Category Archives: spirituality

Timeless: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Posted on July 13, 2012 | 1 Comment

Two down-on-their-luck men, Dobbs (Bogart) and Curtin (Holt) and a prospector, Howard (Walter Huston) , join forces to search for gold in the mountainous wilderness of the Sierra Madre, Mexico. Under the threat of bandits, strangers and the harsh environment, their store of gold increases, while their own greed and paranoia threatens to overcome their dreams of freedom.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is the third pairing of the legendary Humphrey Bogart and director John Huston. Filmed in 1948, the movie won Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. The film was also included in the National Film Registry in 1990, due to its cultural, historical or aesthetical significance. Bogart shines here as the jaded, penniless protagonist who gambles his life on striking it lucky. But the treasure of Treasure is the radical deconstruction of wealth.

The seasoned prospector Howard observes that gold is only valuable because of the labor others put into finding it and then it’s only good for making teeth and jewellery, echoing the Marxist notion of the labor theory of value. Does gold (or any material) have any inherent value? Gold is useful for other things today – it has many useful properties, but even then it’s value is determined in relation to other factors (i.e. humans). On the other hand, Howard also comments that wealth itself is not a bad thing – the problem is with the person who gets it.

The desperate Dobbs though believes he can control his desire for more and more gold, but as the pile of gold heaps higher, so does his paranoia. Dobbs is convinced that his companions are planning to kill him to take his share of the gold and cracks begin to form in his mind.

Dobbs is not alone in his broken world however. When Curtin heads to the village for food supplies, Cody an American who might want to cut in on their treasure, follows him back to the campsite. The trio decide to kill him. Before they can do the deed, banditos stumble across their campsite and Cody is killed in the ensuing gunfight. Finding a letter from Cody’s wife, there is a sense that they are somehow complicit in creating a widow even though they didn’t actually kill him. Clearly, their struggle for the easy life has brought them a long way from anything resembling home.

Dobbs fails to heed the voice of wisdom in Howard and spirals into oblivion in a vivid picture of enslavement to his wealth as he drags obstinate treasure-laden mules through the sandy desert. And like the gold which blows away on the wind, Dobbs too is dust, and returns to where he came from. Aren’t our lives much the same? We seek an easy life; we work and labour for reward; our plans are often frustrated by failure, forces beyond our control, or our own moral failures and our own greed. And then we die, taking nothing with us. The teacher of Ecclesiastes writes:

What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. (Ecclesiastes 1:3-4)

In recent years the world has seen the devastating results of greed in the global financial crisis (as it’s called here in Australia). And regardless of what you think of climate change predictions, we can always consume less than we currently do. While Treasure was made in 1948, the film still seems relevant today as it asks us – what is worth investing in? What is truly valuable? What can one truly gain? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus of Nazareth says:

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Jesus is cautioning his followers here to choose their treasure carefully, because thereafter the heart, the affections (and subsequent actions) will follow. Of course, if Jesus is who he says he is, then life here is not the end and what we do with our wealth actually matters.

Treasure covers similar territory to There Will Be Blood, A Simple Plan and No Country for Old Men. And incidentally, Paul Thomas Anderson studied Treasure extensively while working on There Will be Blood. But where No Country ends in futility, and A Simple Plan ends in resignation, Treasure ends with hope – hope which begins with the realisation that our material treasures and our lives are ultimately fleeting.

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Water for Elephants (2011)

Posted on July 1, 2012 | 3 Comments

When I first saw the preview for Water for Elephants in the cinema, I thought my wife would love it. While the central marketing angle of Water for Elephants was as a love story, the story gives much more attention broader themes of honour, dignity and stewardship.

Vet student Jacob (Robert Pattinson) joins the circus after the death of his parents. Christoph Waltz stars as the circus master August, whose public showmanship belies an iron rule. Waltz was sublime as the charismatic Nazi in Inglorious Basterds, and he turns in another strong performance here. August’s wife Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) performs in the circus too, riding the prize show horse. Following the sickness of the main show horse which is eventually put out of its misery, the circus master seeks a new act and purchases an elephant around which to build a show.

The elephant does not cooperate with Waltz commands and he constantly jabs the beast to make it conform to his wishes. After the animal goes on a rampage during a show, Waltz severely injures the animal in punishment in scenes which some might find disturbing. He expects respect even from animals who don’t know better, and when they ignore him he hurts them.

We read in Genesis that one of the tasks that man has before him is to work and care for creation; he was to rule the earth but to do so in a loving and caring way:

Genesis 1:28: God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. ”

Genesis 2:15: The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

All around us we see how man has failed to look after the land and the creatures of the earth, particularly in the harmful industrialization of food sources, the destruction of habitat as well as the many specific cases of animal abuse. Ultimately, the way August treats the elephant is symptomatic of the way August views everything, including his wife – they exist to serve him. Rather than fetching water for elephants – caring for the things under his care – August neglects and exploits.

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Who is in control: The Next Three Days (2010)

Posted on June 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

In The Next Three Days, Russell Crowe stars as John Brennan, a teacher whose wife, Lara, is convicted for the murder of her boss. Not convinced of her guilt, and having exhausted the legal options, Brennan begins developing a plan to break her out of prison. Writer-director Paul Haggis (Crash) twists a crime thriller into something akin to a heist film, relegating the wife’s guilt to secondary importance to explore the broader issue of control:

John Brennan: So, the life in times of Don Quixote, what is it about?
Female College Student: That someone’s belief in virtue is more important than virtue itself?
John Brennan: Yes… that’s in there. But what is it about? Could it be how rational thought destroys your soul? Could it be about the triumph of irrationality and the power that is in that? You know, we spend a lot of time trying to organize the world. We build clocks and calendars and we try to predict the weather. But what part of our life is truly under our control? What if we choose to exist purely in a reality of our own making? Does that render us insane? And if it does, isn’t that better than a life of despair?

Herein lies John’s conflict – does he chose the rationality of accepting the judge’s decision and despair or the irrationality of action for a life of happiness with his wife? If John is to rescue his wife he must live between these two worlds. Thus, he studies the prison, learns its routine, draws maps, develops a budget, analyses regularity of human activity, he builds “clocks and calendars”, as he searches for the key to smuggle his wife out of prison.

At the same time, the heist requires a great deal of what might otherwise be considered irrational behaviour for most ordinary citizens – he acquires illegal identification, weapons, creates a ‘bump’ key, suspending the ordinary regularities and moralities of his life. John is constantly presented with various choices, each of which would have massive consequences. For example, he considers robbing a bank for cash; he considers escaping town with his wife but without his son. He races off and nearly reverses over a young family: “You’re out of your mind! You don’t look!” the mother shouts. As John seeks to control one variable, another is sent off the scale.

As Lara declares her guilt to him in a bid to protect their son from being without both his parents, she drives a wedge between his resolve and his rational mind about what is right. Her guilt or innocence will either condemn or justify his actions in the viewer’s mind. Only with some measure of trust in her character does he proceed: I know who you are, and I promise you this will not be your life.

But isn’t Lara at least somewhat complicit in their predicament: she was angry, she was hasty, so that her fingerprints end up on a murder weapon – fire extinguishers don’t end up in the middle of a carpark for no reason. A moment of clarity might have saved her. Or, is Lara a victim of coincidence: the same day she has a fight with her boss a homeless person mugs the boss, and rain washes away the evidence which would corroborate her defence.

There is some small irony that filmmakers chose to tackle issues of control and  coincidence when everything in every movie happens for a reason – because the filmmaker wanted it there. Christianity would say that God stands in a similar relation to the universe as a filmmaker stands to a movie: He creates, he upholds, establishes governments in their place, and guides history to achieve his purposes. Unique among the worldviews is that God is also working all things for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28-29).

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

All circumstances, including suffering, for the Christian are meaningful even if we don’t see it at the time. The challenge for us is to see and use our circumstances wisely. The death and resurrection of Jesus shows us what patience, forgiveness and love towards our enemies looks like – as irrational and backwards that may appear from the outside, but that is a reasonable response to Jesus (Romans 12:1-2). At the same time, a large part of loving our world is gaining a rational awareness and understanding of each others’ needs, and in so doing we might just save someone from a life of despair. We can’t control everything but we can control how we respond.

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Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Posted on May 30, 2012 | 2 Comments

Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the greatest adventure movies of all time. I was inspired to rewatch Raiders after Love Your Movies post reminded me of all the great things about it. Raiders is full of memorable action setpieces from the temple escape, the basket game in Cairo, the fight at the airstrip, and memorable supporting characters like Marion and Major Toht, witty dialog and an unforgettable score.

Raiders is also full of history, Biblical and occult references which others have no doubt analyzed, but it’s the raiders’ approach to archaeology that is worth exploring. In a bar in Cairo, Belloq an archaeologist assisting the Nazis, seeks to persuade Indy to help out with the search for the Ark:

Belloq: You and I are very much alike. Archeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the pure faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am but a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me. To push you out of the light.
Indiana: Now you’re getting nasty.

The religion of archaeology in Raiders wonders primarily in the discovery of artifacts from times and places long forgotten. Belloq remarks about his watch, that even though it is only worth $10, if he buries it today, in 1000 years someone will dig it up as a priceless artifact.

But Indy and Belloq seek objects much more significant than clocks: religious artifacts. The Nazis seek the Ark of the Covenant believing it wields great power and can help them in their pursuit of world domination. Indy tends to see such things as treasures to be hunted and stored in museums or at least in his personal collection.

And perhaps this is what Belloq means that they have both fallen. When Belloq says “History!”, he reminds Indy of his fallen-ness, persuading Indy to relent from destroying the Ark, and tempting him to be a part of the history that is his obsession.

The wonder surrounding certain objects like the Ark in Raiders initially appears to reside within the object itself. We see a similar response to archaeological finds such as the Shroud of Turin in which the wonder ends at the object, and not in the one whose face (is purported to have) left the imprints on it. And similarly, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indy uses the cup without reference to the one who, according to the movie, provided it.

Events in Raiders, though, are consistent with Biblical ideas about the ark in that there were bad consequences for those who should not have possessed the ark:

The Philistines took the Ark to several places in their country, and at each place misfortune befell them (1 Sam. 5:1-6). At Ashdod it was placed in the temple of Dagon. The next morning Dagon was found prostrate, bowed down, before it; and on being restored to his place, he was on the following morning again found prostrate and broken. The people of Ashdod were smitten with hemorrhoids; a plague of rats was sent over the land (1 Sam. 6:5). The affliction of boils was also visited upon the people of Gath and of Ekron, whither the Ark was successively removed (1 Sam. 5:8-12).

The ark itself, though, doesn’t rend these judgements, but rather the One who gave the ark (and who owns it). And we see this distinction in Raiders in the spectacular conclusion, even if the raiders primary interest is the object itself.

In the Old Testament, God chose to reveal himself to Moses on a mountain, in tents, and then in the temple system, but he is by no means constrained by those locations, or warehouses for that matter. God created the universe, including the materials from which an ark is made. Then in the New Testament, we meet Jesus, the Word of God tabernacling with us in human form (see John 1). Then as the Holy Spirit is poured out, following the death and resurrection of Jesus, God comes to people and begins to act in and through them. The evidence of God’s power is not in spectacular acts of judgement but in spectacular acts of love, joy, peace and patience (Galatians 5:22-25, Ephesians 2:8-10). And it all begins with events that happened in real history, recorded by eyewitnesses and passed down through generations.

In the end, Indy doesn’t save the world from the Nazis. God does. Indy is smart enough to know that no-one can see God and live (Exodus 33:20). But if you really want to get a glimpse of God’s judgement, the Bible says look to Jesus on the cross.  If you want to see how much God loves, the Bible says look to Jesus on the cross. For there, Jesus bears the punishment which our sins deserve. All of us. Nazi or not.

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If I Had You (Adam Lambert)

Posted on May 12, 2012 | 2 Comments

In If I Had You, a man observes the lifestyle of his friends and his own lifestyle and concludes he needs something better than hedonism to satisfy him. The song begins by acknowledging that the material aspects of life do not matter so much as having love in your life:

And I’m working my strut but I know it don’t matter
All we need in this world is some love
and
Girls in stripper heels, boys rolling in Maserati’s
What they need in this world is some love

Those boys (and girls) really do need love and he seems to be speaking from experience. While he is without this love, though, the singer will continue the same lifestyle walking a line between the light and the dark, the wild time and death (“flat-line”):

There’s a thin line between the wild time,
And a flat-line, baby tonight
It’s a struggle gotta rumble, tryin’a find it

[Chorus:]But if I had you,
That would be the only thing I’d ever need…

Is this pursuit of the wild lifestyle itself a need, a want or a resignation? The singer may well end his edgy lifestyle if he got the love, but there is no obvious condemnation of the pursuit of money, fame and fortune, or the thin line. Still, he is content to knowingly and willingly pursue these other things while waiting for the Ultimate.

The song rightly points out that hedonism can only get you so far, and that love is somehow better. Human relationships working well are characterised by love given and received for mutual benefit. We all desire loving peaceful relationships, but a relationship motivated solely on what one can get from it is akin to a vending machine.

Not only does Christianity claim that God can be known and experienced, but that He yearns to buy us back from the misery of our own self-destructive lifestyle apart from Him. Moreso, He wants to transform our relationships so that we seek the benefit of others, even if these are at times difficult. There are no promises that life now will be or should be a party (or ecstasy for that matter). That is a promise for the life to come, pictured in the Bible as a wedding banquet – a feast hosted by the Creator of the Universe. Money, fame and fortune never could compete.

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