The Curates Egg

The myth of redemptive violence in film

Prologue

Last month when talking about 'The Quiet Man' I mentioned "the Myth of Redemptive Violence" and the person responsible for the phrase; the theologian and scholar Walter Wink. Imagine my surprise (and excitement) when I went to the Greenbelt festival a week after writing it and found that he was one of the speakers and would be talking about that very topic! - and imagine my disappointment when I arrived at the seminar to find it was cancelled because he was ill!

There was some good news though – I don't know if it was a coincidence but there was another seminar over the weekend with the same theme but this time specifically related to film. It was given by Vic Thiessen from the London Mennonite Centre and was entitled "I love the smell of napalm in the morning: the myth of redemptive violence in film". 

 Salvic Violence

Thiessen said that in films people seem to assume that violence is the only way to save the town or the country. "All they need is a hero to come in with both guns blazing to save the day," He suggested that this is one of the worst uses of the film medium – that, in fact, film bears a large responsibility for perpetuating this myth, making life that much harder for Christians who believe that this myth is completely counter to the gospel of Jesus.

He asked us to contrast the saviour of a typical hero film, with Jesus who was emptied, humbled, dishonoured, mocked, dealt with unjustly by both the crowd and the system, but did not respond with violence. Instead, he showed us a new way to respond to the oppression of violence through community and dialogue, through loving our enemy, through forgiveness, through non-violently challenging the oppressive powers around him.

It was challenging stuff and was well presented with a series of relevant film clips. Particularly interesting for me was the recognition that even films which try not to glorify violence (e.g. Braveheart or Gladiator) can perpetuate the idea (myth?) that violence is sometimes necessary or justified if it is in the cause of good or as a last resort.

This includes many war films which may be 'anti war' in the sense of showing how brutal and ghastly war is but don't go so far as to condemn the use of violence by both sides. Thiessen suggested the otherwise excellent 'Saving Private Ryan' as an example of this. This was where I was not entirely convinced by his argument – not that such films may not be perpetuating the concept of redemptive violence but whether violence can truly never be justified under any circumstance – perhaps I need to read some Walter Wink!

What I certainly did agree with was how encouraging it is to see a film which genuinely suggests there is another way. Gandhi is of course the obvious example but there are others (The Mission, Romero, and In the Bedroom) and also some war films which seek not only to show the horror of war but also its stupidity and futility – Dr Strangelove, The Thin Red Line and maybe even Apocalypse Now (from which the 'Napalm' quote in his title comes). He particularly recommended 'Joyeux Noel' about the famous football match between the German and Allied forces during the first world war – a film I wanted to take our film group to last December but which didn't come to Gloucestershire in time.

Epilogue

There were other items at Greenbelt for film fans. A showing of 'Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit' followed by an interview with their creator Nick Park. Also a review of the years films with the knowledgeable and entertaining Gareth Higgins.

Like other Christians, Thiessen and Higgins may challenge us by pointing out the flaws in the theology of some films - but they at least do so not from a desire to demonise film but from an essential love of film. As Thiessen paraphrases Higgins on his web site - "Films are the sermons of our time. They speak to the existential condition of our time and the spiritual condition of our souls. They help us to think about God and talk about God. It's theology for the masses"……Amen!

Tim