The Christmas holiday, it is often pointed out, has become nothing but an orgy of crass consumerism. Christians complain that its original meaning as a celebration of Christ’s birth has been all but forgotten.
But let’s face it; we’re living in a secular world where most of us don’t consider our ethics in terms of bracelets with the acronym “WWJD” (What Would Jesus Do?). For those of you who wish to take the middle ground between evangelism and materialism this holiday, here are some great films that will get you pondering life’s big questions.
The Decalogue
Say the words “The Ten Commandments” and most people think of Charlton Heston wielding stone tablets on top Mount-Sinai. Okay, maybe some don’t immediately think of our man at the NRA, but they likely do think of hard and fast Biblical rules that don’t leave much room for ambiguity. Influential Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski challenges this view in his fascinating ten-part series The Decalogue originally composed in the mid-eighties for Polish television, but showcased around the world at repertory cinemas.
The collection of short films is loosely based on the Ten Commandments and their everyday implications. Each episode explores characters in a modern-day Warsaw apartment-complex struggling with ethical decisions. In Decalogue number one, for example, the theme of a “jealous God” is examined through the life of a rationalist father who puts his faith in his computer’s calculations over his paternal instincts, which result in tragedy for his family. In this one episode the director admirably confronts themes of love, religion and death.
The commandments can be ambiguous. For example, is it ever all right to kill? The Decalogue reflects this by taking twists and turns that mirror life’s complexity. Genius filmmaker Stanley Kubrick said the episodes “have the very rare ability to dramatize their ideas rather than just talking about them.” Watch these films over the holiday and you will be thinking and talking about them for some time to come.
12 Angry Men
Famed thinker and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “To be a man one must be a non-conformist.” Ample evidence for this ringing declaration is presented in the jury-room drama 12 Angry Men. On the “hottest day of the year” twelve men must decide the fate of an ethnic-looking teenager accused of murdering his father. A death penalty case, most of the jurors see the boy’s guilt as obvious. One man, however, Juror number eight (Henry Fonda), disagrees with all the others. He is uncertain of the boy’s innocence but is not sure “beyond a reasonable doubt” of his guilt. As he attempts to convince the eleven men we learn about their personality traits (with solid acting from the entire cast). Whether the jurors are bullies, bigots or pushovers, we can recognize these character-types from our own experience.
Nearly the entire film is shot is the jurors’ room which gives it a claustrophobic atmosphere that compliments the heated debate of the jurors. Although released in 1957, 12 Angry Men’s intelligent and compelling look at justice and personality make it a timeless classic, which may even convince you to become something many love to hate: a lawyer.
Crimes and Misdemeanors
What happens to guilt in a Godless world? Woody Allen balances a fine line between tragedy and comedy as he explores morality, love and cosmic injustice in this thoughtful but underrated film.
The movie vacillates between two complimentary and loosely related stories. In the first, Judah Rosenthal, a respected ophthalmologist and philanthropist, and his pleasant upper middle class life becomes threatened by his mistress of several years. The highly neurotic woman has had enough of hiding their affair, and unless Judah leaves his wife and kids she will expose their relationship (and his illicit financial dealings). His criminal brother suggests having her killed. Initially Judah acts repulsed but later seriously considers the idea. If he has the act committed will guilt consume him?
Allen’s trademark of having present-day characters speak to family members in their past is supremely used. Judah and his vociferous Jewish family (circa 1949) provocatively argue over the meaning of the Holocaust, the existence of God and communism. The first story is paralleled with the lighter misdemeanors of Allen’s character, filmmaker Clifford Stern, whose plans on making a documentary on a philosophy professor are cut short by financial necessity. Instead he is stuck shooting a film about rich and sleazy TV exec Lester (Alan Alda) who represents everything he hates.
One of Allen’s most profound films, its message may make you feel uneasy but it has just enough comedy to keep you from drowning in existential despair. Something we could all avoid during our ethical reflections this holiday!
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