Thursday, June 2, 2011

"Immoral" Films

Any time morality is brought up regarding a movie, I just sit back and watch the circus commence, because ANYTHING in the entire cinematic production process could be used to justify calling a film "immoral."

The star is a drug addict.
The director cheated on his wife in 1978.
The film shows a woman not wearing a veil.
The soundtrack was composed by a Jew.
"God" is said too many/not enough times in the dialogue.
The editor doesn't clip his fingernails often enough.
The producer was bi-curious in college.
The wardrobe lady has a mustache.
The movie posters used PhotoShop.
The man selling tickets at the theater hit on my daughter.

Yeah. ANYTHING.


Individuals can interpret visuals, sounds, music, and dialogue in any number of ways.

A great example of this is The Passion of the Christ.
Most non-Christians I've spoken with (and several Christians) view it as nothing more than glorifying the horrific torture and death of a man, and the sadistic mindset of his tormentors.
Almost to the point of being torture-porn, given that they perceive the movie as having NO POINT other than to show a gruesome death.

But a lot of Christians watching the same movie treat it as "beautiful," in that it is a realistic representation of Christ's death (as opposed to the previous theatrical representations which dumbed it down and cleaned it up), and thus believe it teaches greater appreciation of His sacrifice.

(...to the point that they'll take their kids to see it. Blech.)

Neither interpretation is objectively "moral" or "immoral."

Film is art, art is interpreted by each individual, and no single interpretation is the "right" interpretation.

1 comment:

  1. Indeed, this is true. Morality is largely subjective, although there are the grander notions of universal mandates. (I can't remember what Kant called them. My mind's drawing a blank -ah! The Categorical Imperative. I remembered!) I would like to share a small anecdote from my youth to add further credence to your argument. When I was little (and we're talking toddler here), I wanted to go see the "Dick Tracy" movie that came out, the very cartoonish one with Warren Beatty. The theater (which, as it happens, was in Austria) would not let me in, because it was deemed inappropriate for a young audience. They would, however, allow me to see "The Hunt for Red October," which, for some reason, was deemed appropriate, despite its levels of realistic violence. Odd, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete