ADVICE TO MY SON 22: MOVIES

As you know, my son, I’ve seen some 3500 films in my life: a figure that would suggest that movies have meant a great deal more to me than mere entertainment. They have. Of course, there is nothing wrong with mere entertainment. Indeed, I would encourage you to turn to the silver screen for the purposes of excitement, relaxation, and unrestrained laughter. But there are deeper dimensions to film that I hope you will avail yourself of.

On the aesthetic level, film draws together all the genres: literature (screenplay), theater (acting and placement on stage), visual arts (individual frames are often composed and lit like paintings), dance (the pictures move), and music (score). Photography, architecture, fashion design, and even computer programming find their way as well into the cinematography, sets, costumes, and special effects. To experience such a fusion of all the arts is to be reminded that all creative gifts come from the same divine source: that we are all, in fact, made in the image of a creative God.

Though the parallel may seem like a strange one, the closest thing to the making of a modern film is the making of a Gothic cathedral. Just as hundreds of trained artisans, each with different gifts, combined their talents under the supervising eye of a master craftsman to erect the great cathedrals of Europe, so the army of people whose diverse skills are needed to produce a film are coordinated under the visionary eye of the director. If you will remember that Paul describes the Church as the Body of Christ, and that each member of that body has different functions but equal value, you will see that filmmaking, like cathedral-making, offers a glimpse into what rare works of art can be fashioned when differently gifted people pool their resources.

On an intellectual level, film allows us to experience and ponder something that modern people too often ignore: the brevity of our lives. In many movies, you get to watch most of a human life lived out in the space of two hours. In that transitory window, you get to see—you can’t turn away from—the consequences that decisions bring, the need for forgiveness and reconciliation, the extremes of grief and joy, the decay of dreams and the fulfillment of hopes. Though the best novels do this, the fact that it takes days or even weeks to read through them lessens their impact. The concentrated force of film makes it harder for us to hold the experience at arms length.

On an emotional level, film affords us the opportunity to enter imaginatively and sympathetically into the life of another human being. Yes, novels do that as well, but the three-dimensional realism of film and its use of the camera let us see the world through the eyes of the hero or heroine in a unique and unforgettable way.

Finally, on a spiritual level, film opens our eyes and ears to a whole new world of sights and sounds. In the wink of an eye, we can move from a panoramic God’s eye view of a city to the smile on the face of a newborn child. All the barriers of time and space are broken down, allowing us to explore doorways and alleyways closed to us in our day to day lives. Film liberates our imagination and allows it to soar.

Not a bad way to spend an evening.