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Movies/Scenes
Representing
the Difficulty with Recognizing Evil/Moral Ambiguity
 | "A Brush
With Fate" (Hallmark TV, 2003)
 | "A Brush with Fate" traces the history of a "famous"
painting from the 18th century to its present owner. The movie opens when an
art teacher/artist takes a teaching job at a private school. As he goes to
meet several faculty at lunch, he notices a non-descript, plain, middle
aged, very myopic female teacher. He asks his collegues about her. They
explain that she is the literature teacher and that she is a bit eccentric.
Later she comes to the art teacher's classroom and she proved to be
as eccentric as his colleague had warned. She invites him to her home and
introduces him to her father who is wheelchair bound. He unable to speak
because of a series of strokes. She is unwavingly devoted to him. When the
art teacher suggests that she get additional help for him, she balks. She
leads the art teacher to a viewing room and in it is the famous painting.
She tells him that it is by the famous artist, "Vemeer." This time he balks
and tell her that there are fewer than forty Vemeer paintings extant. That
when she shows him all the research that she has done, hence the story
begins as she traces the history of the painting and the lives of the
previous owners. The stories are rich. Afterwards, the art teacher asks,
"how did it come to be in your possession?" The
story continues as she tells her father's part in it, an officer in the Nazi
regime. The father came and drove a Jewish family from their home. As the
foot soldiers were pushing them out of their home, her father notices the
painting. He was so intrigued by it that he admired it for what seemed like
hours, meanwhile a little Jewish boy had hidden beneath the dinner table. As
he finished admiring the painting, he kindly called the little boy from
underneath the table and asks tenderly, "would you like to go with me?" Then
he leads the little boy by the hand and removes the picture from the wall
then they leave. As the spinster is weaving this
tale, she has the art teacher's rapt attention. He asks, "where did your
father take him?" She told him to the concentration camp. Then she
nostagically muses that her father had only one regret...that he didn't rise
higher in rank in the Nazi regime. Disgusted, the art teacher bounds from
the house. She runs after him and castigates him for his morality. In her
tirade she tells him such devotion to the painting is LOVE. In the middle of
the night she packs up her father, her research and their painting and
disappears. I think this movie makes excellent
sermon illustrations about idolatry and secrets and how they can enslave us.
(Pastor Angela Shannon,
Trinity English Lutheran Church, Ft. Wayne,
Indiana) |
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| Changing
Lanes (2002)
| Both men face the struggle to recognize what is right and
what is wrong, to care about the difference, and to choose to do the right
thing. |
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| Boiler Room (2000)
| The "legitimacy" of Seth's illegal home
casino compared with his "legitimate" job as a high-pressure
salesman of questionable stock. |
| "Because of the routine racism at the firm, Seth
observes it must not be a comfortable place for a black woman to work.
Abby points out she makes $80,000 a year and is supporting a sick
mother." (Roger Ebert, Chicago
Sun Times Review) |
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| Almost
Famous (2000)
| "The desire for significance, of which fame is a tempting
substitute, is found in reality from living deeply committed and faithful
lives." (See review at
Cinema in Focus) |
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| The Storm of the Century
(1999)
| Andre Linoge (Legion) demands a decision from the
people on the Island. Which decision is the right one? |
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| American Beauty (1999)
| The roses that appear throughout the movie are symbols
of hypocrisy, for example the roses in the house denote that the house
itself is a hypocrisy; the outside of the house is beautiful and what
goes on inside is complete opposite of the external appearance. another
example is the rose itself meaning that a rose is beautiful when you
look at it far away but up close its in a way painful looking because of
its thorns, everything in the world is could look beautiful but it can
also hurt. (Patrick Werner, Memphis TN) |
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| The Confession (1999)
| "It's not difficult to do the right thing. It's
difficult to know what is the right thing to do. Once you know, it's
easy to do it." (DVD ch 8) |
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| The Truman Show
(1998)
| At the conclusion of the movie, Kristof (Truman Show
creator) tries to convince Truman Burbank to stay
in the imaginary world Kristof has created. The
setting (a voice from the sky) and the words being said
sound a lot like God at first. Upon further reflection, however, it's
clear that the show's creator is trying to coax Truman to remain in
slavery and is only interested in himself, not in Truman. It's a
vivid reminder that evil has often masqueraded as
the divine. (Steve Hendrix) |
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| The
Devil's Advocate (1997)
| A stunning depiction of the seduction of power and
money, and the twisting of reality to fit whatever goals we, personally
might have. Good for illustrations of the satanic, greed, not
recognizing evil when it stares you in the face, and our failure to
discern what is evil from what is good. |
| Moral decisions are not always "biggies" but
rather decisions that confront us, unknown, every day of our lives. |
| "Vanity is definitely my favorite sin."
Milton/Satan. |
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| Face Off (1997)
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| The Usual Suspects (1995)
| Verbal Kint: "The greatest trick the devil ever
pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." |
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| Natural Born Killers
(1994)
| While Mickey and Mallory are understood as evil, they
are also revered as heroes. "If I were a mass-murderer, I'd be
Mickey and Mallory Knox." Institutional evil - including the evil
involved in promoting killers as heroes - is not recognized. (Mallory's
family situation is washed over by bright colors and accompanied by a
laugh track. The warden and Jack Scagnetti are seen as positive figures,
writing books and "keeping order." The media presents itself
as an unbiased observer when actually it encourages the glorification of
evil and violence.) |
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| The Stand (tv miniseries
1994)
| The flu escapes into the world when a man attempts to
save his family from it. (DVD part 1, chapter 1) |
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| Tombstone
(1993)
| When I lecture on Old Testament Theology, and on the
hardening of Pharaoh's heart, I use the scene from
TOMBSTONE when Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) asks Doc
Holliday (Val Kilmer) "What makes a man like Ringo do the things he
does?" Holliday answers "A man like Ringo has got a great empty hole
running right through the middle of him...he can
never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict
enough pain to ever fill it." Wyatt asks "What does he want?"
Doc answers "Revenge." To Wyatt's question "For what?" Doc answers
"...bein' born." A
powerful picture of the interaction of choices and
inheritance in the making of an evil person.
(Lawson Stone--Professor
of Old Testament, Asbury Theological Seminary) |
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| Apocalypse Now (1979)
| Kurtz: "Then I realized they were stronger than
we. They have the strength, the strength to do that. If I had 10
divisions of those men, then our troubles here would be over very
quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are
able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling,
without passion, without judgment." |
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| Cabaret (1972)
| What does evil look like? Two men, one German and one
American, stop at a local festival in the German countryside. A
beautiful young boy stands and begins to sing "Tomorrow Belongs to
Me", a hauntingly lovely ballad. One by one, other young people
join him in the song. Finally, the camera pulls back and reveals the
boy's Hitler Youth uniform. The charming scene becomes one of horror as
we realize the evil implications of the song. (FUMC, Natchitoches, LA) |
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Index of Movie Titles
Index of Movie Themes
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