(Display Name not set)April 2006 Archives

I saw "United 93," so you don't have to.

Which isn't to say it's a bad movie, because it's excellent, maybe even great--original, innovative, riveting, heartbreaking, unforgettable. Many had feared that the film would be exploitative, but "United 93" is exactly the opposite of that. In telling the story of the fourth plane on Sept. 11--the one that crashed as the passengers attempted to retake it from the hijackers--the filmmakers do away with all Hollywood conventions and opt for a documentary-style reenactment. We don't see the characters' back stories or their surviving relatives; no husbands kissing their wives good-bye for the last time, no lucky latecomer who just missed the flight, no orphans remembering their lost mom. Nothing, in fact, that we'd expect from a disaster-of-the-week film.

Instead, director Paul Greengrass tells the story in real-time, from just before takeoff to its tragic crash in a Pennsylvania field, jumping back and forth between the goings-on inside the airplane, the confusion among air-traffic controllers, and the too-little, too-late efforts by the military to retake American airways. Even the passengers' rebellion against the terrorists is presented without adornment, not as some sort of macho militaristic battle, but as what it was: The last desperate, heartbreaking attempt by a group of doomed people to take control of their fate.

Watching "United 93" was truly like re-experiencing Sept. 11. My heart started pounding the minute the plane's doors closed, and it didn't stop until after I returned to my office when it was over. Yes, this movie is a respectful, fitting memorial to the deceased heroes who fought back and prevented their flight from destroying the Capitol or another Washington building. Yes, I learned a lot about what these passengers must have went through, and gained some insight into how the air-traffic controllers and military officers reacted--sometimes as heroes, sometimes as bumblers, sometimes as both at once--to an unprecedented situation.

But is all of that a good thing? Do we want to go to the movies to re-experience the greatest American trauma of our time? Not me. Don't get me wrong; I am not someone who thinks all movies need to be happy, and I believe that film plays an important role in how we as a society talk about and work through important issues. But I don't see how this particular film furthers that conversation; it's certainly well intentioned and very well made, but it ultimately fails to go deeper than the surface. And we've all experienced that surface--in endless news coverage and in our own horrific memories--too much already. I can understand showing this movie at the planned United 93 memorial or at Sept. 11 memorial commemorations. But as one of the choices at your local multiplex, it's hard for me to understand why people would choose to bring themselves back so viscerally to that traumatic day--or what they'd get out of it.

Kudos to Walden Media on its lengthy profile in this week's Entertainment Weekly. Though not (yet) a household name, Walden is the company behind "The Chronicles of Narnia" movie, as well as "Holes," "Because of Winn-Dixie," and the upcoming "Hoot" and "Charlotte's Web." EW, the arbiter of all things hip in Hollywood, offers a detailed look at the phenomenal success of this young company--a success, as the magazine says, that is "fueled by its exclusive focus on Hollywood's least sexy genre: the family film."

Yes, the much-maligned, oft-mocked family flick is enjoying its moment in the sun. Founded by two old friends, Walden's strategy seems so simple that you (or at least I) would have assumed it'd been done by a million others before them: Ask children's librarians and teachers what books they'd recommend, and then make high-quality films from those books. Done and done.

At least one "Da Vinci Code" mystery has been solved... as far as the High Court in London is concerned. According to Reuters, the British court decided that "while Brown may have copied bits of the 1982 book 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail,' that [it] did not amount to a breach of copyright."

Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, well-known conspiracy theorists and authors of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" (as the book was titled here in the States), had claimed that Brown stole their idea of a massive church cover-up of the true nature of the bloodline of Christ for his megaselling novel. The suit threatened--or seemed to threaten--to delay the May release of the "Da Vinci Code" movie starring Tom Hanks. It doesn't take a conspiracy theorist, however, to determine that the timing of the lawsuit was just a little too perfect, seeing as how well the trial coincided with the release of Baignent's new book "The Jesus Papers," which claims that Christ didn't die on the cross--not to mention the buzz over the upcoming "Da Vinci Code" movie release.

(Watch Beliefnet's video interview with Baigent here.)

Aviad Cohen--you may know him as 50 Shekel, though then again, you probably don't know of him at all--has found a new way to get the word out about his latest passions. He's started a blog called Scripture & Sushi, in which he rhapsodizes about--you guessed it--the Bible and raw fish.

Cohen had a brief moment of fame, at least in the Jewish world, when, performing under the name 50 Shekel, he produced Jewish hip-hop music that both parodied Jewish culture and expressed pride in his heritage. His second, even briefer, moment in the spotlight was last year, when he announced he'd become a Messianic Jew (or, as we sticklers for accuracy like to call it, a Christian), who continues identifying with Jews and Judaism, with the added belief in Jesus as the messiah. You can guess which Scripture he's writing about in his blog; let's just say it includes the books we don't read in shul.

In the spirit of spreading his new messianic zeal, Cohen sparked a bit of a brouhaha in the Jewish blogosphere last month with comments about the latest Jewish musician to grab the pop-culture spotlight, Matisyahu, the Hasidic reggae artist. First, some background: Matisyahu's brand of Hasidic Judaism is called Chabad (also known as Lubavitcher), and some very-vocal members of this group believe that the group's now-deceased leader will return from the dead as the mashiach, or messiah.

If that last part sounds a bit--or more than a bit--Christian, you're not alone; many Jews have said the same thing. The artist formerly known as 50 Shekel has grabbed onto that bit of belief to argue, in an interview with The Canonist blog, that he, the Messianic Jew, and Matisyahu, the Chabad Jew, are not all that different (though Matisyahu has never, as far as I know, stated publicly his personal thoughts on the messianism issue). “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying, ‘Long live the King Messiah,’ it’s just the Chabad messiah or the Lubavitch messiah that’s the problem,” Cohen said. “I just hope he [Matisyahu] opens his eyes and ears to truth... I didn’t find it in rabbinic Judaism, I found it in the scriptures.” And, of course, in Jesus.

Cohen added that, since Matisyahu performed together with the Christian band P.O.D., the Hasidic reggae star has been adequately witnessed to--and now, presumably, just needs to think it through and come to the decision that seems obvious to Cohen. If not, maybe Cohen can take Matisyahu out for some kosher sushi and discuss the matter.

When you hear the name Jerry Jenkins, the first thing you think of probably is not "emotional love story." But the king (or co-king, with Tim LaHaye) of Christian apocalyptic storytelling is much more than just "The Left Behind" series. In fact, he's authored a whopping 160 books, covering any number of topics, fictional and nonfictional. For the first time, one of his solo novels, "Though None Go With Me," has been made into a film--starring former Charlie's Angel Cheryl Ladd, no less--which will debut on the Hallmark Channel on Sat (9 p.m./8 Central time).

I spoke with Jenkins about the project on what happened to be the day after he saw the finished product for the first time. He proclaimed himself pleased--no surprise there--though he did say, "It's not quote-unquote a 'Christian movie,' maybe not the movie I would have made from the book... As an evangelical author, I probably would have been more overt about the themes." Lest you think from that quote that "Though None Go With Me" has been stripped of its spirituality, consider its plot: A young woman decides, in Jenkins's words, to "investigate the true cost of a lifetime commitment to Christ," and pledges to follow Jesus' teachings, no matter what the cost. She suffers great loses--becoming a sort of "female Job," Jenkins says--but her faith remains strong, despite the trials she's put through.

Jenkins is well aware that sweet love stories like "Though None Go With Me" are not what's made his reputation. "A lot of people have asked me, 'Have you written anything else?'" he says, adding that most of his work is more like "Though None Go With Me" than "Left Behind." "Ironically, the idea of prophetic apocalyptic fiction is not what gets me up in the morning," he says. "I've written 160 books and all the rest of them put together haven't sold what 'Left Behind' has sold."

Jenkins can look forward to retiring the "Left Behind" franchise. A final prequel is coming out in June, and a final sequel next year, the final title in the series. The production company he started with his son in 2001, Jenkins Entertainment, is currently producing a film of a short story by Jenkins, "Midnight Clear," but don't expect Jenkins to go all Hollywood on us. "As a novelist, I find the movie-making business almost way too collegial for me," he says. "You need to have everybody else involved. A novelist, you go off in what I call a cave and write until you're finished."

We'd like to take this opportunity for a quick and shameless public service announcement: Beliefnet is pleased to announce the launch of BeliefBuzz, a daily newsletter featuring the best of our entertainment and pop-culture content, including, of course, the latest...

It's common these days to refer to Super Bowl Sunday as a civic holiday, but to me there's no more significant sports-oriented festival than baseball's Opening Day--just as there is no more spiritual sport than baseball, with its focus on...