Why should Catholics care about the Oscars, or, for that matter, movies in general? As a Catholic film critic, it is a question I have been asked. After all, or so the reasoning goes, Hollywood “hates” organized religion – and Catholicism with a particular intensity, right? So why should believers give a hoot about an industry that seems intent on mocking and maligning them? What, to paraphrase the early Church father Tertullian, has Hollywood to do with Jerusalem?
Writing when Greek philosophy was the pop culture of the day, Tertullian famously asked “what Athens has to do with Jerusalem, or the Academy with the Church?” In other words, what does popular culture have to do with faith?
Two thousand years later, people are still asking the same question.
In 2000, Pope John Paul II stated, “The impact of the media can hardly be exaggerated. For many, the experience of living is, to a great extent, an experience of the media.” And for many, a big part of their media diet is movies.
Much more than mere entertainment, motion pictures have a powerful impact on society, shaping ideas and attitudes. They are, according to John Paul II, “communicators of culture and values.”
The multiplex is now the church of the masses, and movie stars the objects of cultic devotion. Last year, over a billion movie tickets were purchased. The vast majority of Catholic moviegoers are more familiar with Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks, than “Tom” Aquinas.
In “Behind the Screen” a collection of essays on faith and film, best-selling author James Scott Bell writes, “Movies are part of our cultural syntax. They help shape our language and our conversations.” For Christians concerned with elevating the cultural landscape, he adds
“This is the just the sort of cultural conversation we need to be having, but we can’t participate if we are not engaged with culture.” As they say, you’ve got to be in it to win it.
Before Saint Ignatius sent his missionaries off to spread the Gospel, he advised them: “wherever you go, learn the language.” In a world were movies are the lingua franca, that means being cinema literate.
In his 1995 World Communications Day address, John Paul II encouraged greater cinema literacy among Catholics, particularly parents. No Catholic would argue the importance of staying informed about political issues, but when it comes to popular culture – which, for better or worse, exerts arguably greater influence on society – many Catholics choose to tune out.
Sure, there’s a lot wrong with what Hollywood is churning out, a lot for Catholics to be concerned about. All the more reason not to stand on the sidelines.
“Those who would completely withdraw from culture because of its imperfection suffer a decreasing capacity to interact redemptively with that culture,” writes Christian screenwriter Brian Godawa in his book Hollywood Worldviews. “They don’t understand the way people around them are thinking because they are not they are not familiar with the “language” those people are speaking or the culture they are consuming.”
Which brings us back to the Oscars. Now, I’m not suggesting that every nominated film is worth seeing; on the contrary, some are definitely not recommended viewing. But I do believe that it is in every Catholic’s interest to at least be aware of the movies in the running, simply because those are the films that will be talked about around water coolers, soccer fields and dining room tables – those everyday opportunities for evangelization. To that end, Catholics should be able to articulate their thoughts – positive or negative – in the light of Christian truths. It’s not enough to say that you found a particular film “offensive” or not, you should be able to intelligently explain why. You should, as Ignatius counseled, speak the language.
On the flipside, tuning in on Oscar night, you might also find out about some terrific movies from the past year that were inspiring, artistic, spiritually-affirming or just plain entertaining.
If we are to take Christ’s command seriously to be the yeast that leavens the whole loaf, we must meet the culture head on. To do that, we must be in the dough (while not of it). Or at least in the know.
What does Hollywood have to do with Jerusalem and the Academy – Awards, that is – with the Church? Actually, more than you may think.
October 29th, 2011 at 9:16 pm
I enjoyed reading this, and as you said, “in the light of Christian truths.” There’s many levels of those truths to consider at least in genre films that espouse a morality common to what is basically familiar to most theater goers in the western world. There are those satires that float an insight ordinarily hidden in news media of one type of bias or another…war films as one example”…all action takes place…in a kind of twilight,. which like fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are…Whatever is hidden from full view in this feeble light…has to be guessed by talent or simply left to chance.” Carl Von Clausewitz (1780-1831) soldier and military theorist.
The question of what sells currently in film, exposes a built in commercial bias most often woven into narrative bias long before the shooting starts. This, as I see it, prepares, the movie goer, in my case, a Catholic, for the depravity of the enemy in recycled atrocity stories from earlier screen plays. I must question the demands of the common moral order, in light of my own Christian bias. Add to that to what cultural point of view is the film directed? “We are obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order.” Catechism Of The Catholic Church (2256) And I agree as well, it’s OK to object, and better still to speak out instead of tune out.