Film post #4 V for Vendetta

"People should not fear their government, the government should fear its people." - V

'V for Vendetta' (2005) is a great film, but it leaves you feeling unsettled and uneasy. The 'hero' of the tale is morally grey. He is a freedom fighter, but he is also out for vengeance. His treatment of the female protagonist Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), in order to make her in his own image, is frankly horrific. For V the ends justify the means.

V is played brilliantly by Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in the Matrix). As a prisoner in an experimental facility, he experienced untold sufferings as many of his co-captives were killed. However, during a fire he managed to escape. Badly burnt he remodelled himself as V, donning a Guy Fawkes mask, and planning to topple the regime. "For 20 years, I sought only this day. Nothing else existed...

The film explores themes of fear and control; and revolution and hope. The world it occupies is a dark dystopia. The United Kingdom is run by a totalitarian government, to whom the people of the UK have handed over their freedoms in order to feel safe in a dangerous world. This government with its mantra - "Strength through Unity. Unity through Faith" - has brutally outlawed Islam and homosexuality. However, the government is essentially one man: the High Chancellor, Adam Sutler (John Hurt); and as his power is threatened, he becomes increasingly frantic.

The film is interesting because it raises the question - who is responsible for the dystopia that has been created? Is it the people's fear and apathy? Or is it a manipulative power-hungry man? V's conclusion is unsettling:

"Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent." 

Made in a post 9-11 world, 'V for Vendetta' seems to be saying: be careful, you do not make the same mistake. Do not hand over your freedoms. Do not allow your government to single out groups of people as scape-goats. Hold your government accountable. Do not allow fear to be your guiding principle.

A gospel perspective?

The brutality and claustrophobia of the regime means that we are relieved as V succeeds. However, the film leaves us in a murky world. It is a broken world that needs more than freedom, it needs restoration. As a story it feels incomplete. The people released from a dark malevolent power, but they are left to fix the mess. And to be honest, we are not certain they will make a good job of it. They may be free from fear, but in the absence of order will they be able to restore the country?

V for Vendetta, like most human stories, has echoes of the ultimate narrative: the story of God's world. Like V's plan, the gospel brings freedom from darkness, but that is where the comparison ends. God wonderfully rescues, but he also brings us out into a new kingdom - a kingdom of light (Colossians 1v12). A kingdom that is lovingly and wisely ruled.

"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves..." (Colossians 1:13) 

The film is right - fear is a big problem. God releases us from fear of punishment (1 John 4:18), and he releases us from fear of death (Hebrews 2:15), but fear is not the ultimate problem. It is a symptom of the deeper issue of sinfulness. Colossians goes on to say of Jesus"...in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."  (Colossians 1:14). Sin is the tyrant which causes our deaths, and Jesus is the liberator who brings real life. 

Where the action is

Watch this short video and pray...as simple as that.

Pray for North Korea

Heaven by Emeli Sandé

I find this video by Emeli Sandé fascinating. It feels as though she is singing the song on behalf of all the faces of the video. For all those people trapped in addictions, with lives spiralling out of control. No longer the people they used to be. They wake with good intentions, wanting to be the people they were before, but the day is just too long. "And then I'm gone."

It is a story that feels real. And it's one that only the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring real and lasting change to. What is interesting, is that I think that many seemingly respectable "together" people, will feel as though she is singing on their behalf too. We all mourn the loss of the person that we could have been, should have been, once were. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ speaks hope into this feeling of loss.

Will you recognise me in those flashing lights?

I try to keep my heart clean, but I can’t get it right

Will you recognise me, when I’m lying on my back?

Something's gone inside me, and I can’t get it back?

Chorus:

Oh heaven, oh heaven, I wake with good intentions,

But the day it always lasts too long Then I’m gone!

Oh heaven, oh heaven, I wake with good intentions,

But the day it always lasts too long Then I’m gone.

Will you recognize me, when I’m stealing from the poor

You're not gonna like me, I’m nothing like before

Will you recognize me, when I lose another friend?

Will you learn to leave me, or give me one more try again

Who am I?

Have you ever felt your subconscious asking these kinds of questions? - Do I like myself today? Am I despairing or rejoicing in who I see myself to be? Am I worth anything?

"For too many of us, our sense of identity is more rooted in our performance than it is in God's grace."

Timothy S Lane & Paul David Tripp, How People Change (2006)

Let's live in our new identity, rejoicing not in ourselves but in Christ who has purchased our adoption as sons.

Film post #3 The Time Machine

If I am honest, I would not recommend The Time Machine (2002). It is badly written and badly acted,  currently receiving a score of just 5.7 on IMDB. However, I did promise to write about every film I watch in 2012. So here goes.

The film sees Professor Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) travelling about 800,000 years into the future. There he meets humans living a seemingly idyllic lifestyle without technology, at peace with their environment. However, he soon discovers that no human now lives past early adulthood because they are hunted and dragged away by vicious grotesque hunters.

There is one scene in The Time Machine, when Alexander discovers the truth that one half of the human race has been feeding on the other for millennia. Horrified, the professor demands of his captor (Jeremy Irons), "Have you not thought about the human cost of what you're doing?"

As you watch the film, we the viewers instinctively agree with Alexander. However, we are left with the question: What is it that gives a human being value? What is it that makes this scenario sickeningly wrong? For a Christian the answer is easy. Each human being is made in the image of God and has objective and very real value. However, for the naturalist we are simply a product of genes struggling to survive in a hostile environment. If this is the case, then how can we justify our feeling that each individual has value? And yet we do feel sickened by the scenario played out in The Time Machine. Which world-view makes most sense of this?

* * *

The question of human value is something that I've been thinking about quite a bit recently. In particular in the context of abortion. I sometimes feel like crying out to anyone who will listen: "have you not thought about the human cost of what we're allowing to happen?" But I am left with the question, how do we argue for the safeguarding of these children's lives in a world that does not believe in God?

I have been praying recently that God would help me to understand the political and sociological landscape when it comes to abortion, and that he would show me how he can use me. Step one has been to buy "The Case for Life" by Scott Klusendorf, which I will endeavour to review here soon.

The small things of the kingdom

What do you think of when you think about the kingdom of heaven? 

Jesus said - "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It was the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches." (Matthew 13:31-32)

The story of the kingdom of God begins with a few human cells. God with us. Those cells multiplied and a baby was born far from home and was later swept off to a foreign land. On the run. The story leads us to a bloodied man crying out in anguish, pinned to the wooden beams of a Roman cross. God dies. His cold body locked in a stone cold tomb. All hope seemingly lost. 

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed...it was the smallest of seeds.

But the story of the kingdom culminates in the return of that same Lord in power. He has purchased life for his people, and he will bring them all to be with him forever in glory.  

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed...when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches