One Watch or Two: Fiona McDonald

If it's any good at all I'll try to watch a movie twice. The first time mostly just to enjoy it and the second time to see all the things I didn't see the first time around. You should try it out. Be intentional, deliberately ponder a film and try to avoid just letting it slip away as you drive home.

Film is an art form where you can see, hear, even feel what's influencing and affecting our world. It's an expression of values, norms, influences, belief, behaviour, socialization. Almost everything that knits the fabric of society together can be found in a film script. You just have to know how to look. As Christians if we truly want to represent Christ in our culture we need to know it, watch it, feel it.....we need to engage with film.

So, here are some of the things I think about on the way home from a movie and the reasons why I'll go back for that second look.

Genre

What were the films genre, themes, tone and tensions? When I went to see Slumdog Millionaire (2008)I was horrified by the first ten minutes where Jamal is interrogated by the police. Why? Because a borrowed tagline said 'The feel good movie of the year.' I had anticipated a comedy but got a gritty dose of slumdog reality instead. That said it's definitely a watch-twice movie.  It's a dark film, at times depressing and yet there are moments of comedy which don't seem at all out of place. Ask yourself on the second viewing how Danny Boyle managed to combine the two without appearing superficial. Instead he creates a 'tension' which holds the viewer to the end. There is something about the genius of Slumdog that sits within that 'tension' because it depicts real life where tragedy and comedy coexist. In fact Slumdog is a movie built on tensions, even the title is one.

Key Questions: What part does faith play in the interface of life's opposing 'tensions' , good & evil, rich & poor, strong & weak etc?

Plot

Did the story hold my attention and how did it resolve? Did I see the plot points coming i.e. the places where the action takes a dramatic twist? If the plot points in a film are predictable it's a one-watch movie for me because it doesn't hold my attention but sometimes the totally unexpected happens. In Burn After Reading (2008) a central character (who shall remain nameless in case you haven't seen it yet) gets shot in a closet and that one incident turns the course of the whole film, but even so it doesn't fully resolve. That's why I went back and watched it again. The second time around I realised the whole point of the story was that there was no real story. It was a series of coinciding 'incidents' so how could the plot fully resolve. Confused? Watch it again and you'll see what I mean!

Key Questions: Are our lives a series of disjointed 'incidents' or is there a bigger plan being resolved? How significant is human life overall?

 Characters

What can I identify as the motivations and needs of the main characters? For example; love, revenge, acceptance, fear even death? Can I imagine a characters 'back-story', their past history and how does that affect their behaviour, the other characters behaviour and the film's final resolution?

A characters 'back-story' is revealed bit by bit as the plot progresses but is rarely implicitly stated. The back-story for James Bond is what has been explored in the past two 007 movies. So in Quantum of Solace (2008) we are never terribly sure if 007's motivation is revenge for a lost love (back-story from Casino Royale 2006) or duty which is 007's ever present driving force. Consequently if you tried to watch Quantum without first seeing Casino Royale you couldn't understand the character and probably hated the film! Watch it again....we haven't seen the last of 007's back-story!

Key Questions: What shapes the people we become, our past, our mistakes, our regrets? How can we demonstrate the concepts of repentance and forgiveness to a world shaped by the desire for revenge?

Fiona McDonald is Director of National Ministries at the Scottish Bible Society. She previously worked for Mission Scotland and on staff at St Paul's and St Georges Church, Edinburgh. Fiona has a keen interest in film production and recently did a screen writing course at an Edinburgh University.