February 1, 2011

A Thought About: The Rite

I was looking around at some articles that come across my twitter feed and noticed this one about Anthony Hopkins latest release, "The Rite" and came across this one from Relevant Magazine.

It's a very interesting and good take on the movie, in my opinion and added to the conversation that was going on in my head regarding the film.

Last week, Derry, Dan and I were talking about the movie and whether or not we were going to go and see it. We were relating it to our faith and the ways in which we thought the movie would portray our faith. I didn't go see it this weekend, instead I saw a different movie (which I will talk about later) however I had some thoughts about it and the general portrayal of Satan in Hollywood.

When Derry first brought up last week that he wouldn't see it and didn't really know why anyone would want to be subject to the film, I disagreed with him simply because I didn't see the harm. Of course, then I started thinking about other movies and what Hollywood, in general, does to a person's psyche concerning tough subjects and delicate situations.

The reality quickly set in that Hollywood, generally, desensitizes us to things that we should probably be more sensitive of. Sex is a prime example. That could be a rant for another day, however it seems that with the advent of more and more sex scenes in more and more movies, our sensitivity to the subject has decreased all the more. We have become quite "ok" with partaking any movie that has a sex scene in it and moreover have seen a weakening of the standards we have in regards to sex, marriage and its involvement in our lives.

All that to say, I've heard that Anthony Hopkins does an absolutely fantastic job in this film. I've even heard a number of interviews and reviews suggesting his own faith journey and the ways in which the film reflects a pretty fair shot at the Church. However, I'm not sure I want Hollywood putting the tactics of Satan on the silver screen allowing it to become just another part of daily life. Satan is a powerful being, that has the ability to trip us up even when we don't know it and I'm not sure I want him having another chance at softening people's hearts to his tactics.

What do you think?

What are your thoughts of how the silver screen changes our view of certain things?

2 comments:

yodawg80 said...

Desensitization is an incredibly powerful force at work today. It's like lazyness, apathy, and gluttony. They all seem like little petty things but they build up over time, like blocked arteries.

I heard a great quote by Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for evil to win the world is for good men to do nothing."

Geoff Cocanower said...

Kind of scary to think of that....