Category Archives: film

On Jesus Camp

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Michael Smith gave an interesting review of Jesus Camp at HollywoodJesus.com.

He makes the point that sure, the people depicted in the film are extremists, but when they use military imagery, they’re (probably) not speaking literally. They aren’t going to go on a violent rampage any time soon or support suicide bombing. They speak a different language, in which metaphor blurs with reality.

To the extent that Jesus Camp captures the mindset of Fischer [pastor of the Jesus Camp] and friends, it succeeds. But unfortunately, none of us can see beyond our own noses. Ewing and Grady [the filmmakers] view these people as enemies, not as aliens whom they do not yet understand. Even “open-mindedness” is tacitly a resistance to the most obvious truths.

I’m certainly looking forward to seeing this film. I’m sure it has its biases (don’t we all?), but it looks like it will be an outsider’s look at [what used to be my] insider reality.

Napoleon Dynamite, part 2

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I decided to scan in the article that I mentioned earlier so you can see for yourselves.

I think you guys are totally right that Napoleon Dynamite does have story, and (even deeper) that stories have meaning to my generation. Maybe it is, though, that we care less about the beginning, middle, and end; that we don’t need it to be neatly presented with perfect resolution. Maybe it is an acceptance of life and reality; maybe we want realism instead of escapism.

On the other hand, sometimes I think that we are jaded and cynical precisely because we desire to be taken up in a story that is of epic proportion – an adventure worth living for.