 March
2005
This month's reviews (What Merits an Academy Award?):
What Merits an
Academy Award?
In his book Waking the Dead, John Eldredge says this in an
effort to get us off our collective duffs:
“Wake up, O sleeper … Be very careful, then, how you live …
because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:14-16). ‘Christianity
isn’t a religion about going to Sunday school, potluck suppers,
being nice, holding car washes, sending our secondhand clothes off
to Mexico—as good as those things might be. This is a world at
war. Something large and immensely dangerous is unfolding all
around us, we are caught up in it, and above all we doubt we have
been given a key role to play.’
Hotel Rwanda
We see just this theme played out in the movie Hotel Rwanda,
unfortunately not one of the best-picture nominees for the year
2004. It should be, though.
Hotel Rwanda is about the genocide that took place in the small
African country of Rwanda in 1994, when almost a million people were
killed. The minority Tutsis had been prominent during Belgium’s
colonial rule, but the majority Hutus gained power when independence
came. As the film opens, the Hutus are trying to massacre as many of
the Tutsis as possible. Main character Paul Rusesabagina is the
manager of a five-star European hotel in the capital city, Kigali.
The excruciating challenge for Paul is that his wife Tatiana, whom
he loves deeply, is Tutsi, while Paul himself is Hutu. When the
ethnic cleansing begins, Paul is willing to save his family and
friends, many of whom are Tutsi, but he soon undergoes a change of
heart. The European staff of the hotel all depart, leaving Paul in
charge, and he realizes what he has to do: make the hotel a refuge
for the Tutsis, orphans, and nuns who are being persecuted: He is
aided only by a few members of a UN peacekeeping force and must rely
on his own resources. Paul is a good example of the kind of person
who can literally save his portion of the world.
In the movie’s most telling scene, Paul is having a heated
conversation with a western cameraman who is filming the events.
Paul says to the cameraman, “When the world sees what’s happening,
how can they not intervene?” The cameraman responds, “Oh, they’ll
look at the pictures and say ‘Isn’t that horrible,’ and then go back
to their dinners.” This is exactly the kind of comfort-induced sleep
that John Eldredge is trying to wake us from.
American actor Don Cheadle plays Paul in one of the most
convincing performances I’ve seen in a long time. British actress
Sophie Okonedo does an equally excellent job of portraying his wife.
They certainly deserve the acting awards they’ve been nominated for,
but they probably won’t win them.
Here are some capsule comments about three of the five movies
nominated for Best Picture. I haven’t seen Ray or Sideways.
Finding Neverland: A charming story about J.M. Barrie, who wrote
Peter Pan. Johnny Depp gives a great performance. It’s an especially
good show for kids.
Million Dollar Baby: A tearjerker about a boxing promoter who
agrees to manage a young woman in her early 30s driven to escape her
trashy background by becoming a boxer. It has a terrific performance
by Hilary Swank as the woman but is full of instances of taking the
Lord’s name in vain. Worse, it’s fundamentally an argument for
euthanasia.
The Aviator: I agree with a friend who said he thought it was “a
mixed bag.” It’s historically interesting as a portrayal of the life
of Howard Hughes, whose character comes through clearly. However,
it’s full of bad language and the glorification of moral turpitude.
It will probably get the Academy Award because director Martin
Scorsese has never won, and it’s supposedly “his turn.”
Hotel Rwanda certainly isn’t the most entertaining movie of the
year. It’s not even entertainment, per se, and it’s not for
children. It has the most to say about the Christian walk, though.
Ratings:
The Aviator: 2 ½ stars
Million Dollar Baby: 3 stars
Finding Neverland: 3 stars
Hotel Rwanda: 3 ½ stars
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Index of movie
reviews...
(2003 reviews through present)
Jay Maurer, a member of West Side Presbyterian Church, is
a long-term movie buff and former college teacher of The Film as
Literature. He has written movie reviews for The Good News
(West Side newsletter) since 2002.
If you have comments or questions
about the movie (or play) reviews, please contact Jay at
dramachap@msn.com.
Ratings are expressed in
increments of ¼ star.
A rating of 2 ½ stars or higher is meant to be a recommendation.
1 star: poor
2 stars: minimally satisfactory
3 stars: quite good
4 stars: superb
Criteria for determining the ratings:
- Reflection, either explicit or implicit, of Christian values,
including suitability of language and lack of gratuitous violence
- Quality of the acting
- Originality
- Unity of the entire picture
- Substance, or in the words of C.S. Lewis, weight
Other Christian movie review Web sites:
Plugged In Online
ChristianityTodayMovies.com
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