![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Watch these two back-to-back, it's... interesting.
Because some claim he's the reason for the season, here's
Jesus Camp
Were this a work of fiction, I'd be quite ready to categorise it as horror; as it is, it's a truly frightening documentary. What's most puzzling to me is... really, where to begin? Religion is not something I grew up experiencing first-hand, and while it's interested me for a long time, I've always observed it from a distance. My education, both at home and at school, was always very insistent on critical thinking, and my parents figured that if, one day, my brothers or I decided we needed religion in our lives, we'd be sufficiently informed and able to judge its merits for ourselves. So far, that need has not made itself known to any of us*. On top of that, I don't really have any personal experience with evangelical strains of religion, except for what I've read, and except for a couple of Jehovah's witnesses offering, very cordially, to drop off some pamphlets, I've never been preached to. While I like to say I'm open-minded and that I have nothing with what most religions view as their core values, I'm naturally leery of organised religion as a concept -- there's just so much room for abuse in all its forms.
What was most disturbing about this film was watching these kids act like children one minute and like recordings the next. The three children we follow, Levi, Rachael and Tory, seem bizarre to me. Levi (12) is an intelligent, well-spoken boy, and I felt somewhat sorry for him. He's been homeschooled, and has obviously never been out of this hermetic world of like-minded people. Rachael (8) is clearly the kind of girl who'd be the teacher's pet, and it almost seems as though she's repeating what she's heard the adults around her say, word for word. You get the impression that she'd do the same no matter the message, if only to get those looks of approval. Tory (10) is the most average-seeming of the three, and I got the feeling that she'd fare just fine anywhere; maybe she'd even start thinking that Christian heavy metal -- and is it just me, or does that seem like an oxymoron? -- isn't the greatest kind of music ever.
The ending of the film was almost perplexing, since it seems that the main aim of Jesus Camp is to recruit children to protest abortion. I guess they're too young to be told about the evils (!) of homosexuality, and to protest that! I'm a bit torn, because I can see where they're coming from in their stance against abortion. However, I don't believe that they should have the right to dictate that kind of thing to others (and really, I'd be much more forgiving if I saw them out protesting the death penalty, first!) and even though I don't like the idea of abortion myself, it's something I fundamentally believe to be necessary. Because until we live in a world where unwanted pregnancy is a non-issue, it must be an option. I can, and will, do everything in my power to make sure that I'm never in a situation where I'm forced to make that decision, but I'm unfortunately in a priveleged minority, in that I have the means and the education to do that.
Hopefully, the filmmakers will attempt to follow up on the different stories, and show us where those kids are in ten years. I'm extremely curious to see how they'll have fared, whether they'll have stepped out into the real world and, if so, how they'll be dealing with it.
As terrifying as this all is, the adults featured in the film are the ones who really enraged me. Ignorance is one thing, but willful ignorance? Keeping your children sheltered so that they won't be "tainted"? I guess you aren't so sure of the strength of your message, then. They have no excuse.
Also, how creepy was that "speaking in tongues" bit? Especially coming from a little girl who doesn't know any better.
Final verdict: 8/10 -- and I'll give it a 9/10 if we get a sequel in 10 or 15 years.
On a related note, I've been reading this blog lately: Slacktivist, and it's a fascinating read. Apart from shredding to bits the Left Behind books (and if you need a laugh, I highly recommend going back to the beginning of his review, it's hilarious and cringe-inducing and discouraging all at once -- the books I mean, the critique itself is insightful and sharp), he writes on all sorts of topics, often relating to religion and politics.
* I like how B1 summed it up in his Facebook profile: "Religious views: haha"
Of course, nothing should be taken so seriously that it can't be made fun of, right? Trust the Pythons to do it so perfectly (and with perfect silliness):
The Life of Brian:
His name was Brian!
This wasn't a first viewing, nor shall it be the last. In fact, the first time I saw this was the the Bytowne Cinema, and it was a treat to watch it along with 600 other people, most of whom already knew the jokes and were snickering in anticipation. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was a similar experience, except that I was among those snickering in anticipation.
My favourite bits? "Consider the birds --" "What's he got against the birds, then?" Or how about, "I want you to call me Loretta!" Or even, "He has a wife, you know. Do you want to know what she's called?" And let's now forget the "People's Liberation Front of Judea!" debacle. Classic, all of it.
The key moment, for me, was when Brian looks around him, seeing all the different madmen preaching to the crowd. It's easy to see how in such a time, people would be anxious about the state of the world, desperate to cling to the belief that there was something more, that there was some way to escape the evils of the era. But that's a bit facile, isnt' it? After all, we (and I'm using the totally Western-middle-class-white-person-centric "we" here, just to be clear) live in an era of unprecedented prosperity and ease of living, but this kind of thinking is still informing many people's lives! (See review above for details)
Final verdict: 9/10
Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." -- H.L.Mencken
Jesus Camp
Were this a work of fiction, I'd be quite ready to categorise it as horror; as it is, it's a truly frightening documentary. What's most puzzling to me is... really, where to begin? Religion is not something I grew up experiencing first-hand, and while it's interested me for a long time, I've always observed it from a distance. My education, both at home and at school, was always very insistent on critical thinking, and my parents figured that if, one day, my brothers or I decided we needed religion in our lives, we'd be sufficiently informed and able to judge its merits for ourselves. So far, that need has not made itself known to any of us*. On top of that, I don't really have any personal experience with evangelical strains of religion, except for what I've read, and except for a couple of Jehovah's witnesses offering, very cordially, to drop off some pamphlets, I've never been preached to. While I like to say I'm open-minded and that I have nothing with what most religions view as their core values, I'm naturally leery of organised religion as a concept -- there's just so much room for abuse in all its forms.
What was most disturbing about this film was watching these kids act like children one minute and like recordings the next. The three children we follow, Levi, Rachael and Tory, seem bizarre to me. Levi (12) is an intelligent, well-spoken boy, and I felt somewhat sorry for him. He's been homeschooled, and has obviously never been out of this hermetic world of like-minded people. Rachael (8) is clearly the kind of girl who'd be the teacher's pet, and it almost seems as though she's repeating what she's heard the adults around her say, word for word. You get the impression that she'd do the same no matter the message, if only to get those looks of approval. Tory (10) is the most average-seeming of the three, and I got the feeling that she'd fare just fine anywhere; maybe she'd even start thinking that Christian heavy metal -- and is it just me, or does that seem like an oxymoron? -- isn't the greatest kind of music ever.
The ending of the film was almost perplexing, since it seems that the main aim of Jesus Camp is to recruit children to protest abortion. I guess they're too young to be told about the evils (!) of homosexuality, and to protest that! I'm a bit torn, because I can see where they're coming from in their stance against abortion. However, I don't believe that they should have the right to dictate that kind of thing to others (and really, I'd be much more forgiving if I saw them out protesting the death penalty, first!) and even though I don't like the idea of abortion myself, it's something I fundamentally believe to be necessary. Because until we live in a world where unwanted pregnancy is a non-issue, it must be an option. I can, and will, do everything in my power to make sure that I'm never in a situation where I'm forced to make that decision, but I'm unfortunately in a priveleged minority, in that I have the means and the education to do that.
Hopefully, the filmmakers will attempt to follow up on the different stories, and show us where those kids are in ten years. I'm extremely curious to see how they'll have fared, whether they'll have stepped out into the real world and, if so, how they'll be dealing with it.
As terrifying as this all is, the adults featured in the film are the ones who really enraged me. Ignorance is one thing, but willful ignorance? Keeping your children sheltered so that they won't be "tainted"? I guess you aren't so sure of the strength of your message, then. They have no excuse.
Also, how creepy was that "speaking in tongues" bit? Especially coming from a little girl who doesn't know any better.
Final verdict: 8/10 -- and I'll give it a 9/10 if we get a sequel in 10 or 15 years.
On a related note, I've been reading this blog lately: Slacktivist, and it's a fascinating read. Apart from shredding to bits the Left Behind books (and if you need a laugh, I highly recommend going back to the beginning of his review, it's hilarious and cringe-inducing and discouraging all at once -- the books I mean, the critique itself is insightful and sharp), he writes on all sorts of topics, often relating to religion and politics.
* I like how B1 summed it up in his Facebook profile: "Religious views: haha"
Of course, nothing should be taken so seriously that it can't be made fun of, right? Trust the Pythons to do it so perfectly (and with perfect silliness):
The Life of Brian:
His name was Brian!
This wasn't a first viewing, nor shall it be the last. In fact, the first time I saw this was the the Bytowne Cinema, and it was a treat to watch it along with 600 other people, most of whom already knew the jokes and were snickering in anticipation. Monty Python and the Holy Grail was a similar experience, except that I was among those snickering in anticipation.
My favourite bits? "Consider the birds --" "What's he got against the birds, then?" Or how about, "I want you to call me Loretta!" Or even, "He has a wife, you know. Do you want to know what she's called?" And let's now forget the "People's Liberation Front of Judea!" debacle. Classic, all of it.
The key moment, for me, was when Brian looks around him, seeing all the different madmen preaching to the crowd. It's easy to see how in such a time, people would be anxious about the state of the world, desperate to cling to the belief that there was something more, that there was some way to escape the evils of the era. But that's a bit facile, isnt' it? After all, we (and I'm using the totally Western-middle-class-white-person-centric "we" here, just to be clear) live in an era of unprecedented prosperity and ease of living, but this kind of thinking is still informing many people's lives! (See review above for details)
Final verdict: 9/10
Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." -- H.L.Mencken