Ian & Jocelyn Barker

We went and saw WALL•E on the weekend. Although I liked Ratatouille better, it was still really great. Somehow they made a little garbage compacting robot be cute and expressive, not to mention his little cockroach friend. Anyway, the point of this post is not to give a review, but to give my viewpoint on something about the movie.

You see, the point and message of the movie was to love one another and indulge in human, and not virtual activities. Yet the way that the story was told was to focus on a character who’s job it is to clean up the earth after humans have literally trashed it. Humanity has been on a cruise-liner space ship for 700 years while little WALL•E down below dutifully cleans up after them. This means that the movie is seen as having an environmental message. Right? Well, I disagree.

Here is what the director, Andrew Stanton, said in World Magazine:

WORLD: How do you feel about reports that WALL•E is an environmental movie?

STANTON: People made this connection that I never saw coming with the environmental movement, and that’s not what I was trying to do. I was just using the circumstances of people abandoning the Earth because it’s filled with garbage as a way to tell my story.

I always knew that I wanted WALL•E to be digging through trash for two reasons: One, I wanted him to be the lowest on the totem pole. It’s a janitorial job; it’s the saddest, lowest status amongst his kind; and it just makes him that much more of a lonely guy. Two, trash is really visual. Even the littlest kid understands when there’s stuff in the way and it needs to be picked up, so I didn’t need to spend time explaining his job. And then I just reverse-engineered from there, “OK, if there’s trash everywhere, how did it get there?”

So the “environmental message” isn’t the message at all, but a way to tell a story. The main message of the movie is that to be genuine human is to love your neighbor and experience life in all its fullness. If WALL•E, a garbage robot, can yearn for love, shouldn’t humans be loving one another in service and genuine relationship?

Instead of having genuine relationships with one another, virtual reality prevails. Instead of enjoying the stars, farming, dancing, and swimming, virtual reality prevails. Humans no longer touch one another. They are all robots programmed to eat and vacation.

You can say that it is an environmental movie if you wish, but it is Paul’s version: Creation is groaning as the result of human sin. Not, “we had better pick up our garbage because if we don’t the earth is going be wasted.” So there.

Last night, our engaged friends, Chris and Lindsey, came over for dinner and then we went and saw a movie called Juno. Chris and Lindsey are awesome and we are excited for them to get married, but that’s not why I’m writing.

“Juno” is kind of an independent movie with a few bigger Hollywood stars (Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman) that is up for an 4 Oscar’s including Best Picture, Best Leading Actress (Ellen Page), and Original Screenplay. It tells the story of a 16-year-old named Juno who gets pregnant one night with her best friend out of “boredom” (or is it love?) Faced with her predicament, she decides that an abortion is the only option. But when she goes to the clinic, she is confronted by a little dorky Chinese girl who tells her that abortion is murder and her baby has finger nails. This stuns her and she can’t go through with the abortion. Her friend tells her that she can give up the baby for adoption and this leads her to a couple who want to adopt the baby, or the “thing.”

I found the movie to be refreshingly honest and real. It has a pro-life message throughout, but not in the way that I am used to hearing in a pro-life environment. Juno is a unique girl who runs against stereotypes and has a tough attitude but is really just a broken girl who doesn’t know what kind of girl she is. The movie is a lot about her journey in trying to figure out life. Juno’s attitude towards the baby is often detached and unemotional, but her actions imply a deeper connection with the life inside of her. Her attitude is reflected in her desire to give the baby to a loving and “in love” couple. In other words, a solid home.

It’s interesting to me how many “pro-life” movies came out this year. Wisdom and revelation is given in many forms and packages. “Juno” will connect with teenagers and non-Christians because it is not a “clean” movie nor is it sentimental or preachy. The jokes are sometimes crass, while much of it is very funny, and the question of God is left out of the equation. We aren’t told that sex outside of marriage is wrong, but we are told that love is meant to last forever.

I would recommend seeing the movie (be warned that you might find some of the humor offensive) because it is a powerful testament to the power of life to give joy and force a person to ask hard questions and make tough decisions. It’s different than “Bella,” but it speaks to different issues and will connect to a different audience. Praise the Lord that a profoundly pro-life movie could win Best Picture. The knowledge of His will is truly being made known.

Jocelyn and I went saw the movie on William Wilberforce called “Amazing Grace” last night. If you have not seen it, then you must go. Though I do not know much about his life, it was a powerful portrayal of a man who helped to pass the abolition of slavery bill in England in the early 1800s. He was a man of faith who was greatly impacted by his pastor who wrote the hymn that we all know called, “Amazing Grace.” John Newton formerly owned a slave ship but wrote the hymn after he had realized his sin and repented. |inline

We watched one of the most disturbing, but riveting documentaries I’ve ever seen. It is called “The Last Days” and it is about 5 Norwegian Jew Holocaust survivors. It interviews them today as they remember what it was like to be in the camps and what their reflections are today.

One lady talks about how she saw two children fall out of a train or a wagon and how a German soldier picked them back up and slam them against the side of the car before throwing them back in. She said, “And that was when I stopped talking to God.” Another man visits the ovens with his son and breaks down weeping. He wonders how humanity can be so inhumane. They interviewed a few American soldiers as they remembers the day that they liberated one of the camps. They were unaware of what was happening and were in shock when they discovered what it was. The images that they showed during this sequence were unbelievable. I didn’t know that human bodies could survive while being so emaciated. One soldier remembers capturing the head of the camp and being spat at in the face. He said that he killed him.

This was a very difficult documentary to watch because the Lord is forming a message of comfort in me. But the comfort is not what they consoled themselves with. Near the end, the survivors talk about God and His part in the Holocaust. “I don’t blame God, I blame man.” “It’s hard for me to give any place to a higher authority in this.” A woman speaks to visitors at a Holocaust museum. She asks, “What wrong did we do to deserve this?” That’s the hard question. Was it God? Did He create the Holocaust? Or did He give us the freewill to make a good life for ourselves in the midst of evil? What are we as the Church supposed to say to victims of genocide such as this? To victims of any disaster? Jesus told people that they had better repent lest they suffer the same fate as those who had been crushed by the towers.

It pains me to watch something like this because I know that the Lord is preparing me to speak to a people in my lifetime who will suffer unlike anything the world has ever seen. Or to prepare my children to speak to them. The Holocaust is not something that is behind us, but it is coming again. That’s the scary thing and I don’t think I have the heart to look at a person who is in a concentration camp and tell them that God has allowed this because He wants them to repent and love Him. He is a jealous God who is both angry and loving at the same time. God help us.

Jocelyn and I watched a documentary on 9/11 last night. It was meant to be a documentary on a rookie NYC fireman and they started filming this rookie in July of 2001. It turned out to be a much bigger piece. The makers of the documentary were two brothers from France and one of the brother’s actually filmed the first plane going into the building. He immediately followed the firemen he was with to the WTC and filmed the chaos. |inline