Dear Catholic Exchange,
Do you read the movie reviews you post? If you actually read what is submitted for publication then someone dropped the ball big time. How can you carry a recommendation for “Minority Report”? Exactly how can a movie with illicit drug use and illusory sex acts be justified with a FOUR STAR, “A”, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating? Would you take Jesus and the Blessed Mother to see illusory sex or drug abuse? We can't stop this garbage from being made but we can certainly not support it.
The “Decent Film Guide” is not a reliable source for movie reviews. I hope you will drop it so as not to mislead people again as to the worthiness of a movie.
THINK PEOPLE, THINK!
Marsha Larson
Dear Mrs. Larson,
Thank you for expressing your concerns. Below is our movie reviewer's response.
In Christ,
Tom Allen
Editor-in-Chief
Catholic Exchange
Anyone who's uncomfortable with my positive take on “Minority Report” based on the fact that that movie includes sexual or drug-related content might want to take another look at the 1995 Vatican film list. The Vatican recommends a number of films that contain nudity and/or sometimes illicit sexual content as well as drug content.
For example, “Schindler's List” contains bedroom nudity and adultery. “The Seventh Seal” and “Monsieur Vincent” contain fleeting references to or depictions of rape, and “Seventh Seal” has an extramarital seduction scene. “The Mission” contains pervasive ethnographic nudity. “Au Revoir les Enfants” contains references to masturbation. Drug-related content could also be documented.
Our own Holy Father watches movies with a certain level of sexual content. For example, a few years ago the Vatican invited Italian director Roberto Benigni to a special Vatican screening with John Paul II of Benigni's “Life is Beautiful.” This film contains a scene in which the hero sucks on the heroine's thigh where a bee has stung her, then playfully asks her if she has any other beestings elsewhere on her body. He also frankly declaims his desire to make love to her “not just once” but “over and over again” and adds “I could make love to you right here for the rest of my life.” In another scene, one character tells another who's about to be married, “Now you don't need to go to the brothel with us any more.”
I would have no hesitation whatsoever about sitting down to watch “Minority Report” with John Paul II, and furthermore I bet he would appreciate the film's treatment of its themes of social justice and of social and existential freedom.
It may also be worth noting that my positive review is comparable to the review of the U.S. bishops Office of Film and Broadcasting, which rated the film (as I did) “for adults” (not “morally offensive” or even “for adults, with reservations”) and used such adjectives as “engrossing” and “masterful” while noting the film's “attention to the humanity of its characters and questions of social justice.”
Finally, I put those references in my review because I wanted to make sure people knew they were in the movie. If someone's going to be offended by a reference in a review to sex or a toilet, they'd be a whole lot more offended if they actually went to the movie and saw the scenes in question, and as a reviewer I try to spare people unpleasant surprises like that. If someone didn't like my review, at least they found out they didn't want to see the movie. That's a good day's work in the life of a movie critic.
Catholic moral theology will not support the a priori condemnation of any and every dramatic presentation that treats sexual, scatological, or substance-abuse related content. Individual Catholics are free to abstain from viewing these films if they wish, but they should also refrain from judging others who find redeeming merit in them. The attitude that all such dramatic presentations are necessarily bad and unrecommendable is not the mind of the Church.
Be under the Mercy,
Steven D. Greydanus
Editor's Note: To contact Catholic Exchange, please refer to our Contact Us page.
Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange or its authors (regarding articles published at CE) become the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.
Sin Against the Spirit
Dear Catholic Exchange,
Matt 12:31 states in part that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Your answer to a quiz question was that through the Church all sin could be forgiven. What am I missing?
Greg Kunasek
Dear Greg:
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the willed choice to knowingly call God evil and refuse his mercy. Sort of like a man stuck down a well taking a knife and cutting the only rescue rope available so that he can't reach it. The rescuers can and would rescue him, but he's chosen to refuse rescue. In the same way “all sins” can be forgiven, assuming the person wants to be forgiven. But if, in his insane pride, he refuses forgiveness and rejects God, he cannot be forgiven because he will not let himself be. But any sin we are humble enough to bring to God's mercy, God will forgive.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
Theology on Tap
Dear John,
I very much enjoyed your “Upper Room” reflections! I, too, am encouraged by the reformation I see, particularly among the youth of this country who seem to long for the truth and the courage of those who speak it boldly. I might take some small issue with your assertion that those who are endowed with the ability are called to respond, “commensurate with our capacity to so respond,” implying that this requires an intellectual response. To some degree I concur, but I cannot help but believe that there are many legitimate ways to respond, and for some that response might be primarily in the form of service or contemplative prayer which, in and of itself, requires most of their energy. In this country, at this time, however, I would agree that voices such as yours are urgently needed to encourage us in the face of what I consider to be “anti-intellectual intellectualism” (gnosticism). I will pray for you and for TOT tonight!
Tom Spencer
