good art does that type of thing.
And the film wouldn't have had the same effect on us if the guy cheated with a witty, frumpy Kate Winslet type. If he had, you wouldn't have had such sympathy for the wife. Instead, the film had Scarlett Johansson, born to wear sweaters, playing a shallow actress, so you knew the relationship was purely physical. And doomed from the start. Which you may not have fully understood unless you watched the whole film. And I can't say any more because I don't want to spoil the film.
I'll bet you didn't have that level of emotional involvement when clever Miss Winslet and Leo were steaming up that car in the formulaic Titanic.>
I have no problem with "Goodfellas". Nobody in the end gets off easy for their sins therein. Scorcese might have airbrushed Henry Hill a bit, but reality creeps in anyway.
As to "Match Point" nobody in AMerica cares about Woody Allen except to know he's a pedophile who snookers his stepdaughter.Which is why he's making "films" in England, not here. It seems he took his point in "Crimes and Misdemeanors" to heart-there's no cost to sin in this life, and he hasn't stopped since. And why would he? Upper West Side commies and Hollywood liberals still treat this creep like royalty. Everything he does now has to be looked at as just another awful part of his despicable psyche. And why Scarlett Johansen(not much of an actress,true) or any actress would have anything to do with this criminal is beyond belief. If you watched it, you have only yourself to blame.>
It would be interesting to hear about your reaction "Lost in Translation".>
There are many "brilliant" movies I have never bothered to see because I know that I have moved away from the place where I was in my life where I could watch such things.
My point of view is that I can pick up the newspaper every day and see the real life depicted in such movies as "GoodFellas" and "Matchpoint." The grittiness of real life is such that at times I have to take a news "fast." I would be too depressed otherwise.
So, when I seek entertainment, I do not want to see the real world. I want to see fantasy. I want to believe that fathers don't dessert their children, that heroes magically appear to save the day, that your neighbors will pitch in to re-build that barn, that below every menacing face beats a heart of gold, and that, given the chance, a Darth Vader will remember what he was and once again become Anakin Skywalker.>
Michael,
I don't know about Rod, but I didn't much care for Scarlett Johansson in *Lost in Translation*. I couldn't really see what Bill Murray's character saw in her, even as just a friend to hand around with. It seemed to me that they didn't really have anything in common except being expatriates abroad, and I don't really consider her pretty enough even for there to be attraction on that level. I've had the "hanging out with fellow expatriates abroad" experience, and unless you really have something in common to talk about, after the novelty wears off you get really tired of each other's company really fast.
But maybe there's something in the movie that I missed.>
I quite liked "Lost in Translation," but then again, I have a weakness for melancholy. A rainy late-autumn afternoon, Chet Baker in the background -- that's heaven to me. I didn't think LIT was profound, but it was an effective and moving exploration of the deep human need for personal contact.
I'm not willing to concede that MP made me anxious because it was supposed to. I mean, yes, perhaps that's so, but as R-rated movies go, that's pretty tame. And it wasn't like the adultery was depicted as a good or attractive thing, morally or aesthetically. I figured that this being a Woody Allen film, the protagonist would one way or another escape without being punished, because (as in "Crimes and Misdemeanors," which really is a brilliant film), if God doesn't exist, the moral code only amounts to whatever you can get away with and rationalize.
So I knew this was coming, or figured it was (and according to a film critic friend, it did).
I think it was just the ... ugliness of the act itself that repelled me. Mind you, I'm not the sort of person who believes ugliness should be kept off screen. If it's human, then art has a right to it. With my blog posting, I'm not making a general statement about art and morality, just thinking out loud about why I had such a visceral negative reaction to something that not too long ago would have been mildly unpleasant to watch at worst. I'm sure that recently becoming the father of a daughter had something to do with it -- the idea that a caddish husband might do that to her someday, you know?>
I think you were experiencing the effects of moral regeneration, which your recent church change brought about. A follower of Christ is supposed to become a new creature. The evangelicals call it being born again. Perhaps that's why you didn't feel comfortable viewing that scene. Some liberals might say you're becoming a legalistic prude, but conservatives would say that God is beginning a new work in you.>
Scarlett Johansson is dull? Get to youtube and watch Fly High Duluth! (Actually, that's almost all Will Forte, but the sketch is great.)>
I've had the experience Rod describes several times. Later on it will--well, let's be optimistic and say "may"--cause arguments with the children when they're eager to ingest the pollutants and you're still freaked out by the thought.>
Elaine and reddopto, really. Let's not turn this thread into Orthodox=hates_trash_in_movies, Catholic=loves/tolerates_trash_in_movies. Even Rod himself didn't do that (except subliminally, maybe).>
Rod didn't even do it subliminally. I was a Catholic when I experienced a change of consciousness about violence in movies. It wasn't my religion; it was my new fatherhood. And I think it probably was this time too.>
MP is a brilliant and disturbing film.
I don't at all blame you for feeling anxious enough that you wanted to turn the movie off; I almost did, too, but I'm glad I didn't. The end of that movie is endlessly thought-provoking.
if God doesn't exist, the moral code only amounts to whatever you can get away with and rationalize
Oh boy. Well, no, it's perfectly possible to believe in acting morally for its own sake, avoiding harming others even if you're not anticipating goodies/demons with pitchforks in the hereafter. Also, it's impossible to take that as the moral of Match Point.>
I haven't seen Match Point, or Lost in Translation, but a great and deeply disturbing film that has the same theme (adultery) is FAITHLESS, directed by Liv Ullmann and written by Ingmar Bergman. It's especially powerful in the scenes that show the couple's child and the effect adultery has on her.
MJ>
While I don't doubt the sincerity of what you wrote, it's far too maudlin for me. Honestly. It was a movie for heaven's sake, not a referendum on fidelity or parenting.>
Congratulations! Your conscience convicted you and you acted on it. I became more sensitive to input, however passive, in regard to my leisure time spent in front of the TV in the den. I don't watch it many times. I like the TV on for background noise when I'm working on other things. However, there are some programs and movies that shock us enough to get us to turn them off. I think it's a really good thing to feel so compelled once in awhile. I can't remember the movie I saw some years ago, but it had Laura Dern and Nicholas Cage in it, and he bashed in some man's head like an egg on the sidewalk within the first 20 minutes or so. It so creeped me out that I immediately turned it off. I still cringe thinking about it now.>
Lord have mercy, redoppto. I'm a Cradle Catholic, and for as long as I can remember, I've been repelled by violent and amoral movies. I don't watch them, period.
But of course, since I haven't been "Truly Born Again(TM)" as an Orthodox, and therefore I Lack Grace (right?), my aversion to such movies cannot be attributed to the Holy Spirit; it must be some quirk or sumpin'.
Sheesh. ISTM Rod doesn't know what he has got himself into. But let's leave that for another time, another thread.
God bless,
Diane>
good site
">http://www.fitness-world.org/>
good site
">http://www.info-language.com/>
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