don't cut out my paper heart
they do exist!
up on donmillerfans.net you can post questions for said author and he'll answer them. don't know how the dude keeps up.
anyway. he answered mine and brings up an interesting point. my question was what type of movies inspire him, and he mentions a few documentaries, things that i doubt i'd have the patience to endure. but he does have some interesting thoughts on hollywood stories:
"[Movies] have also done a great deal of damage because they’ve taught us to think in black and white. One of the tragedies of movies, for instance, is evidenced in the American idea of the world: Simple bad guys against simple good guys, no complications involved, clear heroes and villains. The Bible does not present such an easy reality."i think that's very true, and i think that movies (good ones anyway, not summer blockbuster crap) seem to be moving away from that, because it's boring. it's easy for a cheap thrill (MI:3 for example has a clear bad guy)... and from that angle i think we just get tired of them...
but look at the x-men movies / comics. magneto, who one would associate as the 'villain' character is someone whose motives you understand - he wants to live in a world where he won't be judged or persecuted or controlled because of how he was born. he takes a different, more direct, more aggressive route than professor xavier, but in the end i think you feel some sympathy and respect for his cause. it's a much more compelling story than a dumb evil bad guy. granted there is an element of the 'bad guy' in most of the x-men films (i.e. stryker in x-men 2), but he's not the focus of the story.
i doubt the dumb black + white movie will go away, just like there will probably always be soap operas, and that is truly a tragedy. but maybe americans will get bored enough with simply entertaining stuff and will crave something more intelligent.
Big Don just spoke up at Saranac at the 'College Week' and he'll be here in Cincy for the National Youthworkers Conference in the Fall at the "DUKE" Energy Center
Good. Now I can go throw eggs at him.
Wait, that's Mugatu.
Justin....I agree with you that the struggle between bad and good is often more complicated than presented in those movies....however....I think there is a benefit to having those movies because it reminds us that there is a struggle between good and evil in the world. It reminds us of a Christian concept....evil vs. good. In such a post-modern (or post-post-modern) world it is good to see examples of the conrete...black and white....good and evil....as reminders that there are absolutes and that not everything is relative.
And...I haven't seen MI:3, but I'm assuming that Tom Cruise is the bad guy because he wants to take over the world for Scientology. Is that the basic premise?
i love that song.
The thing is that in the normal real world, there isn't good vs evil, just evil vs a different kind of evil. Why else would Jesus teach us to love our enemies? This is why I like Donald Miller.