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Aug. 14th, 2009 07:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterbobbinI did something unimaginably Not Me last night. Something I *should* probably sweep under the rug and not even admit to, but eventually it is bound to rear up and haunt me, so here it is:
I watched a Lord of the Rings movie.
I was feeling so tired and grumpy last night and Dan suggested we watch a movie, and I said as long as it was something happy (translation: not Nemesis, not Finding Neverland, and not Tale of Two Cities) I would be glad to. So we flipped through the movie book and he suggested Fellowship of the Ring, so we stuck it in with the idea that if I didn't like it we could turn it off.
It was not *all* bad. In fact, the intricacy of the sets and the beautiful scenery and costumes were very impressive. The story itself was engaging enough in its way - I enjoy Adventures With Caves and Falling Rocks and Impending Waterfalls and stuff like that. Don't judge.
But to be honest, nowhere or at any time did I get any inkling of a Christian parallel. The lines are far too blurred. You have an evil lord who makes a ring, evil incarnate - okay, fine; but you have a "good guy" who's a wizard, which according to God is an abomination, so he's not really a "good guy" in the strictest sense of the word, no matter how NICE he may be. There was far too much spiritism involved, and I maintain that God can't be pleased to have a movie built on a spiritist foundation be called a great Christian allegory.
Because it really wasn't.
I can understand the appeal the movie may have and I think that's a lot of its danger. It is easy to get swept up in an adventure of epic and fantastic proportions. I know this well from personal experience. But the enjoyment factor doesn't make it a good or appropriate movie. I really believe good needs to be good and bad needs to be bad in the mind of the Christian, and if the movies we are watching don't reflect that, we need to be careful.
And, people, please know I'm not judging anyone who's a fan - you have the right to choose whatever watching material you desire. This is just my take on it, and I won't love you any less for not seeing it the same way I do.
I watched a Lord of the Rings movie.
I was feeling so tired and grumpy last night and Dan suggested we watch a movie, and I said as long as it was something happy (translation: not Nemesis, not Finding Neverland, and not Tale of Two Cities) I would be glad to. So we flipped through the movie book and he suggested Fellowship of the Ring, so we stuck it in with the idea that if I didn't like it we could turn it off.
It was not *all* bad. In fact, the intricacy of the sets and the beautiful scenery and costumes were very impressive. The story itself was engaging enough in its way - I enjoy Adventures With Caves and Falling Rocks and Impending Waterfalls and stuff like that. Don't judge.
But to be honest, nowhere or at any time did I get any inkling of a Christian parallel. The lines are far too blurred. You have an evil lord who makes a ring, evil incarnate - okay, fine; but you have a "good guy" who's a wizard, which according to God is an abomination, so he's not really a "good guy" in the strictest sense of the word, no matter how NICE he may be. There was far too much spiritism involved, and I maintain that God can't be pleased to have a movie built on a spiritist foundation be called a great Christian allegory.
Because it really wasn't.
I can understand the appeal the movie may have and I think that's a lot of its danger. It is easy to get swept up in an adventure of epic and fantastic proportions. I know this well from personal experience. But the enjoyment factor doesn't make it a good or appropriate movie. I really believe good needs to be good and bad needs to be bad in the mind of the Christian, and if the movies we are watching don't reflect that, we need to be careful.
And, people, please know I'm not judging anyone who's a fan - you have the right to choose whatever watching material you desire. This is just my take on it, and I won't love you any less for not seeing it the same way I do.
