two movies - Narnia and Brokeback
On the way back from Japan they were showing the “Passion of the Lion†(a.k.a. The Chronicles of Narnia). I’m not going to write a lengthy review, but one thought kept recurring to me as I watched the movie: the entire premise of a savior is ridiculous. Think about how it works in the Passion of the Lion: Edmund betrays his siblings, breaking some cosmic, unknown, and unknowable law condemning him to death. Aslan proceeds to negotiate with the Ice Queen a way to save Edmund and, well, everyone else - he sacrifices himself (claiming he is perfect) and magically comes back to life. When he comes back to life, he has somehow broken the cosmic laws allowing everyone to live forever.
When the idea of a magical savior is applied to anything but Jesus outside the Christianity framework everyone thinks it is patently ridiculous. But attack the notion that some mythical guy who may have lived a couple of thousand years ago saved all of humanity from burning in a lake of eternal fire when they die because their father is a sadistic bitch and their brother (in Mormonism) rebelled and 2 billion people take up arms. Aslan, ridiculous. Jesus, a perfect sacrifice. Ridiculous!
As for Brokeback Mountain… What a brilliant movie! The unfortunate thing about it is that everyone who has heard about it knows it is about homosexuality. And since homosexuality is such a big no no for so many religious people, they won’t see it. Ergo, the people who most need to see this movie will be the least likely to see it. What a shame! This is a movie about love; it’s one of the most touching movies I’ve seen in a very long time. Everyone should see it!
