The Graduate (1967)

In Movie Churches, I don't usually write about films that use a church just as a setting for a wedding. "The Princess Bride" has a hysterical wedding scene in a chapel performed by a character named in the credits as "The Impressive Clergyman." What people remember from the scene is Peter Cook's speech impediment ("Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam.") But the scene wouldn't change much at all if it took place in a throne room and was performed by a medieval justice of the peace. "Sixteen Candles" has a funny wedding scene with a bride who took too many muscle relaxants. But the scene would work as well in a country club as a church.

But I'm writing about "The Graduate" (even though the only church scene is a wedding) for a couple of reasons. One is that the church scene is iconic, replicated and referenced in other films (see the conclusion of Wayne's World II). The other reason I decided to write about it is because the scene has no spiritual or religious resonance. The film has no overt religious or spiritual themes even though it's about a young man's search for meaning.

The 1967 comedy won Mike Nichols an Oscar for Best Director and has rated high on the American Film Institute's list of 100 best films. It tells the story of Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), a college graduate who comes home and has no idea of what he wants to do next. At a party hosted by his parents, attended by his parents' friends, Ben is approached by a man who tells Ben he has one word to tell him. Just one word. "Plastics." That one word is a famous piece of dialogue. It captures the option of pursuing material wealth as something that is not real and not enough.

Ben, true to his era, isn't satisfied with the wealth, house, and goods that seem to satisfy his parents. In school he was an achiever in academics and sports, but those things fail to provide Ben with meaning. Though Ben drinks some, for whatever reason he doesn't follow the sixties path of drugs in pursuit of truth.

Ben uses another ancient path for meaning, one that goes back to Solomon and before. Sex. He is seduced by Mrs. Robinson ("Oh, no, Mrs. Robinson. I think, I think you're the most attractive of all my parents' friends.") Weeks, then months go by with Ben spending the day sleeping in late and hanging out by his parents pool, and nights in a hotel with Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft).

But Ben falls in love with Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). Ben hopes, like many movie heroes before him, that romantic love will provide meaning for his life. But Elaine's parents forbid a relationship. And when Elaine hears that Mrs. Robinson slept with her mother, she tells Ben to leave her alone.

Ben can't leave it at that. He pursues Elaine when she returns to college at Berkeley, so her parents rush her into marriage with Carl, a jerk of a fraternity boy. Needless to say, Ben is not invited to the wedding.

He finds out where the wedding will take place, in Santa Barbara (the actual church is in La Verne). On his drive to the church he runs out of gas. He enters the church and sees the ceremony from the balcony. He's too late -- the minister has just declared Elaine and Carl man and wife. Ben screams to Elaine. She runs to him. People rush at Ben. He punches Elaine's dad. Elaine punches her own mom. Ben picks up a large golden cross and swings it to keep people away. He uses the cross to bar the door, locking the wedding party inside as Elaine and Ben rush out to a bus. 

They laugh together on the bus. And then stare off in the distance. Perhaps meaning won't be found in romantic love either.

The guests in the pews of the wedding seem like the same shallow, materialistic crowd that the film has mocked for the two previous hours. No one in the film mentions God or Jesus except as a curse. Ben uses the cross as a weapon. Perhaps Jesus could have given Ben the meaning he was looking for, but he's never considered.

Of course, he might have listened to the Simon and Garfunkel song on the soundtrack:

"And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson,

Jesus loves you more than you will know.

God bless you, please Mrs. Robinson.

Heaven holds a place for those who pray.

Hey,hey, hey.

Hey, hey, hey.

C. S. Lewis said, "Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy." 

"The Graduate" is that story told as a very skilled farce. Oh, and if the Robinson family are any example of the members of the church in this film, it earns a sorry One Steeple.

Silent Movie Churches -- The Docks of New York

The Docks of New York (1928)

I’m generally hesitant to write about a film that only uses a church as a setting for a wedding or clergy as a wedding officiant, because often the church and pastor are just scenery in film. The church and pastor are not that different from film to film (since they’re essentially set dressing), so they aren’t worth writing about. It’s if one wrote a law blog post about how different Justices of Peace or judges perform wedding ceremonies.

But there are times when a film does use weddings in interesting ways, as in director Josef von Sternberg’s 1928 film The Docks of New York.  Based on a book titled The Dock Walloper (I wish they’d kept that awesome title), it’s the story of a ship stoker, Bill, (he shovels the coal into the fire of a tugboat) who rescues a young woman, Mae, from drowning in the waters by the docks. (His rescue is rather leisurely. He sees her in the water and casually strips down to dive in for her.)

He takes her to a room in a disreputable place called The Sandbar. (A title card assures us that such places used to exist by the docks, one assumes pre-prohibition, but that they exist no longer.) At The Sandbar there is much drinking, dancing, and carousing. We see Bill’s captain flirting with a woman when he sees his wife flirting with another man. The wife tells the captain she can do what she wishes since he “gave her the air” years ago.

There is a sign at the Sandbar that reads, “Save Your Soul and Your Money, Come to ‘Hymn-Book Harry’s Harbor Mission.”  At one point, when the crowd gets rowdier than usual at the Sandbar and it looks like Bill is about to start a fight, the proprietor says, “I better get Hymn-Book Harry before he wrecks the place.” But things calm down before he takes such drastic measures.

Gustav von Seyffertitz as Hymn Book Harry

Hymn-Book Harry comes to the Sandbar for another reason. Bill decides he wants to marry Mae.  Now Bill doesn’t seem the marrying type. His arms are covered with tattoos of naked women and the names of women from various ports. And it is implied that Mae has what they call a “history” as well.

Harry (Gustav von Seyffertitz) comes into the rowdy bar with a grim, disapproving look on his face. He asks Bill, “Where’s your wedding license?”  The whole idea of the wedding was rather spur of the moment, so Bill and Mae don’t have a license. Harry heads for the door. A woman stops him, saying,  “Are you going to queer our fun just because you got to have a piece of paper?”

Another woman steps to the front of the bar saying she’ll do the ceremony if the preacher won’t. (“Let the old fusser go. I’ll marry you!”) She stands on the bar and asks whether anyone knows of any reason these two people should not be married -- which brings much laughter, but no objections. This visibly bothers Hymn-Book Harry.

Harry asks Mae, “Does it mean that much to you?” Harry asks Bill whether he will get a license. Bill assures him, “Word of honor, Pastor, I’ll get it first thing in the morning.”

Hymn Book Harry performs a traditional ceremony: “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God and in the face of this company to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony. This is an honorable estate, not to be taken lightly.”

What I found interesting was that the crowd begins in a rowdy mood, but seems genuinely moved by the ceremony. They stop drinking and carousing to listen to Harry’s words. Harry brings a moment of peace to the place. When Harry asks Bill whether he has a ring, he doesn’t. But a woman in the bar crowd brings one forward. Bill responds to the questions of the vows with “Sure I will”.

When the ceremony ends, the crowd cheers.

Bill tries to pay Harry after the ceremony. Harry initially refuses the money, then says, “I expect you to bring me a license in the morning -- pay me then.” It seems that Harry is much less concerned about being paid than that Bill will take his responsibilities as a husband seriously.

Whenever I’ve performed a wedding, I’ve insisted on the couple having counseling beforehand, something Harry doesn’t do. I also try to inject warmth and humor into a service, also something that Harry doesn’t do. But Harry is willing to go to a bar to serve others, which wins some points in my book. So I’m giving the ministry of Hymn-Book Harry Three Steeples.

Comedy Month: The Wedding Chapel

The Wedding Chapel (2013)

We really don’t need to spend time on the central plot of The Wedding Chapel. If you’ve seen any Hallmark Movie, you know the plot beats. A beautiful single career woman from the big city, Sarah Robertson (Emmanuelle Vaugier), must (because of reasons) go to a small town, where she meets (cute!) a handsome bachelor, Roger Waters (played by Mark Deklin, not the frontman for Pink Floyd).

Sarah has a wacky, widowed mother, Jeannie (Shelley Long) who has flashbacks about her first love who went to Vietnam. Jeannie thought he was dead, but actually, he was a prisoner of war. Jeannie got married but found out her first love was alive -- but it was too late. You will be shocked to learn there are two romances in the film.

And we at Movie Churches -- we don’t care about these things in the least. (Though if Ted Danson had been cast as the ex-boyfriend and used Cheers clips for Jeannie's memories, I might have been interested). So we just don’t care about the romances. We care about the title character, the Wedding Chapel.

Sarah returns to the small town because she hears that her dead grandmother’s house is going to be torn down by contractors who are going to build a new mall. Since Sarah moved a lot during her childhood, her grandmother’s house was her one stable place. When she and her mother visit, they find that the house is still fully furnished with family photos on the wall. Nothing has been done to clean it out even though the demolition crews are just weeks away.

As the women walk through the neighborhood, they see a church. “Oh, look at that chapel,” Sarah says. 

Jeannie says, “They’ll probably bulldoze that too. I hope they find a way to save it. The whole neighborhood grew up in there.”

Sarah begins to think she can save her grandmother’s house by saving the chapel. With her mother, she go to see Mark, the city planner who also is a lawyer.

They ask him about the destruction of the church to build a shopping mall. He tells them the process is too far along and can’t be stopped. When Jeannie asks if Pastor Reed did anything to stop the sale, Mark tells them, “He did, but the congregation wanted a better, more modern facility elsewhere.”

Jeannie is outraged, “This is criminal. The chapel has been here for centuries. It’s unbelievable. The wood was cut right from the local trees. The foundation was built by the same Scottish mason who built the first church in Savannah.” 

“How do you know all this?” Sarah asks. 

“Osmosis,” Jeannie answers.

Jeannie tells how it used to be. “So on Sundays, just about everyone gathered here. And it didn’t matter if you went to the service. Anything that was anything, started here.” We get a flashback of a picnic in front of the church with people barbequing burgers, kids blowing bubbles, teens hula hooping, and young Jeannie falling in love. Which is all swell, but I do wonder, what happened in those Sunday services? We never learn throughout the film.

We soon meet the church’s current pastor. Sarah is sketching the church when a man comes along. He calls out, “Sarah, don’t you recognize me?” He reminds her that she sketched him long ago. 

Sarah says, “Pastor Reed’s son?” 

She’s right. He says, “Or as the congregation refers to me, Pastor Reed, the sequel in 3-D.” 

“Following in your father’s footsteps?” she asks. 

“Yes, and the Lord’s,” he answers.

He looks at her sketches and says, “You’re a great talent.”

“I wish the critics thought so,” she pouts.

“Well, we must listen to our hearts,” he tells her. Not very theologically sound, but probably the deepest thing the Reverend says in the entire film.

Sarah asks Pastor Reed whether he tried to save the chapel. “Nobody loves the chapel more than I do,” he responds, “Except Dad and maybe (the Reverend points upward). Everyone else grew up around the chapel, but I grew up in it.”

“So you were the only one who stood up to them?”

“The building's in bad shape and the Board thought it made more sense to take the money and build another facility elsewhere. Everyone got what they wanted.”

Pastor Reed agrees to take Sarah to the church. The front door is bound in chains, which the Pastor unlocks. “Nobody’s been here for a couple of months. Excuse the mess,” he says. Because the church isn’t messy at all inside. 

Sarah exclaims, “I forgot how beautiful this is.” 

The pastor says, “I especially loved the afternoon weddings.”

Now this all greatly confused me. Why, if the church was going to shortly be demolished, hadn’t anyone cleared out the inside? And where has the congregation been meeting for the last two months with the chapel locked up? Why wouldn’t they be meeting there while it was still there and they didn’t have a new building?

Anyway, Sarah asks to see the chapel archives. When the pastor asks why, she responds, “History!” Sarah thinks if she can find significant history in the church archive, the church might be saved. (Again, why were these records left in the church that is shortly scheduled to be destroyed?) She does find records that indicate the church is the site of an Indian burial ground, but that isn’t enough.

Eventually, the people who love the place are called to a meeting in the church where they're asked to help dig through the archives. Pastor Reed and Sarah stand in the front of the crowd in the pews. The pastor turns the meeting over to Sarah. 

Why isn’t Pastor Reed conducting the meeting to save the church? Why does he let a stranger lead the meeting?

Maybe because the pastor knows that his congregation doesn't want to stay in this old building. The church board wanted to sell, and the pastor is going against the wishes of the church leadership. That is why he is trying to palm the responsibility of sabotaging the sale off on someone else.

Anyway, Sarah tells the people, “I came to this town to save my grandmother’s house. But I started to realize the center of town for my mother and all in this town is the chapel. We are a community. Like a tree with the chapel as our roots. I wasn’t just trying to save the tree, but the roots. The memories in those photos, that’s what we’d really be losing… Some things are worth fighting for.” It does seem like they are fighting for the memories of the church -- it isn’t’ doing anything much in the present.

She gets through to them, though, and many people get to work looking through the archives for something of historical relevance. As people dig through cardboard boxes, Pastor Reed shouts, “We are offering a free wedding ceremony to anyone who finds something useful. Of course, every ceremony here is free.”

Sarah is (naturally) the one who finds something important (so did she really need the help?) She finds a copy of the treaty ending the French and Indian War -- signed on the site of the chapel. (No historian had ever figured this out.)

So the chapel building is saved. And the congregation must take on the ongoing financial burden of keeping up a dilapidated old building, against the wishes of the church leadership. And untold numbers of construction workers won’t get to work on the new construction project, plus all the people who will lose out on the jobs the new mall would have offered.

We do get to see a wedding in the chapel. Jeannie and Larry get married there. Long ago at the chapel, they had recited vows together when they were all alone. So as the pastor begins the traditional service with “Dearly beloved,” they just start kissing. So the pastor says, “You may kiss the bride.” And everyone laughs. It's probably fine, because I doubt Pastor Reed really had anything worth hearing anyway.

That’s why we are giving the Reverend Reed and his wedding chapel a meager 2 out of 4 Steeples.

License to Wed (2007)

I have presided over a number of weddings through the years. I’ve often met with couples for premarital counseling. So I thought I had some experience with this material. But I am not familiar with the way these things are presented in this film. In fact, I am not familiar with
ministry, church or, in fact, human behavior, as it is presented in 2007’s “License to Wed.”

In the film, Ben (played by John Krasinski from NBC’s “The Office” so forgive me if I call him "Jim" at any time in this post) proposes to Sadie (played by Mandy Moore, who I will try not to call "Pam" even though she didn't play this role in the TV show), and she says “Yes” -- but insists that they get married at her family’s church, St. Augustine’s.

I wasn’t ever quite clear on what denomination St. Augustine’s was supposed to be. The senior (and apparently only) clergyman, Father Frank (played by Robin Williams) wears a clerical collar, and we see a picture of him with the Pope so one might guess he’s Roman Catholic. This is supported by a major plot point when Jim Ben discovers that Father Frank had been married and divorced, which would be a big deal in a Roman Catholic church, but not a mainline Protestant church.

On the other hand, the bit of a church service we see is nothing like a Roman Catholic mass. The gospel choir seems like it’s from a Southern Baptist Church (the only African Americans in the church seem to be in the choir loft and not in the pews). I can’t imagine a Catholic church where the priest would interrupt a prayer in order to shame latecomers as they enter through the back door, but maybe it’s a very clever church growth strategy I’ve never come across.

Father Frank casually encouraged a young man to “make his two moms proud” which seems more Episcopalian or Methodist than Catholic. And when Sadie comes to Father Frank about being married in the church he says, “You haven’t been here for ten years ever since you went off to college and had a bisexual roommate and then got a job.” He’s just kidding though, he says, even though it's true, she hasn’t been to church for ten years. But against the Catholic possibility, he says nothing about taking Sadie’s confession, and seems to have no concern at all about Jim’s (sorry) Ben’s faith or lack thereof.

Anyway, Father Frank finds a place for the wedding on the church calendar, but it is only three weeks away. He says they must pass his premarital counseling course to be wed, and he reserves the right to cancel the wedding up until the night before.

As I said, I’ve done premarital counseling and think it (along with reading, classes and testing), is really a good thing. Studies have shown they provide great benefits to marital satisfaction, and stability can be provided by good premarital counseling. But Father Frank’s methods are… um… unusual.

Now the first thing Father Frank asks of Ben and Sadie is not that unusual but it is treated as a completely foreign concept. He asks the couple not to sleep together until their honeymoon. Now this is a delicate issue, but it is strange that these two are astounded by the idea that in a church the concept of chastity would be encouraged.

What is a little more unusual is that Father Frank secretly installs surveillance equipment in Ben and Sadie’s home, one assumes to see if they are remaining chaste before the wedding. He listens in on their bedroom chats and seems pleased that Sadie does want to follow the Father’s rules. I don’t remember anything about eavesdropping as a suggested method in any of my counseling classes. (Maybe if I’d studied law enforcement the topic might have come up.)

Father Frank invites Ben and Sadie to a class to learn about “fair fighting.” Fair fighting can be a very useful tool in helping couples to learn to share their differences in a constructive manner. But Frank praises a couple whose “fair fight” includes the woman calling the man a “jackass” and the man telling the woman to “go to hell.” He draws Ben and Sadie into a mean fight and later sows seeds of hostility between Ben's and Sadie’s families.

The final exam before the wedding tests the couple’s communication skills. Sadie is to drive blindfolded and Jim Ben is to give her directions. Why not risk a little dismemberment and death to avoid something like a boring written or oral exam?

Spoiler – We learn at the end that Father Frank has a method to his madness and all turns out well. Why let a little clerical criminal and sociopathic behavior get in the way of a happy, love conquers all, ending? Still, Father Frank and St. Augustine’s get our lowest rating – One Steeple. (Though I do give kudos for using "Oh Happy Day" at the wedding scene.)





(As you might know, Robin Williams was raised an Episcopalian. He even came up with a top ten list for the denomination:
10. No snake handling.

9. You can believe in dinosaurs.

8. Male and female God created them; male and female we ordain them.

7. You don’t have to check your brains at the door.

6. Pew aerobics.

5. Church year is color-coded.

4. Free wine on Sunday.

3. All the pageantry – none of the guilt.

2. You don’t have to know how to swim to get baptized.

And the #1 reason to be an Episcopalian – No matter what you believe, there’s bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.)

Bonus Halloween Zombie Treat

Valley of the Dead (Malnazidos) 2020

Today we have a bonus Zombie Movie Church because I wanted to give this film a break. It had a rough time.

 Valley of the Dead (Malnazidos), a Spanish film, premiered on October 8, 2020, at the Sitges Film Festival. It was scheduled for a wide release in January 2021, but COVID-19 postponed its debut until September of 2021, then postponed its debut again to March 2022. This release, too, was canceled and the film never received a theatrical release. It went to streaming, including Netflix.

Valley of the Dead is set in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War, though it isn’t completely historically accurate -- such as the part where the Nazis experiment with biological warfare by turning people into zombies. (I don’t remember Stephen Ambrose or Cornelius Ryan ever mentioning the Nazis' zombies in any of their World War II books. Of course, they kept pretty quiet about the Nazi search for the Ark of the Covenant as well.)

Something I appreciated about the film is that characters on both sides of the War, the Republicans and Francoists, are portrayed sympathetically. In addition, both sides include rather evil characters, though the worst are the Franco supporters who collaborate with the Nazis.)

The film opens at a church (boding well for this blog) as bells ring in celebration of a wedding. All seems joyful until Nazi soldiers appear wearing gas masks. They machine-gun the wedding party and spread a strange gas. It seems all attendees of the wedding are killed (but, we learn later, the bride survived).

In Franco’s military headquarters we see a lawyer commissioned as Captain Jan Lozano (Miki Esparbe), and given a dangerous assignment to cross enemy lines. A young enlisted soldier, Decruz (Manel Llunell), is assigned as his driver. As they drive, Jan asks the young soldier why he joined Franco’s army. 

Decruz rambles in what seems a pointless way, talking about the wonderful puff pastries made by the nuns of his small town, but then he explains he was afraid the Reds would capture or kill the nuns.

This seems rather extreme until the two are captured by Communist opposition soldiers. A woman soldier, Matacuras (Aura Garrido), is called “the Priest Killer” by her fellow soldiers. This nickname seems to be spoken with admiration. Eventually, she tells Jan about dealing with a priest in her small town who had abused her sister. Since then, her reputation as a killer of clergy has put her in good stead with her unit.

The Communist sergeant (Luis Callego) berates Jan and Decruz for “believing in nuns and priests.” Jan responds that nuns and priests do, in fact, exist. The Sargeant continues, “You believe God died and rose from the dead three days later in Bethlehem…” 

Jan tells him, “That was Jerusalem, and it was Jesus, not God.” Here I think the Sergeant was correct on the more important point -- but enough Christology.

The entire company is soon attacked by zombies and the group must work together to fight them. Brodski (Segio Torrico), a Russian, recalls that in the Motherland, “They say the demon possessed come back from the dead.” Brodski also says, “My grandmother used to say, ‘When hell is full, the dead will walk the earth.’” 

Which I though was just part of the Dawn of the Dead marketing campaign, but maybe it predates that. 

Someone wonders about similarities between zombies and the Ressurection. Someone else responds, “When Jesus rose from the dead, he didn’t start f**** eating people.”

They seek shelter in a barn, where they encounter a nun and fighters from Franco’s army. They agree to an uneasy peace to battle the zombies. The nun, Sol Flor (Maria Botto), says “God guided our steps to here.” She treats the wounds of one of the Communist soldiers. When one of the men is killed by zombies, Sol says, “Though he is a Red, may God embrace him in His glory.”

As the battle with the zombies continues, Sol takes part. They find that the Nazis are hiding out in the church we saw at the beginning of the film, perhaps with a cure for the zombie plague. Sol is bitten by a zombie, meaning she will eventually turn into a zombie herself. She arms herself and says, “I am going back to the church. Someone needs to care for their poor souls. I have work to do.” She takes extra bullets which she calls her “consecrated hosts,” and gives her life to help others. (We apply our John 15: 13 rule here. Other things being equal, clergy giving up their lives for the sake of others earn our highest Movie Churches rating)

So we're giving Sister Sol Flor (along with those fine puff pastry-making nuns) a Four out of Four Church Steeple rating.

Brooklyn (2015, in theaters now)

I was going to see Brooklyn anyway. It's rocking 98% fresh with critics at Rotten Tomatoes and has been discussed for Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actress (for Saoirse Ronan as the young Irish immigrant, Eilis). Then friends mentioned that a priest plays a prominent role in the film, so I knew it might work for Movie Churches.  Viewing the film, I discovered it not only had a church, but a church Christmas scene, so it would fit with this month's Yuletide Theme; a big win all around.

The film opens in Ireland in the early 1950's, and one of the first scenes is set in a church worshiping with a Latin Mass. The church is full but many seem bored in the service. After Mass, a number of people go from the service to the little store where Eilis works part time. Employment options are limited in her small town, so when the opportunity arises, she decides to go to America to find work.

Eilis' immigration plans are coordinated by a priest in Ireland and a priest in Brooklyn. The priest in America sponsors the woman, arranging for her lodging and employment in her new land. Father Flood (played by Jim Broadbent) is an Irish immigrant as well, from the same town in Ireland. He remembers Eilis and knows she has potential.

When Eilis' bouts of homesickness hamper the cheerful attitude she needs to work effectively as a sales clerk at an upscale department store, her job is endangered. But instead of firing her, her intimidating boss calls in Father Flood to give her council and comfort. The priest encourages her to carry on in her work, but arranges for her to take accounting classes. He assures her that someone will pay for her school (an anonymous member of Flood's church who apparently has some atoning to do.)

Church dances provide Eilis and other new immigrants with another important service: a social life. Weekly church dances provide a wholesome atmosphere for entertainment and socializing. (It is at such a dance that Eilis meets the young man that will provide the romance and conflict for the remainder of the film.)

At the church, Eilis also finds a place to serve. While other girls in her boarding house find families to join for Christmas, Eilis helps with the Christmas meal for destitute men (most of them Irish immigrants as well). She finds the men's stories and songs from the old country almost as encouraging as the men's encouragement from her hard work and cheerful attitude. (And I, of course, found a reason to include the film in this month's Christmas theme.)

There is one other important scene in the film that takes place in a church. There is a wedding. Often I don't give much attention to church weddings at this blog because often the scene could just as well take place at any venue. But the wedding scene in this film provides the important thematic and plotting function of reminding a character of the sacredness of wedding vows.

You probably can still catch Brooklyn in a theater near you. I'm giving the Movie Church in the film Four Steeples.

So, there. The last Movie Church of 2015. Thanks to all who have read the blog through the year, especially those of you who have provided reactions and comments.

In 2016 we will be adding a couple of features. On Thursdays, we'll continue to post about a Movie Church fitting into the month's theme (among the themes next year: comedies, cops and robbers, depression, and crises) In addition, there'll be other posts related to an adventure my wife Mindy and I are taking next year.

During 2016, we plan to travel throughout America, visiting a church and a bar in each of the United States. Every week, we'll view a film related in some way to the state we are visiting, and we'll post about that. And if we go to movie theaters on our journeys, we may post that here as well.

So a Happy New Year to all, and we look forward to having you along for the ride in Movie Churches 2016!

Christmas Cameo Month: I Still Believe

I Still Believe (2020)
This film is an anomaly for 2020 -- it's a new film that debuted in movie theaters (admittedly, I watched it via streaming on Hulu). I Still Believe seems to join I Can Only Imagine in a new genre: Contemporary Christian Music hits made into biopics. ICOI was about the founder of MercyMe and his troubled relationship with his father. I Still Believe is the story of Jeremy Camp’s first romantic love.

There is very little Christmas in the film (we take what we can get), and there isn’t much church in the film, but there is an interesting observation about clergy.

The film opens in Lafayette, Indiana in the fall of 1999 (shout out to my brother- and sister-in-law and family in said city). Jeremy Camp (K.J. Apa) is preparing to go off to school at Calvary Chapel College in Murrieta, California. Even if IMDb didn’t tell me, I would know this wasn’t filmed on location but instead in Mobile, Alabama. The school seems to be right by the beach instead of the 45 miles across southern California freeways. And Pacific Ocean beaches look different from Gulf Coast beaches. For instance, I can't think of anyplace on the California Pacific coast where the sun rises over the ocean as it does in the film when Jeremy’s love interest, Melissa (Britt Robertson), goes for a morning jog.

At his new school, Jeremy makes friends with Jean-Luc LaJoie (Nathan Parsons), the front-man for a Christian music group, The Kry. Jean-Luc and Jeremy bond over their love of music, but unfortunately, both have feelings for Melissa. If you ever had to deal with a tedious love triangle like this when you were in school, do you really want to relive it in a film?

It is here Christmas makes its cameo appearance. Jeremy goes home to Indiana for Christmas to be with his parents, Tom and Teri (Gary Sinise and Shania Twain), and his brothers, Jared and Josh (Josh is disabled). That house is well decorated for Christmas, tree, lights and all. At home, Jeremy receives a call from Jean-Luc who tells him that Melissa is very sick. Jeremy drives back to school in his father’s Pizza King delivery car. (Won’t this impact family finances during the holiday season?)

Jeremy drives straight to the hospital back in California and learns that Melissa has stage 3 liver cancer. It is at this time that Melissa and Jeremy admit their love for each other. Jeremy goes to the hospital chapel to pray (a bit of church). I found it a little strange that although Melissa and her family are all devout Christians, we never see clergy -- or anyone else -- from their church visit Melissa. 

Miraculously, Melissa seems to recover, and six months later, Jeremy and Melissa marry.

I was hoping for a church wedding, for the sake of the blog, but the happy couple marries on the beach. I was looking for a clergyman at the wedding, but I didn’t think I saw one. Then I realized that Jeremy’s father, Tom, performed the ceremony. Because the wedding is -- supposedly -- in California, and Melissa’s family pastor doesn’t perform the service, I realized that Tom is probably a clergyman of some kind. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would get his ordination from the back of Rolling Stone Magazine or online (especially at the turn of the century).

But when Jeremy and Melissa return from their honeymoon, she becomes ill again. As Melissa returns to the hospital, Jeremy begins to question his faith. He sings Melissa a song he wrote on their honeymoon, “Walk By Faith”, and then Melissa dies. We don’t see a church for the funeral, but rather a graveside service, again officiated by Jeremy’s father, Tom.

Jeremy talks to his father about his disappointment with God and the seeming futility of his prayers. He asks his father about his disappointments in life, about the prayers God didn’t answer. “I remember I prayed and prayed in this room for Josh to be born healthy. And you prayed for your ministry and nothing. And I prayed for Melissa. What am I supposed to do with that?”

So apparently, Tom had hoped to be in full-time ministry but was unable to make his living in ministry. One of the great disappointments in life is not being able to pursue what you believe you're called to. Think of those who want to be in show business or professional sports when those dreams die. I know the pain of those who feel called to ministry (for myself and friends) when things don’t work out. You can feel like you've disappointed God as well as yourself.

But Tom’s answer is interesting. He says, “Josh’s disabilities were disappointing, sure. Did I have big dreams that didn’t come true? Yes. Do I know why Melissa isn’t here? No, I don’t. But I have had a full life. I don’t know how to answer your questions. But my life isn’t full in spite of my disappointments....It’s full because of them.”

Jeremy returned to his music. His songs “Walk By Faith” and, of course, “I Still Believe” inspired by the events depicted in the film, became enormous hits. If Tom, in the eyes of the world, didn’t have much of a ministry, he raised a son who ministers to millions.

That said, how would the clergy and church -- such as they are -- in this film do with our steeple ratings? I give Tom Camp (and his ministry) a solid three steeples.

We've been there!

Visiting film locations

There’s something marvelous about visiting the location where a favorite movie was filmed. When we watch a movie, we know it’s all make-believe, but visiting a location… Well, we feel like it might be just a bit real.

Over the seven years of writing Movie Churches, I've had opportunities to visit some favorite film locations. This list includes some from the Movie Churches blog and some not, but they're all places I recommend visiting.

5) Psycho - Universal Studios, Los Angeles, CA - Bates Motel and house

Frankly, this one seems like a bit of a cheat. After all, it's at a movie studio rather than a “real” place, but this is genuinely where Alfred Hitchcock filmed his classic -- and it is a little spooky being there.

4) The Graduate - La Verne United Methodist Church, La Verne, CA - Elaine’s wedding church

This was a location that we did visit for Movie Churches (and our church blog - Dean and Mindy Go to Church.) But I liked this film long before I wrote about it. The scene where Ben (Dustin Hoffman) interrupts the wedding of the girl he loves is iconic. Bizarrely, this has made the church where this scene was filmed popular as a wedding site.

3) Rocky III - Philadelphia, PA - The Rocky Statue

It is rather a meta-event that Philadelphia (in the movie) gave a statue to honor the boxer, and the film company gave the statue to the city to honor the actor Sylvester Stallone and the movie. In the film, the statue is at the top of the outside stair that leads to the Philadelphia Museum of Art but now the statue is at the bottom of the steps. (I have also run up the steps, as Rocky does in the films, but probably not as fast.)

2) High Noon - Saint Joseph’s, Tuolumne City, CA - church for town meeting

This is another location we visited for our blogs. The location of the church is very different from that in the film. It’s in the mountains, it was snowy the day we visited, whereas in the film the church seems located in a town in a flat, arid location in the Western frontier. It was cool to be where one of the greatest Westerns was filmed.

I)  Die Hard - Fox Plaza, Los Angeles, CA - Nakatomi Plaza

Though we never wrote about this film for our blog, it was fun to be in the location where one of the Christmas movies our family views every year was filmed. We took off our shoes because… Well, not because it is a sacred place exactly, but because… If you’ve seen the film, you know why.

Movie Churches in 2019's Best Picture Race

The Academy Awards are this Sunday. I've seen all the films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and I must say, there's very little church or clergy in any of the films. It's quite thoughtless of the Academy to give so little attention to the needs of this blog. If a film like Just Mercy or A Hidden Life had been nominated, I’d have a little more to work with, but no…

A majority of the nine films nominated (Ford Vs. Ferrari, Joker, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, Jojo Rabbit, and Marriage Story) have no direct reference to churches or clergy, but the remaining four have minor ecclesiastical references.

Parasite (my favorite film from last year), had a passing church reference. The poor family in the movie makes money folding boxes for a local pizza parlor, and that pizza parlor gets a major order from The Love of God Church. And that’s it. (FWIW, I tend to be more favorable to churches that serve pizza.)

Little Women has a prominent clergy character, but they try to keep that on the down-low. The film is based on Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel (released in two parts in 1868 and 1869). The story tells of a mother and her daughters, the Marches, struggling to get by while Father March serves in the Civil War. In the book, it states quite plainly that the father serves as a chaplain with the Union Army. In Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of the novel, the word “chaplain” is never used. One of the daughters, Jo (Saoirse Ronan) talks about her father (Bob Odenkirk) going off to serve the Union Army and wishing she could join him, certainly giving the impression that he is serving as a soldier. The only clues we have of Father March’s profession is when he officiates over the wedding of one daughter and the funeral of another. We really get no indication of the quality of Father March’s ministry. A church in the family’s town is prominent in a number of shots, but we never see the Marches (or anyone else) step inside it.

The Irishman is the only one of this year’s Best Picture nominees that makes prominent references to the church and clergy. This isn’t too surprising, considering it was directed by Martin Scorsese -- who often works with religious themes (The Last Temptation of Christ, Kundun) and more specifically Catholicism (The Silence). The Irishman is the story of mobsters, particularly Frank Sheeran (Robert DeNiro) and Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci), and their involvement in the killing of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa; these vicious, cold-blooded men are active in the Catholic Church. In the film, we see several baptisms and a wedding in Catholic Churches (Christian statuary and iconography are featured throughout the film).

Through the camera's eye, we follow these mobsters as they age, and near the end of Russell’s life, he begins to attend church regularly. Frank teases him for this, but Russell says, “Don’t laugh, you’ll see.” And Frank does eventually find himself in a Catholic nursing home being visited by priests. Frank doesn’t seem to feel much guilt for his past, even for the people he killed, but a priest encourages him, “I think we can be sorry even when we don’t feel sorry. It’s a decision of the will.”

1917 doesn’t have a formal church or clergyperson, but it does have the most moving worship service I saw in a film from last year. The film tells the story of two soldiers given the assignment of taking a message to the front lines. One soldier reaches a troop about to go to battle. It is quite evident that the men are scared. One of the men stands before them and sings a folk/gospel song, “The Wayfaring Stranger.” The song tells of a journey of God’s redeemed across the Jordan to see their loved ones, “I’m only going over home.” We see war-torn churches and hear church bells in the film, but this moment of worship is truly "church." If I was giving steeple this week, that service would get four steeples out of four.

Crime Month isn't Magical: Sorcery

Sorcerer (1977)

You could argue that a church only makes a cameo appearance in this brooding adventure film. Still, it has such a variety of illegal activities presented during that cameo that I couldn’t resist including it in Crime Month.

Sorcerer was a commercial flop. There was some puzzlement about why this well-made, tense action film didn’t find an audience. Though it's very dark, and the characters aren't particularly likable, the same could be said of director William Friedkin’s two previous films, huge hits The French Connection and The Exorcist. 

Probably a big factor was the attention paid to another film that came out at the same time… Star Wars.

Sorcerer is a kind of remake of the French classic The Wages of Fear about a small group of men who must carry a truckload of nitroglycerin to put out a massive oil fire. In Friedkin’s film, however, the four men on the mission each have a backstory presented in four different prologues. In Veracruz, Mexico, we see Nilo (Francisco Rabal), an assassin, commit a political murder that sets law enforcement on his trail. In Jerusalem, a Palestinian terrorist, Kassem (Amidou), sets off a bomb and soon the Israel Defense Forces are after him. In Paris, a businessman, Victor (Bruno Cremer), is about to be convicted of fraud and flees.

These three men escape to Porvenir, a remote village in Columbia. And a fourth man, Jackie Scanlon (Roy Scheider), comes their way. His backstory features the church.

It's bingo night at The Lady of the Snow Catholic Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey. We see a back room where large amounts of cash are being counted -- not just from this church, but from other Catholic Churches as well.

There is also a wedding taking place in the church while the money is being counted. The camera takes a few moments to observe it, though it has nothing to do with the film's story. The bride appears to have a black eye and a broken nose. Knowing nothing about her story, one can’t help but wonder whether this woman is in an abusive relationship that is being blessed by, affirmed, and cemented by a priest.

But back to the counting room. Priests are counting the money, but other men in the room are wearing suits, and they certainly look like (and later prove to be) Italian Mafiosi. Three armed men break into the room and tell everyone to raise their hands and turn over the money. A shootout ensues, and one of the priests is shot.

The men rush outside, where Scanlon waits behind the steering wheel of the getaway car.  As they drive away, chased by cops and the Italians, the crooks in the car get into a heated argument (“We shot a priest for $67,000. Was it worth our lives?”). The argument distracts Scanlon, who crashes into a truck. Scanlon is the only one of the four robbers to survive the crash. 

Scanlon's friends hide him when he learns that the priest who was shot was the brother of Carlo Ricci (Cosmo Allegretti), a Mafia kingpin. Scanlon's friend tells him he should leave the country because Ricci has pledged vengeance.

One of the members of his mob asks Ricci about his brother the priest. The Don replies, “He’s going to be all right. They robbed my church and shot my brother. I don’t care what it’s going to cost, track him down.”

And (spoiler) when the film ends we can see how far Ricci was willing to go to find Scanlon… Even to the secluded jungles of Columbia.

Here's what really bothers me about the church in this film. I’m not a big fan of churches using bingo as a fundraiser, though (as we mentioned earlier in the month) there are no explicit commands against gambling in the Bible, there is little doubt that it is a tax on the ignorant poor. I can set aside my concern about the wedding early in the film, but when this thug gangster can talk about a church as if it were his private property --it’s quite worrisome.

That’s why Movie Churches gives Our Lady of the Snow along with its priest our lowest rating of One Steeple.