Saved!
The movie Saved! is an interesting elucidation of Christian lifestyle as it plays out in younger people. I have not talked to anyone about its content, but I would be interested to find out how Christians viewed the movie.
I'll ruin it for you here by saying I think it does a very good job of bringing to light Christian hypocrisies as they often manifest themselves in Christian circles of young people. The best thing I think they did was in lampooning Christians' fears of homosexuality. They make a very insightful point that Christians would seem to be more terrified of discovering they were a homosexual than of anything else. It's pretty hilarious stuff how it's done, better than I can explain here.
As a self-conscious, socially afraid Christian, I found myself alternating between laughing at how they were bringing up all these great parodies of insecurities and feeling uncomfortable at how close to home it was striking because of the hopes I have for how churches will behave and be perceived.
The movie does a great job of imitation, then it goes wildly into highly uncomfortable drama and caper action, then to a pretty sappy though not unrealisticly feeling conclusion. I personally believe that it was a renunication of true faith in Jesus as shown by the gospel and an acceptance of a "Counting on things to turn out okay with a little help from my friends" belief, so I didn't really like the denouement. I don't accept that as true.
The movie had some very revolting irresolved issues involving the two main adults in the film and on the issue of homosexuality. Very scary stuff here from an integrity standpoint. On the homosexuality issue, the filmmakers have the gay man in the film show up at the end with a cohort of people from his therapy center where he has been placed. However, the film is not willing to address the issue definitively. Presumably, they arrive on the scene to force a conclusion, but I don't believe that the sexuality/identity issue was really addressed. The in-the-closet approach (not referring to the way that term is traditionally used, but how everything was kept below the surface without obvious dealings with it) was troubling, and the issue is not dealt with by any of the characters in the story. The adults have what is clearly shown as an inappropriate relationship, but at the end, the two appear to be at the cusp of another romantic interlude. It's sort of pathetic to my palate. In other words, the deceiver is all over some of this stuff and truth is very much obscured. I was hoping to see courageous filmmaking, because it seemed like the concept of a major motion picture about Christians in their element seemed so daring, but I was disappointed.
I'll ruin it for you here by saying I think it does a very good job of bringing to light Christian hypocrisies as they often manifest themselves in Christian circles of young people. The best thing I think they did was in lampooning Christians' fears of homosexuality. They make a very insightful point that Christians would seem to be more terrified of discovering they were a homosexual than of anything else. It's pretty hilarious stuff how it's done, better than I can explain here.
As a self-conscious, socially afraid Christian, I found myself alternating between laughing at how they were bringing up all these great parodies of insecurities and feeling uncomfortable at how close to home it was striking because of the hopes I have for how churches will behave and be perceived.
The movie does a great job of imitation, then it goes wildly into highly uncomfortable drama and caper action, then to a pretty sappy though not unrealisticly feeling conclusion. I personally believe that it was a renunication of true faith in Jesus as shown by the gospel and an acceptance of a "Counting on things to turn out okay with a little help from my friends" belief, so I didn't really like the denouement. I don't accept that as true.
The movie had some very revolting irresolved issues involving the two main adults in the film and on the issue of homosexuality. Very scary stuff here from an integrity standpoint. On the homosexuality issue, the filmmakers have the gay man in the film show up at the end with a cohort of people from his therapy center where he has been placed. However, the film is not willing to address the issue definitively. Presumably, they arrive on the scene to force a conclusion, but I don't believe that the sexuality/identity issue was really addressed. The in-the-closet approach (not referring to the way that term is traditionally used, but how everything was kept below the surface without obvious dealings with it) was troubling, and the issue is not dealt with by any of the characters in the story. The adults have what is clearly shown as an inappropriate relationship, but at the end, the two appear to be at the cusp of another romantic interlude. It's sort of pathetic to my palate. In other words, the deceiver is all over some of this stuff and truth is very much obscured. I was hoping to see courageous filmmaking, because it seemed like the concept of a major motion picture about Christians in their element seemed so daring, but I was disappointed.
Labels: Movies
posted by David at 11:59 AM
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