The Seven Unitarian Universalist Principles in Film

In my estimation film (cinema) is our age's primary art form. Films are accessible and popular. In 2007-2008 I'm hosting a film series, "The Seven Unitarian Universalist Principles in Film."

• "Fried Green Tomatoes" (1991), The inherent worth and dignity of every person: Lesbian lovers, an extended African American family, a mid-life woman seeking her identity, an aged woman in a nursing home present layers of the human condition . The story jumps back and forth from the 1920s to the 1990s in the relatively rural South. A capable cast, including Kathy Bates as the over the top mid-life woman, wring out the emotions.

• "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), Justice, equity and compassion in human relations: This classic and always highly ranked film features Gregory Peck as the American father figure. Harper Lee's bestselling novel of the same name resonated to the great civil rights movement about to happen. Palpable evil and violence testify to a troubling aspect of the American soul.

• "Twelve Angry Men" (1957), The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large: The movie is faithful to the play that preceded it. Henry Fonda once again personified the virtuous American male, who stands alone at first but ultimately persuades eleven fellow jurors to acquit a defendant being tried for murder. The characterizations of the jurors deftly paint portraits of types of men circa 1950. Shot in one room with carefully contrived camera angels add to the films understated power.

• "Joyeux Noel" (2005), The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all: A French film with subtitles, the story recasts an actual event that occurred along the Western Front at the beginning of World War I. Romanian and German troops strike a Christmas Eve armistice with French and English troops. The Holiday Season proved to be a particularly meaningful time to view this offering that questions the sanity of war.

• "Koyaanisqatsi "(1982),Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part: This cult film appeared just when the ecological/environmental movement was gaining traction. Both lyrical and tumbling images build on the sometime liquid, sometime frenetic score by Philip Glass. The title relates to a Hopi term meaning "life out of balance."

• "The Truman Show" (1998), A free and responsible search for truth and meaning: Jim Carrey, playing the title character, has his entire life broadcast on television for the entertainment of all. His world is one big set populated by actors. Directing The Truman Show is puppetmaster Christof, played by Ed Harris. The result is another thoughtful and artful production by Peter Weir, prescient of the current craze for reality shows. Will Truman escape and realize his freedom?

• "The Breakfast Club"(1985), Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations: Five high school students, each a sterotype (a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal) band together against a common enemy, and in the process learn about one another during a Saturday detention in a Northshore (Chicagoland) high school. One of several John Hughes' films about the teenage condition. The message: "We were brainwashed."
  

Religion and the American Experience in Film

Last year I hosted a film series, Religion and the American Experience. In my estimation film is our age's primary art form. The films listed below offer important insight into the passions of religion in our curiously religious culture.

• "Elmer Gantry (1960):" Burt Lancaster and Jean Simmons breathe life into Sinclair Lewis's broad brush novel of the same name. The lead characters, modeled on Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson are on target, played sympathetically without losing any of Lewis's intended satire.
• "The Prophet" (2003): Robert Duvall is outstanding in portraying a contemporary revivalist who struggles with the conflict between his explosive ego and his calling to do God's work.
  
• "The Crucible" (1996):" Arthur Miller's 1953 play, allegorizing MyCarthyism and the Red Scare through the notorious Salem Witch Trials of the Puritan era. An able cast and stunning cinematography, supporting a well-written script, give the viewer white knuckles throughout.
• "Witness"" (1985) Peter Weir directed this contemporary tale that contrasts the pacifist and communal ways of Lancaster County Amish and Philadelphia corrupt cops, against the smoldering attraction between Harrison Ford, playing a good cop, and Kelly McGillis a winsome Amish widow. The barn raising scene in particular is a lyrical visual poem of cooperation.
• "Inherit the Wind" (1960): Another iconic play translated to film, the subject the notorious Scopes Monkey Trial of the 1920s. Spencer Tracy and Frederick March bring to life their characters, modeled respectively after Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. The film manages to get into the fundamentalist soul in a kindly but critical way. Gene Kelly is quite good in portraying a newspaper reporter based on the American iconoclast H.L. Mencken. The theme of evolution vs. creationism is once again an issue of American life.
• "Intolerance" (1916): D. W. Griffith's sprawling story of hate versus love in world history. Four stories move in and out of one another from ancient Babylon to a contemporary urban setting. A long, 178 minutes, and somewhat confused narrative arc, it is nonetheless worth the effort, remembering that Griffith created this masterpiece of the silent era while World War I was raging.
• "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988): Martin Scorsese's adaptation of the Nikos Kazantzakis's novel. Controversial when released, this is a fine example of the endless process of coming to terms with Jesus of Nazareth, portrayed by William Defoe.
  
• "Left Behind: The Movie" (2000): Based on the blockbuster books of the same name, this mundane film on a very unmundane theme (the rapture) is valuable for those unfamiliar with right wing Christian thought on the end of the world in these times.