ARTICLES
February 2001 ARTICLES
Contents © 2001
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
All Things Speak the Story of God
Even Hollywood Films?
By Christopher Zehnder
What do Hollywood and Jesus have in common? It was a question I never before considered, for it never occurred to me to make a connection between the movie capital and Our Lord. But someone has made the connection, or at least has tried to. His name is David Bruce and he hosts an internet website named, of all things, "Hollywood Jesus."
I first came across Hollywood Jesus one afternoon as I was surfing the "cyber catechist links" on the web page for the archdiocese of Los Angeles' office for religious education. There, under the heading, "Media," I saw the words, "Hollywood Jesus." What could the archdiocese be endorsing, now, I thought.
Hollywood Jesus, I discovered offers "visual movie reviews, with explorations into the deeper, more profound meaning behind film, music and pop culture;" it claims to look at "pop culture from a spiritual point of view." My doubts in no way eased, I browsed down through the list of movie reviews. I saw one on Charlie's Angels. I wondered: what spiritual content could that movie possibly have?
Reading the review by David Bruce only deepened my doubts. It contained such passages (accompanied with tempting bathing-suit shots of the actresses) as:
"The new Eve is independent yet has companions, strong yet thin, determined yet carefree, dominating yet submissive, a sexy pinup and yet a feminist, she is the contradiction!" and "KEEPING A-BREAST OF WOMANHOOD. Farrah Fawcett set the glamor standard for women of the 70s and it was her bra-less poster that became the masturbation dream 'girl' poster for adolescent men.The TV show was affectionately known as a jiggle show -- and it scored huge ratings -- and for that very reason." Statements of fact, I am sure; but what, I wondered, is the spiritual point of all this? According to Bruce, Charlie's Angels presents an image of the "we-can-do it" woman, rather than of the woman as victim.
Another review by Bruce describes the movie Superman as a retelling of the story of Christ. Like Christ, said Bruce, Superman had an origin outside this world, had no earthly father, was "born out of a womb-like cave created by the 'birth-star' space ship." Later, Superman is "put to 'death' as Lex [Luthor -- "Lucifer"] puts a chain of Kryptonite around his neck;" and then, after being put in a "watery grave" rises from the dead. At the end of the movie Superman leaves earth -- just as Christ ascended into heaven There are other parallels that make Bruce's thesis plausible -- maybe one could claim a spiritual content to some Hollywood movies.
But, finally, is Hollywood for Jesus, or against Him? While I gravitated (and still gravitate) to the latter option, I called David Bruce to get his take on the question. Bruce, a gracious conversationalist, is, it turns out, a father of seven and a Protestant minister with the Evangelical Covenant Church. He lives in a town not far from Fresno.
How long have you been doing Hollywood Jesus, and what moved you to take on this project?
I've been doing it since February 24, 1998. I had gone to a Billy Graham crusade in San Jose, and he challenged Christians to use the internet for good. And, I thought, 'wow, why not?' At that time I had not even sent an e-mail or been on the web, and I started from scratch. I went to Borders and looked over the how-to books on the internet.
I was very certain that, being in the post-modern world, we are a very visual age, so I was going to make the website very visual. You might say, I was going to do it very Catholic instead of very Protestant: on the internet you have the term 'icon' -- I was going to be sure I had a lot of icons. I think the direction of spirituality is toward symbol and sign and visual image.
What is the purpose of Hollywood Jesus?
Since most people don't know about Jesus, it is to tell the story of Jesus Christ through the vehicle of movie reviews.
I have seen a lot of similarity between Jesus and Hollywood; for instance, Jesus was quite a story-teller, and would teach people through stories. Hollywood does the same thing. When you watch a movie, because it is a story, it hits you, at times, at your deepest level, and you identify with the characters because you've had similar experiences. Watching a movie is a way of working through things. Sometimes when people are depressed they'll go and get a movie; it's kind of like medicine to the soul.
So, Hollywood Jesus is evangelical in character?
Yes, but probably evangelical in a different sense than the normal use of the word. I am an evangelical Christian. I prefer to think of myself as a catholic evangelical -- I accept everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as part of the Body of Christ. Nor do I see evangelicalism as throwing rocks, but as building bridges. Normally, what an evangelical Christian would do in terms of a movie review is tell you how many "F" words there are, or who gets naked, or how much they reveal themselves, or what kind of violence there is and how long that violence lasts. To me, to put one's mind on that kind of stuff is kind of sick; I don't see anything Christian about it. I would rather be looking for redemptive analogies, or how it connects with me emotionally, and use those as talking points with people, rather than talking about the seamier side of things.
What have been some of the fruits of your work?
It took one year to get a million hits, and it stands at 18 and a half million as we talk. Every twenty days there are a million hits. I look for e-mail relationships, to make human contact; the internet is so impersonal. Recently I've been overwhelmed with the amount of e-mail I've received.
One of the producers of Apropos TV, sort of a German Entertainment Tonight, is in LA. He contacted me and said he would like to interview me about American History X and The Thin Red Line, which were opening up in Germany. He wanted to know what an American Christian would think of the movies because of the Nazi connection in them. Well, he came out to the church, videoed the service, came over to my house and interviewed me. The twenty-minute segment was aired all over Germany. You should have seen all the mail that came in. Unbelievable! A year later, he [the producer] called me and asked me to marry him and his fiancée.
The National Enquirer TV show also called. The producer, who was antagonistic toward Christianity, contacted me. I think they wanted to set me up for a few laughs on Hollywood Boulevard about Jesus and Satan and all that. What happened is that at Starbucks, at the corner of La Cienega and Sunset, we got into such a great conversation about God, and the guy told me, "when I have times of trouble, that's the only time I talk to God." I'm thinking, "oh my gosh, you just opened a door here." We developed a friendship, and when the show aired, he came on and spoke highly, not only of the site, but of myself. I thought that was so nice.
Do you think the deeper, spiritual meanings you find in pop culture are intended? For instance, you describe Superman and Dancer in the Dark as allegories of Christ -- are they intended to be allegories?
I don't know about Dancer in the Dark. I think the allegory is intended in that film, because the previous movie that guy made had each segment introduced by titles like "Faith," "Belief" -- it was incredible, the amount of spiritual overtones the guy put in there. Superman was written by Mario Puzo (who wrote the Godfather), and he has Hollywood Jesus linked to his website in Italy as being the spiritual interpretation of the movie.
It's impossible to live in our culture without being influenced by the Judaeo-Christian culture; so, even if you think you have departed from it, you haven't; if you think you aren't writing about it, you are. Even just the character of nature and the character of humans -- if you were in a culture that knew nothing of the Judaeo-Christian traditions, you would still write about it in your stories. There is nature, the great dying and rising godness of the ancient world. The world dies in fall, and winter is death, and in spring everything has a resurrection. Pagan myths speak of the truth found in Jesus. Intended or unintended, all things speak the story of God. God is the creator; we bear his image, and so does the creation. So, I think it would be impossible, even without the intention, to write something that doesn't reflect God, or the God story.
Few would immediately intuit any spiritual content to most Hollywood movies. In fact, there seems, more often than not, a reduction of women to sex objects, an intemperate use of violence, an appeal to consumerist attitudes, and a superficial sentimentality.
It's true. There could not be anything more unspiritual than many of the people in Hollywood, just like in any other area of life. But within everyone there is spirituality; it's probably the most neglected aspect. The truth is that Jesus hung around with the sinners and the publicans and related better there than with the religious people of his day. And, oftentimes, it's, where sin doth abound, grace doth more abound. The top one hundred pop songs of all time, and the top one hundred films of all time have something in common -- it's not sex, not violence; it's relationship. And what we are hungry for is relationship. Look at romance novels, the bestsellers -- relationship predominates. What the Bible is about is relationship with God and each other. I think that what's going on in Hollywood, as in all pop culture, is not primarily sex, violence, and the reduction of women to sex objects.
Don't these more degrading elements bury the spiritual elements you find in pop culture?
I don't think people go to see a movie because it's spiritual. I think Hollywood's smart. But if it touches on spiritual things, it heightens the movie. With the Grinch That Stole Christmas -- it was that touch of spirituality, the meaning of Christmas, that gives it its edge. When movies try to be spiritual, they often fail; but when they appeal to a popular theme, it's like a touch of salt on a nice steak. It works real well.
I had an 18 year old come to me the other day and say, Pastor David, I cannot look at a movie anymore without thinking about Jesus or a Bible story. And I thought, "gosh, I've done my job." If we can make such a connection between our culture and with the Bible and with Jesus, then we've done our job. If we tell people to run and hide, then we haven't. But if we give people tools to work with, and how to look for redemptive analogies, I think we do a great service for them.