It's Oscar Month at Movie Churches!

As a kid, I got very excited about the Oscars (okay, sure, I was a strange kid). I would beg my parents to let me stay up and watch the whole thing. I remember in elementary school faking sick to miss a 4-H event so I wouldn’t miss the ceremony. We even hosted (and attended) Oscar parties through the years.

I’ve lost interest in the last five years or so. Some reasons include the Oscars not showing the lifetime achievement awards, and this year dropping the technical awards so they can show Twitter vote competitions. The ceremony has just become less fun.

But I’ll always appreciate one thing about the Academy Awards: the Oscars led me to track down and watch some great films I might never have watched otherwise (and some stinkers, but the good ones made it worthwhile). The Academy Awards are at the end of this month, so we’re looking back at films featured here at Movie Churches in the past as well (follow the links.) And we will be writing about other Oscar-winning and nominated films in the weeks to come.

(Best Picture Nominees from the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties)

Two of the biggest stars from the Thirties, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, starred in one of the early disaster films, San Francisco (1936), recreating the 1906 earthquake. For our purposes, we can be thankful the film has a boxing preacher as well.

The 1938 Best Picture winner, The Life of Emile Zola, is… fine. Another of the nominees that year has weathered the test of time much better.  The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland, tells a story that has been told in many films through the decades, but this is still the best. Fortunately for Movie Churches, Friar Tuck is featured in the film.

Back in the Golden Days of Hollywood, clergy often were featured as heroic figures, though their theology was usually bland and little mentioned. Films that exemplified this hagiographic view of clergy include Spencer Tracy’s priest in Boys Town (1938), Ingrid Bergman’s nun in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), and David Niven’s pastor in The Bishop’s Wife (1947).

At the start of World War II, studios did their part for the war effort, making films glorifying heroes and battles of the past. Sergeant York (1941) with Gary Cooper also included a theological defense for going to war.

Like The Bishop’s Wife and It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street (1947) is one of the few classic Christmas films to be nominated for Best Picture (no such luck for Elf or National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation).

The Fifties were the era of big-screen Biblical epics. Two of those featured churches and were nominated for Best Picture: Quo Vadis (1951) and The Robe (1953). A different kind of religious epic, The Nun’s Story (1959) starred Audrey Hepburn.

Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth is widely regarded as one of the Academy’s worst picks for Best Picture. It beat two classic films: The Quiet Man (1952) -- one of John Ford and John Wayne’s best efforts  -- and one of the greatest of Westerns, High Noon (1952).

Over the next two weeks, we’ll look at the other Best Picture nominees featured in Movie Churches -- along with the winners.

Christmas Movie Churches: Fanny & Alexander

Fanny & Alexander, 1984

When highfalutin’ critics make their list of Christmas films, this film ranks near the top. Originally made for television (312 minutes long, it was shown in four parts). I watched the theatrical version, which was cut to 188 minutes (only about three hours). It won Oscars in 1984 for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography, as well as for art decoration and costumes. Ingmar Bergman was nominated for direction and screenwriting.

Bergman is known for his dour, existential approach to filmmaking, so critics and audiences were surprised by the relatively large amount of joy to Fanny & Alexander. Not all of the film is set at Christmas time, but nearly the whole first hour is an elaborate and festive yuletide celebration. Part of that celebration is a Christmas pageant presented by the community theater. Oscar Ekdahl is the director of the community theater, and we follow his family in the film. He and his wife Emilie are the parents of the film’s titular children, Fanny and Alexander.

The theater production is what one might expect from a church program these days. There is a rather elaborate manger scene. We see Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus being visited by Wise Men. A angel warns of Herod (perhaps foreshadowing dangers to come for the children in the film).

The angel then speaks to the audience: “Thus, good people, ends our play. It all ends well this Holy day. The Son of God, saved from the sword, is our Savior, Christ, the Lord. We know that in His mercy mild, He guards every woman, man and child.”

After the play, Fanny and Alexander go their grandmother’s house along with most of the theater company. This is where Sven Nykvist’s work as a cinematographer is highlighted, as the camera tours this elegant Swedish home of 1907. Christmas trees and wreaths and seasonal art decorate the home; elaborate meat and pastry dishes decorate the tables. There are songs and games and a reading from Luke 2. There is much laughter around the tables. Fanny and Alexander share a sleeping room with their young cousins, leading to a happily destructive pillow fight. They pray together, racing through a memorized list of names of friends and relatives.

One part of the Christmas celebration that is not very Christlike is an adulterous relationship between one of the uncles and a maid. All of the adults seem aware of the situation and find it amusing. Even the wife just sighs and looks disapproving.

Bergman’s work is remembered as bleak and despairing, but the opening of this first hour of the movie is one of the most joyous celebrations of Christmas captured on film. And the quiet center of it all is Oscar, Fanny and Alexander’s father, who says about his theater, “I want to see generosity. My only talent is I love this little world and the people who work in it.” But then dark Bergman returns. Oscar has a heart attack and dies. There is a big funeral at which Alexander curses uncontrollably.

At the funeral dinner, the Bishop spends time with Emilie, the children’s mother. The Bishop is described as the spiritual guide to the parish, and Emilie is concerned about Alexander telling lies at school. She asks the Bishop speak to him.

As the Bishop smokes his pipe, he asks to speak to Alexander “man to man”. He says to him, “Can you tell me what a lie is and what is the truth? We have plenty of time, Alexander. Can you explain to us why you lied at school about being sold to the circus?” The Bishop runs his hand through Alexander’s hair and puts his hand on his neck, which is kind of creepy. He tells Alexander is the truth of gift of God.

Emilie soon tells her children she is marrying the Bishop, Edvard. The wedding comes quickly. The Bishop takes the family in to his house, but he demands that they leave everything behind. The mother must leave behind her jewelry, clothes, all her possessions; the children must leave behind their toys and books. Edvard prays, “May God in His mercy take care of our little family.” He tells the children, “My dearest wish is that we will be at peace with one another. Love cannot be demanded, but respect can.”

It is not a happy home. Edvard doesn’t allow the children to play; they are to live in ascetic solidarity. Alexander defies his stepfather, and Edvard beats him. Emilie soon sees she made a mistake in marrying the Bishop, but when she threatens to leave, he tells her that would be desertion. He would have the right to keep the children.

Spoiler: The Bishop eventually dies, so there is a happy ending of a kind. But in this film the Bishop is

not at all a good representative of the Gospel, so we’re giving him Two Steeples. (The theater in the film does a pretty great job of presenting the Gospel. It probably would have earned our highest rating of Four Steeples if this blog was Theater Churches.)

Welcome to Black Movie Churches History Month

In honor of Black History Month, we’ll be featuring black movie churches at this site. Not African American movie churches, because at least one of the churches will be an African church. (We hope to avoid such mistakes common in the press, such as referring to Ruth Negga, nominated as best actress this year for the film Loving, as an African American woman even though she’s not American -- she’s Irish and Ethiopian.)

Last year there was quite a brouhaha over the lack of racial diversity in the nominations for the Academy Awards. The omission of Selma in 2015 from the nominees for best actor (and most of the other major awards) led to the hashtag #Oscarssowhite. The controversy seems to have died down a bit this year, with a record number of six black actors nominated in the acting categories. Barry Jenkins has been nominated for best director for Moonlight. He’s only the fourth black director to be nominated for an Oscar (none have yet won). Four out of the five entries in the documentary feature category are films made by people of color about people of color (Ava DuVernay is the first black woman nominated in the category, for 13th).

Three of the nine features nominated for Best Picture, Fences, Hidden Figures, and Moonlight, tell stories about African American characters.

Hidden Figures even features a more than decent Movie Church. Later in the month we’ll be looking at all the all the films nominated for Best Picture and discussing whether or not churches are featured in the films, but before that, look for the first of our Black Movie Churches on Friday: the 2005 musical drama, The Gospel.

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.