a few thoughts from werner herzog

kester brewin and i were watching werner herzog's film 'the wild blue yonder' in london a few weeks ago and it provoked a conversation about art and meaning. i found myself thinking about this while trying to drift off to sleep in a very warm room last night and the profile of herzog tom bissell wrote last december in harpers magazine came to mind. what herzog says in the following extract is either the transcendent wisdom of an artist, or pretentious nonsense, or both. i like it whatever it is.

'Herzog walked me to the door. I had spent only a few hours with him, but I had spent weeks watching and re-watching his films, and somehow I knew they had changed me. I wanted to tell Herzog this but was not sure how. Instead I asked him if he was ever frustrated that his films were not more widely known. He seemed to get somewhat shy before looking away. “I believe,” he said, “in what I call the secret mainstream. Kafka was there too. Today, yes, we know Kafka was the voice of an overwhelming bureaucracy with a deep evil inside of it. Often we see these figures in the secret mainstream. I am one of them.”

With that, embarrassed, I told Herzog how much I admired him, and how thankful I was that he had agreed to see me. Herzog seemed neither surprised nor pleased by my effulgence. Instead he looked at me for a disarmingly long time—so long, in fact, I began to feel like a character in a Werner Herzog film. Finally, he said: “There is a dormant brother inside of you, and I awaken him, I make him speak, and you are not alone anymore.” We shook hands and he was gone. I walked outside, through a curtain of Los Angeles sunshine, to the street’s edge, where I stood for a long time, ecstatic and not quite alone.'

greenbelt films of the year seminar

it's that time of year again - just a couple of weeks to go and greenbelt will be upon us. i'll be doing my now-traditional films of the year seminar, and as with last year, i'm providing a sneak preview here of the films i'll be discussing - but this time round, i'd like to hear your views, both of films on this list, and any that are omitted that you think i should be talking about. the only rule is that the film needs to have been released in the UK since the end of August last year - check www.imdb.com if you're not sure of release dates. also, it should be noted that not all the films on this list are necessarily 'good' - but they're here because i think they have some cultural significance.

here goes with the list:

Crank – watch a man die as quick as he can

This Film is Not Yet Rated – asks silly questions about sex in the movies; but acknowledges that sex and violence are treated differently by the UK and US authorities

The Wicker Man remake – a ridiculous film about the 'dangers' of women which destroys the religious thoughtfulness of the original

Little Miss Sunshine – let families be real by reducing your expectations

The Black Dahlia – money after old rope

The Queen - fascinating experience of seeing someone we had previously only seen in parody – what does it mean for what Britain is as a nation?

An Inconvenient Truth – truly campaigning film – changed the direction of the wind

Talladega Nights – not as funny as it thinks it is

Children of Men – one of the finest films of the year – a fearful nightmare of what might be happening to us; but the lengths to which people will go to preserve human life out-reach the killing: love is stronger than death

World Trade Center – a film about honouring the courage of those who died – and the horror of what happened in there – people of the left need to face this; we need to express at least as much anger about what happened on 9/11 as we do toward George W Bush's response

The Departed – violence as a way of life; what should policing be about?

Slavoj Zizek's Pervert’s Guide to Cinema – movies as the projection of our own desires

Last king of Scotland – great central performance, but I wish it had done more to explore where Amin's motivation came from

Marie Antoinette – same with her as with Amin

Little Children – when will we all grow up?

Bobby – not a great film, but inspirational message; the non-violence speech at the end is great

The Prestige – the power of ambition

Ten Canoes – storytelling and how we muddy the waters

Tell No One - great barnstorming thriller with the power of love at its centre

Babel – life is a coincidence – four short films, the Japanese one has the most empathy; I could have done without the others

Borat - not quite sure what to make of it yet

Into Great Silence

Casino Royale

Pan’s Labyrinth

Shortbus

Stranger than Fiction

Sicko

Flags of our Fathers

Letters from Iwo Jima

Night at the Museum

Perfume

Apocalypto

A Prairie Home Companion

Rocky Balboa

The Fountain

Old Joy

Dreamgirls

Notes on a Scandal

Lives of Others

Half Nelson

Good Shepherd

Good German

Inland Empire

Idiocracy

Beyond Hatred

300

Amazing Grace

Catch a Fire

Why we Fight

Sunshine

Shooter

Alpha Dog

Spiderman 3

Night of the Sunflowers

Jindabyne

Zodiac

Black Gold

Die Hard 4.0

Simpsons Movie

Transformers

Nomadak TX

(slightly) disappointing simpsons movie

it made me laugh, but not as much as some of the episodes. quite surprised to find that they didn't seem to invest the time and thought necessary for a truly great script. not enough mr burns. good tom hanks cameo. nice to see the scope of springfield on a big screen. homer eats electrofied fish and nearly kisses a pig. funnier than it sounds. and everyone gets forgiven and goes home.

ray lamontagne, irish car bombs, and business travellers

Ray LaMontagne’s recent album "Till the Sun Turns Black" ends with one of the most beautiful songs about peacemaking I’ve ever heard—in which he simply repeats the refrain "War is not the answer, the answer is within you" over the most delicately lilting instrumentation. It’s the kind of sentiment that could be accused of being too vague to have any practical meaning, but warm and positive enough to be popular. But there’s something about it that feels deeper than that.

It comes to mind as I sit in a cramped and crowded airport in Missouri, between cities on a trip that will take me from the Deep South to the Pacific Northwest, meeting and talking with people seeking to explore faith at the margins of institutional Christianity. I’ll be part of a conference the week after next on the topic "Dangerous Living"(www.solitonnetwork.org)—a title ambiguous enough to invite further interrogation. The organizers aim to build a temporary community of fellow travelers asking questions and sharing experiences of what it means to follow the radical Jesus in a culture that often seems to privilege consumerism above all else and seeks to avoid anything resembling physical work at all costs. We’ll talk about faith and social justice—just what does it mean in our day to hear Jesus tell the rich young ruler how hard it is to get into the kingdom of heaven? We’ll investigate faith and authority: What kind of leadership is required when so many of our public role models leave so much to be desired? We’ll immerse ourselves in faith and creativity, hoping to become more attentive to the voice of God in art, film, music, and nature. Most of all, we will wonder together what it means to be stewards of the Christian tradition that we inherit without falling into the trap of religious imperialism. In other words, how can we take responsibility for sharing our faith without imposing it on others in a way that prevents anyone taking us seriously?

These questions were not far from my thoughts this afternoon, as we sat down for a meal at one of the in-house airport restaurants. Just after my Diet Coke arrived, the gentleman next to our table took a phone call, the first few lines of which went as follows:

‘Hi there—didn’t realize you were on that side of the pond. You looking for more bombers, or just drinking Irish car bombs?’

To continue reading this post on the God's Politics blog, click here

fame is a mask that eats the face

Posh Spice might hope to feel at home in her new life in Los Angeles, but hubris is winding its way into her week as the ratings of her "Welcome to America" pseudo-documentary come in. In the U.K., where I live, this program was billed as a light-hearted, even "spoof" piece about her reputation for excess. But it seems the U.S. audience, or at least its television critics, weren’t quite ready for this. At any rate, whether or not she was joking, Victoria Beckham and her husband have become today’s totems of consumerist overdrive.

At the same time, according to media reports, the well-known environmentalist and anti-war activist, Barbra Streisand, has apparently issued the staff of a London hotel with demands about how they are to treat her while she stays there—including instructing them not to look her in the eye. You have to wonder just why someone who is about to sing to 15,000 people who are paying up to a thousand dollars each might be scared of a little personal interaction with just one of them, but I guess Barbra feels she’s earned the right.

Continue reading this post on the God's Politics blog

soliton ventura - the year's best gathering

soliton network's annual ventura, california gathering takes place in just three weeks' time. this has become a regular fixture for many of those who attend to explore life and spirituality, to eat together, make fantastic friends, and feel just a little more alive than usual. i'll be there to help facilitate some discussion, along with pete rollins, kester brewin, barry taylor, and others, especially maestro greg russinger who puts the whole thing together with the folk formerly of the bridge.

in the midst of many competing opportunities for creative people to explore theology together, i have genuinely found soliton to be the most stimulating, enjoyable, and nurturing to my own soul over the past few years. hospitality is a hallmark of what these guys do, and so if you've never been before, and you can be in the area, then i'd encourage you with no hesitation to register - you'd be made more welcome than you could imagine.

all the details are here.

‘IF GOD WERE HERE, HE, SHE OR IT WOULD BE SUING A LOT OF PEOPLE FOR LIBEL’ – SINEAD O’CONNOR’S ‘THEOLOGY’

Sinead O’Connor’s not angry anymore; or at least not angry in the same way. Her tearing up of a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live 15 years ago has combined with what we think we know about her ordination into an unofficial offshoot of the Catholic church to give a convenient excuse for people to ignore her. This is a pity, because it makes us forget that she produced one of the only memorably and honest songs about love in the 1990s with her cover version of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’; and one of the most beautiful hymns of spiritual comfort in 1997’s ‘This is to Mother You’ on her ‘Gospel Oak’ EP.

She has made her spirituality more explicit than ever on ‘Theology’ a new double album; and the anger of early Sinead has given way to songs of hope, confidence, and worship. In 23 tracks she sings of God being present in the earthiness of a life lived between the search for truth and the struggle to get by – when she relates how God met ‘my need on a chronic Christmas Eve’ it is easy to imagine the pain that many people feel at the times when the culture is forcing them to pretend to be happy.

To continue reading this post on the 'God's Politics' blog, click here.

live free, or watch die hard

Great helicopters and explosions abound, the witticisms are barbed, and the cinematography is silver-grey in Die Hard 4.0 (or Live Free or Die Hard, depending on which empire you see it in). I was tired to start with, but the film couldn't wake me up. I vacillated between being bored and horrified, as Bruce Willis yet again stands in for the lone American male whose first resort is always violence (in the first film he was the archetype of a Vietnam War vet, assailed by terrorists on the one hand, and a frustrating civil service bureaucracy on the other; this time he clearly represents the guy who'd go to Iraq just because it's the right thing to do, even though he knows the government sending him is corrupt)...

To continue reading the rest of this post on the God's Politics blog, click here

apocalypto and mel's mother-figures

i finally got around to seeing 'apocalypto' last night - it's a mixed bag - an undeniably exhilirating film, but extremely violent; and either a tragic reflection on how those who live by the sword die by it, or a 16th century lethal weapon, or both. the controversy that surrounded its director mel gibson just before it was released clouded serious discussion about what this film means, so let me just add one thought.

in each of the epic -canvas films that gibson has directed - 'braveheart', 'the passion of the christ', and 'apocalypto' - there is a scene where the central male character undergoes some kind of torment while a strong female character in his life looks on from a crowd. in 'braveheart', william wallace sees the ghost of his wife while he is being tortured to death; in 'the passion', mary gazes helplessly at jesus carrying the cross, and even sees him transformed in her mind's eye into a the little boy she raised; now, in 'apocalypto', jaguar paw, being led to the top of a pyramid to be sacrificed to the sun god, has a moment of almost unbearable tenderness with his mother in law.

whatever else may be said about mel gibson's ideological beliefs (which are difficult, at best, to determine; given the circumstances under which he has expressed them), ability as a director, or personal problems, it's pretty clear to me that one aspect of his career that has been undervalued is something other than the misogyny that action stars are often accused of. is it just possible that mel gibson loves women? that he loves mothers? that he wants to give them the respect they deserve?

gordon brown's challenges

They say a week is a long time in politics – given what has happened in the UK in the past seven days, that statement proves that some clichés can indeed be true. A week ago, Tony Blair left office and power was seamlessly transferred to his rival Gordon Brown. Brown immediately set to work, replacing all but three members of his Cabinet and launching a major public debate on the British constitution. The man with the reputation of being a ‘dour Scot’ showed himself unable to fulfil one of the modern politicians’ job requirements by struggling to wave (and look like he was enjoying it) while standing outside Number 10, Downing Street. No matter, for by the time he had gone through the door of the house where British Prime Ministers live, he was in charge of the country – he even got a Jim Wallis blog post to welcome him to office!

Jim’s words were an encouragement to see him as a politician with a conscience – a man genuinely committed to addressing questions of injustice. I hope that Brown is able to follow through, but there are a few challenges...


the god's politics blog posted the rest of this article from me during the week...

urgent - please help our friends at the simple way

hi everyone - urgent news:

our friends at the simple way including dear shane claiborne woke up yesterday to find their house and community center being destroyed by fire yesterday - thankfully no one seems to have been injured - but there's more info on http://www.thesimpleway.org/

apologies if you know this already but we're trying to get the word out so people can help.

there is a link on the simple way's site that you can use to donate if you are able to support.

thank you.

another movie haiku

Apes squealing loudly
Monolith appears in space
Evolution Now!

this week's movie haiku

george clooney brad pitt.

stylish casino thieving.

smug like the first two.

the best film i've seen this year

sorry i've been away for a while - much has been going on.

i saw zodiac - a bleak and uncompromising mammoth film about murder and its investigation. david fincher almost seems to be making the anti-Se7en, a fine film which probably spent too much time exploring the seedy underbelly of gruesome violence. zodiac, on the other hand faces up to what murder really is - wiping the slate clean of another human being's personhood, and then breaking the slate. the fact that the film recreates the mood of the 70s in meticulous detail while paying gentle homage to 'all the president's men' and 'the conversation' makes it both a deeply pleasurable for cinephiles as well as a disturbing but profoundly moral film.

religious films

the church times has just published a list of what it calls the top fifty religious films. i was on the panel that decided the films - it takes a fairly narrow definition of what constitutes a 'religious' film - the paper wanted to include only films which make their mysticism explicit (perhaps a contradiction in terms).

it was, however, a fun exercise, and while i didn't endorse the inclusion of each film on the list, and would have added one or two more, i think it's a pretty interesting selection. check it out here and feel free to comment below about what you think should and should not be there.

lives of others and war on terror

saw 'the lives of others' the other night - new german film about the oppressive state regime and the actions of the state security apparatus - the stasi - in east germany before the wall was pulled down in 1989. a man listens to another man talking about his opinions. fairly innocuous, of course; until you realise that the man doing the listening is sitting a few floors above the other man's apartment, and that the sound of his subject's voice is carried through wires hidden behind light switches. and the man who is doing the talking is only being listened to because he has failed to do anything that might actually arouse suspicion in the first place. that, perversely, is what makes the stasi pay attention.

'the lives of others' is a tremendous drama about two human beings and their competing interpretations of what it means to be free. for one, the apparatus of state control is what liberates - if you don't have to think about your life, if you don't have to actually make any decisions, then, the argument goes, the potential exists for some kind of secular nirvana, where all desire is absent. for the other, the existence of 'me' is crushed by such authoritarianism and must eventually be resisted, even if it means the death of reputation, career, or even body.

this film ends with the line 'it's for me', and that statement, of course, can only actually be made by a free person, in a free society.

if the film exists in a clear space and time (and in spite of its over-statement of the very possibility of a stasi operative subverting his masters - on which see anna funder's article in the may issue of 'sight and sound'), it does make subtle comment on the world in which we now live. it is impossible to see surveillance of private lives, and the suggestion that patriotism depends on not criticising any particular government, without thinking (with a good deal of morose regret) of the utter lack of moral imagination applied by the authoritative bodies in the post-9/11 era.

another character makes the link clear, after the momentous events of 1989, for he now has the courage to confront one of his previous political masters with the words 'i can't believe people like you once ruled a country'.

p.s.: 'the lives of others' is a film for our times, and let's hope that hillary benn sees it before he gives his speech challenging 'war on terror' language later today.

the end of the beginning

it's now over two weeks since the press conference in which ian paisley and gerry adams announced their intentions to share power in northern ireland from the 8th may. i haven't written about it here until now for a number of reasons, chief among which was that the front page news crowded out space for substantial reflection. i wanted to wait a while before reacting.

so, for what it's worth, here are my thoughts.

there is no doubt that this is a political miracle and it has the potential to truly end the violent conflict in and about northern ireland.

it was a very long time coming, but it's a remarkable achievement.

at the same time, and at the risk of falling into the cycle of rhetorical negativity that too often characterises conversation about northern ireland, there's something i'd like to say. the people who are now taking credit for 'peace in our time' do not deserve it anywhere near as much as those both behind and in front of the scenes who either always spoke non-violently against injustice, or came round to the idea of power-sharing almost ten years ago when the good friday agreement was signed. neither the irish republican movement nor conservative loyalists can claim to have been purely benign or to have acted always in good faith over the past four decades.

on the one hand, for instance, the ira would have us believe that its struggle was so noble that, among other things, it never intended to target 'non-combatants' in spite of the fact that it regularly planted bombs in urban centres where members of the public were bound to be killed.

on the other, ian paisley appears not to have thought that he had a responsibility to de-escalate the conflict in his public rhetoric until after the agreement to share power had been done behind the scenes.

i am glad that no substantive body of opinion in northern ireland now supports the use of force to continue the centuries-old conflict over a tiny piece of land. but this has been in spite of contrary actions by the movements now taking the spoils of war over most of the period they have been in existence. those who are about to take high office (and with it, responsibility for this society) owe at least some gratitude, if not an apology, to those who have struggled for many years for peace and reconciliation.

at the same time, i thank god that one of the world's longest-running ethnic conflicts has become an object lesson in the value of political dialogue (and a little bit of commerce).

there is a lot more to say about this; including of course an acknowledgement that the pain of this conflict left no community untouched, including those represented by the political movements i'm criticising in this post. i trust however that soon we will see honour being accorded to the long-term peacemakers, and more respect to those who died and suffered than has been evident in the past fortnight.

let the sunshine in

saw 'sunshine' tonight - danny boyle/alex garland's new film that manages to be both a sci-fi adventure and a mystical piece about the search for god. it's a companion piece to 'the fountain', (which given the benefit of a few months' distance is certainly my favourite film of the past year), - visually it's a thing of beauty, and
there's much more to this story about the human race to re-activate the dying sun than the bits that sound like 'armageddon' or 'deep impact'. it's pretty clear that the sun in this film is more than just a great ball of fire.

would god abandon us? as we approach easter it's appropriate to remember that at least one Person thought so. or at least he felt that god had abandoned him.

but that story wasn't finished yet.

it still isn't.

belfast film festival: the kick off

two days into the fest - and the qft bar was filled to the rafters after the screening of 'night of the sunflowers' - a quite special, very stylish, bleak thriller set in the spanish countryside and so evocatively filmed that you almost feel like you're getting a tan.

highlights today of this lovely festival that fills our city with good cinema for 11 days:

railroad all-stars
ten canoes
john malkovich as klimt
and
ghosts of cite soleil

healing through remembering

i'll be in london on monday and tuesday speaking with others at three events on behalf of healing through remembering - a very thoughtful initiative that is seeking to propose ways to address the past regarding the conflict in and about northern ireland. if you're interested in thinking about these questions, which have a much more universal application than just in my home community, consider yourself invited to any of the events. the events are details here.

climate change and journalistic ethics

martin durkin's 'the great global warming swindle' made waves when screened last week. a feature length film presenting scientists who dispute the received wisdom about climate change, 'swindle' is a technically brilliant piece of dramatic documentary, made by someone who also has the courage to stand in the face of mainstream opinion. (whatever it else it is, courage is definitely part of it.)

and yet.

and yet, the response to the film has raised uncomfortable questions about journalistic ethics - the director has been previously found to have misled interviewees, and distorted or ignored facts. at least one of the contributors to 'swindle' has already stated that he feels let down by the programme-makers.

what is saddest about this is that the question of the potential validity of any of the arguments made by the contributors is likely to be subsumed under media sniping about the possibility that we have been misled about some of them. i'm left not sure what to do about this - who do i believe? can anyone help me?

am i left with only the option of splitting the difference between watching 'swindle' followed by 'an inconvenient truth' and a visit to george monbiot's blog?

old joy

it's been a fortnight of meditative cinema - the monks of 'into great silence', jack nicholson's ambivalent journalist at the heart of 'the passenger', and now the unexpected glories of 'old joy' - a film apparently based on a book of still photographs. two guys who used to be roommates go on a short road trip, lie down in a hot spring, talk a little, feel regret, and go home.

the sense of a once-meaningful friendship disappearing into the past is palpably evoked by the pitch-perfect central performances by daniel london and will oldham, the gentle photography that really takes its time, and the fact that pretty much all of us will be able to identify with the story from the inside.

it's also one of the most subtly devastating critiques of the bush administration, and, more importantly, the lack of a substantive alternative offered from the left (and my generation specifically).

perhaps the only criticism i would make is that there is not enough of this film, but that, i guess is another way of saying that what is there is really rather wonderful.

the passenger

watching michelangelo antonioni's 'the passenger' is a stilling experience, not least of all because jack nicholson's laconic way is better suited to this film than pretty much any other i've seen. the story of a man who disappears into the life of another for reasons best known to himself doesn't rely on movie style or tricks, but conveys something of the inner life of a certain kind of person - he or she who does things for an inexplicable purpose. 'i used to be somebody else but i traded him in' says jack's character, travelling from north africa to london to munich and barcelona by way of the map of the human soul. a character tells another that the questions we ask reveal more about us than the answers given. nothing much happens in this picture, except the transfixed gaze of the audience. and it made me feel like i was alive.

p.s. watch it with jack's commentary on the dvd for a treasurable couple of hours in the presence of one of pop culture's true originals.

if it's not one thing, it's another

spare a thought for this guy, kevin mcconnell, 19-time oscar loser, whose experience last sunday night didn't exactly match that of helen mirren, martin scorsese, or forest whitaker. as the imdb tells us today:

Oscar Loser Lost Mother After the Awards

Oscar's biggest loser Kevin O'Connell had a double reason to feel low the day of the Academy Awards - he was nursing his dying mother, who passed away just after the telecast. Apocalypto sound mixer O'Connell found out he'd missed out on an Oscar for the 19th time on Sunday night, but he had more pressing personal matters on his mind. The multi-nominee attended the Oscar ceremony, but left right after his category was announced and raced to the hospital to check on his ailing mother. In a statement released to website GoldDerby.com, O'Connell says, "My mother Skippy passed away on Sunday night right after the Oscars. I was holding her in my arms when she died."

belfast film festival

went to the launch of this year's programme for the belfast film festival yesterday; and, as always it was a pleasant mix of high and low brow conversation about film, splendid people, and excellent - if unhealthy - food to nibble on. i particularly like the potato tortilla, and the opportunity to see what looks like a hundred films in just over a week. check it out.

into great silence

found myself beginning lent a couple of days early last night at belfast's www.queensfilmtheatre.com being drawn 'into great silence' - a near-three hour documentary about life in a carthusian monastery.

it is slow and quiet, and makes the radical gesture of not offering commentary on the lives of those it portrays.

the notion of spending a life in near-silence is threatening to me, perhaps to most of us; but by the end of the film i was almost ready to commit. the film-maker, philip groening, flicks up biblical quotations from time to time, returning to jesus' words about giving up everything to be his disciple. the repetition of this phrase has a hypnotic effect, and as the film builds and builds to a climax in which a blind monk discusses his faith, intercut with scenes of the most extraordinary physical beauty, groening manages to convince that the richness of these mens' lives is an astonishing reward for choosing not to live like the rest of us.

celtic soliton sessions: the review

celtic soliton sessions - a long weekend of conversation, worship, reflection, friendship, guinness, music, prayer, freezing beach walks, chocolate, laughter, justice, pain, honesty, exploration, and an encounter with the divine that none of us will easily forget. the continuing friendship between u.s. and irish/british soliton people is a source of wonder to many of us, and the idea of continuing the relationships through the symbol society network is one of the most exciting notions to emerge. this past weekend we talked about contemplation, working with children, subverting unjust authority structures, sexuality and theology, art and spirituality, the inevitable blogging, and many other things under the sun too numerous to mention. the beauty of the north coast of ireland was the perfect setting, and i'm energised for another few months in the landscape of my everyday life. thanks to everyone who was there, keep in touch.

celtic soliton sessions

CELTIC SOLITON SESSIONS

The Soliton Network is an invitation to the rhythms of hospitality and generosity as well as to share resources, laughter, dreams and friendships. Soliton events are informal opportunities for people to reflect on the edges of Christian spirituality and practice - all are welcome, and many have been surprised by how rich the experience is. Speakers/facilitators at previous Soliton events have included Brian McLaren, Erwin McManus, Greg Russinger, Christine Sine, Doug Pagitt, Si Johnston, Jo Coles, Gareth Higgins, and many more.

This year our theme is ‘dangerous living’.

Our traditions are stories of dangerous lives: prophets critiqued dangerously, apostles spoke dangerously, and the early church fathers lived dangerously. Jesus inspired life practices that launched a new society both critical of and dangerous to the present order. 2007's Soliton Sessions are an invitation to rediscover this alternative society. Facilitators already confirmed include Jonny Baker, Kester Brewin, Pete Rollins, Si Johnston, Gareth Higgins, Laura Bagley, Erin Parish and Andrew Jones. As a special event, the wonderful Juliet Turner will also play a gig for Soliton during the weekend.

February 1-4, 2007

Thursday 1st Feb in Belfast

The Belfast event will take place from 10am-4pm at East Belfast Mission on the Lower Newtownards Road (please note change of venue); with an evening gathering for conversation and food from 7.30pm

Friday – Sunday 2nd-4th Feb = Residential in Portrush

Participants are welcome to attend either or both the Belfast and Portrush sessions.

Our facilitators will include Pete Rollins, Jonny Baker, Erin Parish, Andrew Jones, Gareth Higgins, Trevor Debenning and others, and topics in both Belfast and Portrush will include:

• Translating the message of Martin Luther King for today
• Finding spiritual fingerprints in culturally significant films
• Telling the difference between healthy fear and phobias
• Spirituality in contemporary northern Ireland: challenges and opportunities
• How (not) to speak of God

And whatever else you'd like to talk about!

We’d love as many people as possible to benefit from the conversation, provocation and friendship provided through Soliton – so please do sign up if you’d like to attend. More information at www.solitonnetwork.org; or email gareth_higgins@ntlworld.com if you have any questions.

the meaning of rest in peace

those of you who follow northern ireland politics will know that david ervine died yesterday after falling suddenly ill. you can read a great deal about his life, his politics, and his contribution to conflict resolution here, which cannot be underestimated. for now, i would like simply to add a few comments of my own. david ervine was the only local politician i ever met of whom i could say i had consistently honest and genuinely friendly conversations. he had definitively changed paths from paramilitarism to non-violence, and was utterly unfazed by the temptation to 'spin' everything in public life. what you saw was what you got. he could take a joke at his own expense, he would go the extra mile to get things done for you, and he did not consider it beneath him to ask me for a lift home after he had once spoken at an event i chaired. of all our public representatives, he was one of the most human, and his contribution may well be irreplaceable. may his family be comforted, and may he rest in peace.

film talk 6

film talk 6 is up - all you'd ever want to know about night at the museum and why we think it's better (in places) than the reviews.

you can sign up at i-tunes.

the most unbelievable news

Quotation from an interview about the new Rambo film "I can only imagine Rambo sneaking into Burma to free Christian missionaries who are being held by militants. And as the invincible one-man army looks into the eyes of the ordinary folks from Oklahoma and South Carolina who are risking their lives for the Gospel, he is swept up by their commitment. Oh, wait. I'm. Not. Kidding."

Stallone says: "It rekindles something in him. He doesn't believe at first, he's seen too much. He's bitter. But when he meets these people and looks into their eyes, he's swept up in it, and literally he's just taken on this journey," Stallone said. "He's a Christian warrior! Can you believe it?"

unfortunately i can. perhaps never has so much artistic talent been put at the service of the myth of redemptive violence.

ancient/future 2007

well friends, happy new year to you all. it's 2am and i'm just back from a party with some splendid people. i want to thank you for the time we've shared together this year, and for the interest you show in this blog by reading it - we've been underway for a few months now, and i'm planning (hoping) to make more regular contributions in 2007 (the paving of good intentions etc. will be borne in mind).

as for my hopes for the year, of course i have some personal thoughts about transitions in my own life, questions of purpose and the context in which i live, but beyond that i would hope that 2007 will see more visionary people being freed to say what they really think about the violence and power dynamics in our world; that our creative impulses will be nurtured, for the act of creation reveals to us something unique about being human; and that we will respond to the desperate need to slow down and resist the consumerist idol, which, after all, encourages us to become consumers of each other.

the execution of a dictator, the death of a human being

well, i know i might be expected to write a title like that for a post like this, but in the frenzy of bloodlust that has accompanied the execution it actually seems inadequate to recall that vengeance serves no purpose of peace. this brutal man deserved to be made responsible for his actions; his victims had reason to expect justice; and if the waste of the war is to have any redemption, something needed to be done to show that those who would oppress other human beings as saddam did will not get away with it. but the manner in which saddam was tried and his life ended, and the way that the u.s. and u.k. administrations have responded evokes memories of pre-democratic mob rule. and for the u.k. foreign secretary to welcome the death penalty by saying that 'saddam has been held to account' is about as far from liberal values as this government has fallen. justice is not served by more killing. and the last time i looked, i thought the u.k. was opposed to capital punishment.

the vatican has reacted thus:

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi

"A capital punishment is always tragic news, a reason for sadness, even if it deals with a person who was guilty of grave crimes. The position of the Church has been restated often. The killing of the guilty party is not the way to reconstruct justice and reconcile society. On the contrary there is a risk that it will feed a spirit of vendetta and sow new violence. In these dark times for the Iraqi people one can only hope that all responsible parties truly make every effort so that glimmers of reconciliation and peace can be found in such a dramatic situation."

tell them who you are

i just saw a beautiful film about fathers and sons - 'tell them who you are' - a documentary about the cinematographer haskell wexler shot by his son. it's such a thoughtful and touching piece of cinema; and the bonus is you get to hear martin sheen talking about the meaning of life: to win our freedom on every possible level. it's so good i'm going to keep the dvd instead of selling it on ebay. and in these frugal days, that's saying something.

2006: FILMS OF THE YEAR

well, the year ends in 48 hours or so, and i don't plan to see any more new movies between now and then, so i thought i'd revise my list of the films of the year - would love to hear what you think - especially if you want to add any others:

Honourable mentions:

bobby – because it tries to make a case for non-violence.

an inconvenient truth – because it is a serious attempt at changing the world, and manages to make a lecture by al gore one of the most cinematically exciting things ever filmed.

casino royale – because it did everything a bond film should, but was also entirely original at the same time; and because I was able to enjoy it without ignoring the moral questions I have about being entertained by killing.

borat – because it made me laugh more than I had expected.

superman returns – the best kind of tribute film; one made with such care and attention that it makes you feel nostalgic for your childhood.

walk the line – it feels like you imagine Johnny cash must have felt, and has the courage to end early in his career. And it was the perfect pseduo-date movie for me.

paradise now – there has never been a film about the Palestinian people that takes the injustice of their circumstances and the manipulation of some of their political masters so seriously.

Miami vice – Michael Mann still knows how to shoot blue better than anyone else; you could watch this with the sound off.

pavee lackeen the traveller girl – a terrific irish film about travelling people, made with non-professionals, and revealing the tragic underbelly of this abused people.

the science of sleep - crazy like dreams, beautiful like love, sweet like candy floss, and alive like my own heartbeat

20: United 93 – a unique kind of dread settled over the audience when I saw this docudramatic representation of what may have happened on board the one plane that did not hit its target on 9/11; and the response of the passengers elicits fear and respect rather than vengeance. It also serves as a necessary corrective to the somewhat muted acknowledgement of the horror of what actually happened that day.

19: Flags of our fathers – one of the most thoughtful and provocative films ever made about war. Like listening to an old man’s wise conversation.

18: babel – while it’s preachy in places, inarritu and arriaga’s film about the gaps in human communication shows magnificent ambition; and it’s the only place you’re likely to see Moroccan farmers outside an arthouse (or, I suppose, morocco).

17: good night, and good luck – brilliant drama, unfolding slowly in crisp black and white, and over in less than 90 minutes, but announcing a devastating critique of the current US administration and the politics of consumption.

16: the beat that my heart skipped – a starkly beautiful remake of james toback’s ‘fingers’ – a hit man who plays classical piano; there are echoes of greatness in this film.

15: the queen – a story that humanises one of the most unreachable people on the planet.

14: the departed – it’s scorsese’s greatest hits, but who doesn’t want to listen to them again?

13: the prestige – a dark story about ambition and magic, and the lengths to which people will go to conquer the competition – especially if the only reason they have to succeed is that they know there’s somebody better than them. It feels like an epic, because these themes are just about as substantial as you can get.

12: grizzly man – Werner Herzog makes a film about someone we might otherwise consider his alter ego – Timothy Treadwell, whose concern for animal welfare was confused with his thirst for fame. It’s an incredible piece of accidentail cinema.

11: stranger than fiction – what a charming film about how we narrate our own lives; every day we are granted the choice to be heroic.

The rest of the list I’ll let speak for itself – would love your feedback:

10: a scanner darkly

9: cache

8: munich

7: syriana

6: the three burials of melquiades estrada

5: junebug

4: the new world

3: the fountain

2: little miss sunshine

1: children of men




three I (still) haven’t seen that may change the make up of this list once I get around to it:
prairie home companion
little children
pan’s labyrinth

having said this, more than anything I saw at the cinema, I’ve been thrilled by watching the first two seasons of homicide on dvd – maybe the most serious and compassionate drama about murder ever made.

celtic soliton sessions

Just to let y'all know:
The second Celtic Soliton session will take place in February 2007 in Belfast and Portrush. This year our theme is ‘dangerous living’.

The Soliton Network is an invitation to the rhythms of hospitality and generosity as well as to share resources, laughter, dreams and friendships. Soliton events are informal opportunities for people to reflect on the edges of Christian spirituality and practice – developed within what has come to be known as the ‘emerging church’, all are welcome, and many have been surprised by how rich the experience is. Soliton events aim to approach things from a different angle, and have reflected on questions such as social justice and politics, worship and theology, art and spirituality, and human hospitality. Speakers/facilitators at previous Soliton events have included Brian McLaren, Erwin McManus, Greg Russinger, Christine Sine, Doug Pagitt, Jo Coles, William Crawley and many more.

Our traditions embody stories of dangerous lives: prophets critiqued dangerously, apostles spoke dangerously, and the early church fathers lived dangerously. Jesus inspired life practices that launched a new society both critical of and dangerous to the present order. 2007's Soliton Sessions are an invitation to rediscover this alternative society. Facilitators already confirmed include Jonny Baker, Kester Brewin, Pete Rollins, William Crawley, Si Johnston, Laura Bagley, Andrew Jones and little old me. As a special event, the wonderful Juliet Turner will also play a concert for Soliton during the weekend.

The Celtic Soliton sessions take place as follows:
February 1-4, 2007
Thursday 1st Feb = Belfast 10am – 4pm with optional dinner
Friday evening – Sunday afternoon 2nd-4th Feb = Residential in Portrush

Soliton seeks to create space for free thinking engagement with Christian spirituality and practice and is an opportunity to meet with likeminded people who wish to explore radical spirituality in the emerging postmodern context. It is not a typical ‘teaching’ gathering but a forum in which people can learn together from each other, ask questions, and enjoy an experience of community.

Participants are welcome to attend either or both the Belfast and Portrush sessions; we have aimed to keep costs as low as possible to facilitate welcoming any who wish to participate, but we hope to keep the number of attendees small enough to be a meaningful gathering rather than just ‘another conference on the landscape.

More information at www.solitonnetwork.org

film talk 5

episode five of film talk is now available - check it out if you'd like to hear jett loe and myself wax eloquent about such cinematic glories as 'happy feet', 'flushed away', 'pan's labyrinth' and robert altman's unique sci-fi ice-age paul newman film 'quintet'. you can download it here:

http://filmtalk.podbus.com/podcasts/film_talk_5.mp3

the list

Films of the year 2006

Well, the year is beginning to wind down, and though there’s still a few new releases to go yet, some of you have been asking me to let you know what I’ve enjoyed in 2006. So, here’s what I’d recommend:


what I probably consider to be the ten best films of the year, though of course we don't want to be too dogmatic about this:

10: a scanner darkly

9: cache

8: munich

7: syriana

6: the three burials of melquiades estrada

5: junebug

4: the new world

3: the fountain

2: little miss sunshine

1: children of men


honourable mentions for:
grizzly man
an inconvenient truth
good night, and good luck
paradise now
superman returns
walk the line
the beat that my heart skipped
pavee lackeen the traveller girl
babel
stranger than fiction
the prestige
the queen
the departed
borat
bobby
casino royale


biggest disappointment:
wim wenders’ don’t come knocking

worst film I endured this year:
the wicker man


three I haven’t seen that may change the make up of this list once I get around to it:
prairie home companion
little children
pan’s labyrinth

words of wisdom from walter wink

this is a lovely autobiographical piece from walter wink about negotiating the space between fundamentalism and cynicism when it comes to the bible. i think felt something approaching inner peace when i read it.

http://www.westarinstitute.org/Periodicals/4R_Articles/Wink_bio/wink_bio.html

beautiful

i saw what might become one of my favourite films this week...darren aronofsky's 'the fountain' is collapsing at the u.s. box office so badly that it may never get a release outside this country - which would make it one of those cinematic travesties to rank alongside the butchering of 'the magnificent ambersons', or the fact that the long version of 'heaven's gate' has hardly ever been seen.

'the fountain' is a film about life, death, beauty, and love, and manages to say more about these themes in just over an hour and a half than i've seen at the movies in a very long time. sure, it's not a particularly coherent narrative, and you need a couple of viewings before you can work out what's going on - but for the sheer imagination of putting a character into immortality for the sake of resurrecting the love of his life, when really what he should have done is spend more time with her when she was alive...call me sentimental, but it's things like this that affect us all, every moment of every day. it's what great art is best at. 'the fountain' risks alienating its audience (though i was the only person at the screening i saw) by focusing on things that can't be conveyed in words. it's repetitive, confusing, moving, truthful, and alive to the possibility that love might just conquer all, and that death isn't all its cracked up to be. (and ellen burstyn's in it).

it's the most imaginative and beautiful film i've seen this year.

how a movie that's not particularly great still made me think about great things

saw a movie today that made me think.

'bobby' - a well-intentioned film that seeks to present the u.s. in microcosm on the day of robert kennedy's assassination - from the latino and african-american kitchen staff hoping for a change, to the materialists who rely on how their shoes look to determine their sense of well-being, to the old guy who has seen it all, or so he thinks. it works as an interesting attempt on emilio estevez's part to make a film from the heart that comments on the tragic circumstances we currently live through. the film is very moving for the last ten minutes as it plays one of rfk's speeches over images of people taking in the shock of his murder.

when you read these words, remarks made the day after martin luther king was murdered, only two months before rfk lost his life, you too may sense just what opportunity was lost when he was killed:

"I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.

Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

"Among free men," said Abraham Lincoln, "there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs."

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again."

robert altman

so, farewell to robert altman, hollywood's chronicler of the joys and sorrows of what it means to be human. altman passed away last monday at the age of 81, and it's been interesting to read the praise being heaped on him in tributes written by film journalists who realise we have lost someone whose contribution to cinema is irreplaceable. this is what matters about robert altman: he made films about the way the world is, but managed to make us see it in a way we'd never done before.

the 'last supper' tableau pre-faux suicide scene in MASH, where a lonely man is eulogised by his friends in the hope that this will satirise him into sparing his own life...the patriotic country song that opens NASHVILLE prefiguring so much of what is troubling about this beautiful country...the painfully observed middle class dinner party (one masterful moment among many) in SHORT CUTS, which begins with the host calling one of his guests by the wrong name...the real world came to life in altman's travelogues of the un-mapped human soul.

and he had a way of working with actors that made them all look better than they had ever been before: henry gibson...elliott gould...donald sutherland...lily tomlin...ned beatty...tom waits...tim robbins...frances mcdormand...julianne moore...harry belafonte...andie mcdowell...bruce davison, among many others, are, i am sure, grateful for the day they signed on to be in an altman picture.

the film society of lincoln center is screening his last film A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION tomorrow night as a tribute...if you're an altman acolyte then you've probably already pulled one of his dvds off your shelf for another look - i'm going to see SHORT CUTS again, as soon as i can; as a reminder of what this - by all accounts - kindly, imperious, agnostic-about-religion-but-religious-about-humanity artist could do when given the right canvas to work on.

film talk is here

jett loe of the magnificent irish podcast letter to america and i have started a podcast...it's about film, and involves us talking - therefore it should come as no surprise to hear that it is called 'film talk' - you will find a tremendous film talk website at www.worldcriminal.com/filmtalk - and you can subscribe at itunes. email us at info@worldcriminal.com if you want to join the discussion

trade

just saw an early preview screening of the lionsgate movie 'trade', due to be released in the u.s. next april. it's a film about the horror of human trafficking; and the role that westerners play in creating the demand. if it is released in its current form, it will be one of the most shocking movies produced by a mainstream studio. while it isn't as harsh as lukas moodysson's 'lilya 4-ever', and it has a hollywood through line that is a little too much closure for comfort, 'trade' is an important movie because if it is seen widely enough, it might just serve as a catalyst to motivate people to do something about this modern slave trade. meantime you can find out more and take action right now from friends at www.protest4.com

what we will do with ted haggard

so, ted haggard, president of the u.s. national association of evangelicals, leading crusader for the religious right, and, specifically, opponent of extending civil protection to same-sex couples has been accused of having a long(ish) relationship with another man, involving payment for sex and drugs. rev.haggard has acknowledged that some of the allegations are true, but the full picture has not emerged yet.

i wanted to write about this because i think i can predict what is likely to happen over the next few days, yet i am optimistic or naive enough to hope that there might be an alternative.

here's what i think will happen.

ted haggard will be treated with sympathy by some, disrespect by others, condemnation by still others. he may acknowledge more truth to the allegations. if they are true, he is not likely to acknowledge anything further than having 'made serious mistakes' and needing help to get through this difficult period. he will probably not say that he is gay or bisexual; he will try to distinguish between his behaviour and his identity. and he may (or may not) be right.

mike jones, the man who says he has had a relationship with haggard for three years will have a few minutes of fame, be vilified by the religious right, perhaps even accused of entrapment, and will then disappear from public view.

ted haggard's church will seek to support his own family.

the leaders of the religious right, in the form of rev.dobson, falwell, et al. will portray this as being a tragic story of a man who like david in the bible was brought low by temptation, but who has repented and can be restored to full ministry again. they will not alter their position on homosexuality.

some gay rights advocates will seek to make political capital out of the situation; expressing (perhaps legitimate) anger at haggard's hypocrisy, as well as some empathy for those whose closet is perhaps locked with an even bigger key than most, because their livelihood depends on it.

some ordinary gay christians who are seeking to maintain a traditionalist stance will feel terribly let down.

some will leave the church.

some others will feel justified in their rejection of faith.

and a man and his family, and another man and his loved ones, will have been the centre of a story about human frailty and what mark noll calls the scandal of the evangelical mind (though i don't assume that professor noll would agree with the rest of the assertions in this post - though i'd value his response to this situation).

it is more than an embarrassment that mainstream evangelicalism in the u.s. is unable to embrace intellectually rigorous responses to the human condition because on the surface they may contradict so-called 'biblical' views of the world. it is a scandal. truth be told, there is as much prejudice and love in the evangelical world than anywhere else. but ted haggard (or, if the allegations are false, we could substitute any number of other names of professional christians brought low by scandal) may have been spared this disaster if he had lived in a culture that isn't afraid to engage with scientific, social-scientific, and psychological responses to scientific questions.

in other words, and to put it perhaps a little too colloquially, the repression by the church for fifty years of ted haggard is not a manifestation of the grace of god; nor will the cause of the gospel of the kingdom of mercy and justice be served by condemning yet another of god's children who, in spite of the fact that he is guilty of hypocrisy, walks in places that have no map, because the church has refused to draw one.

borat is everything you could possibly imagine. or fear. or hope for.

so, a man pretending to be a television journalist from a former soviet republic goes to america and has fun at the expense of some of its people. much of the fun is in the service of exposing bigotry. it includes an old boy rodeo-type advocating the execution of gay people, a grotesque spoof sport called 'the running of the jew', and one of the fattest and hairiest men in the world wrestling naked with another man in the service of defending pamela anderson's honour.

yep, there are a couple of moments where i thought sacha baron cohen was using 'borat' to take advantage of vulnerable people, but it's unclear just how much the participants did or did not know about the film, so this is a difficult one to judge. the fact that there is a film out there which will attract an enormous number of people who may not normally engage that much with the politics of prejudice in a journey of such twisted hilarity i almost don't believe some of my memories of what is actually in it...well, surely this has to be welcomed.

the experience of vertigo

went to see vertigo at last night; the third time i've paid to see hitchcock's masterpiece on that particular big screen - if you've seen it, you probably understand why. there's something unrepeatable about the atmosphere of a cinema, the collective anticipation of an audience, and the feeling when the lights go down.

'vertigo' is, first and foremost, a bloody good thriller - whose superficially simplistic plot still manages to keep us guessing to the end. beyond that, it's a dreamland for the freud in all of us (if that itself is not a freudian slip). ultimately, this is a film about men and women, and the archetypal lack of understanding between us. it's about how we are tempted to make those we love into our own image; and how when love is lost, we may be drawn to do anything we can to get it back.

hitchcock wasn't known exactly for his healthy relationships, but then again it may well be the case that you don't have to be good to be wise.

the departed

go see 'the departed' - it plays like a compendium of scorsese's greatest hits, which is not a bad thing when you think about it; apparently he finished it just a week before it was released - and it shows with some rough edges. but with jack nicholson accepting direction from someone other than himself; leo and matt growing up; alec baldwin and mark wahlberg having some salty laughs; and martin sheen playing his first character who feels real since 'the west wing'. typically cool use of music - especially van the man embodying pink floyd's 'comfortably numb'.

it's also scorsese's most political film - a post-9/11 cry against the havoc of politics being done out of 'pure' self-interest. it's maybe not as important or smart as is being claimed by some, but i've seen it twice and didn't feel like it was anything other than a rather splendid use of my time.

Hunter S Thompson & Ralph Steadman

When Hunter S Thompson shot himself early last year, the journalistic world mourned one of its great mavericks – known for observing the past four decades of American life in books such as ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’. Thompson’s words are, of course almost umbilically tied to the cartoons of Ralph Steadman, the soft-spoken Welshman who illustrated the madness of the journeys Thompson took. Ralph Steadman has written an account of their relationship called ‘The Joke’s Over'.

Steadman begins the book by quoting Thompson saying ‘don’t write, Ralph, you’ll bring shame on your family’ – so he approached this with some trepidation…The two of them have been described as butch and sundance on acid – but that seems a little tame when you read the adventurous tales of hard drinking and living and driving.

What Thompson said in the search for the artist for 'fear and loathing': ‘what we need is someone already suffering from severe brain damage with a paranoic fear of government officials, and takes risks without realising what’s happening to him’. A sentiment with which many of us may resonate.

But this book is not just the story of a man’s creative life, it’s that of a man who interpreted the last forty years of US history, and may actually have taken his own life because he couldn’t stand what had happened to America under Bush - Steadman says that 'his American was dead'.

Of course, Thompson's great achievement was to create a new style of journalism - which he called 'gonzo' - of which Steadman says:


'Nobody I have read knows what GONZO is, was, or ever could be, not even Hunter, and if he doesn't know what it is, I do. I am the only one who does. Gonzo makes
you feel GOod rather than BAd, which is BANZO. Pursue BANZO if you must but don't blame me or even credit me or you will make me sick. GOnzo is GOod. BAnzo is BAd. It is a simple equation.'

Having said this, apparently Thompson believed that he 'would feel real trapped in this life if I didn’t know I could commit suicide at any time’, and so this is what he finally did. There is surely a degree of serious irresponsibility here and lack of concern for others - though his loved ones seemed prepared. Maybe he felt so close to his America that he felt he had to die with it.

Toward the end of the book there’s a lovely vignette that suggests there was something of a spiritual community with HST at the centre, and those involved must miss it desperately.

i know this is a bit late, but...

hey friends

just watched 'gangs of new york' for the first time in nearly four years.

scorsese's film, at its best, is about how violence begets violence, those who live by the sword etc...

but i'm confused by the very last image of the movie. he ends with a montage of overlapping images of new york's development over the past hundred and fifty years. but he stops short of showing the skyline as it looks now - so the twin towers are right there, centre screen, intact...this strikes me as more than a little surprising, and incongruous given the film that had led up to this point - scorsese has said that he didn't show the empty skyline because 'i wanted to make a film about the people who built the city, not those who tried to destroy it'. this point has some logic, but it does seem to me that the film would have been far more powerful had it ended more truthfully - the danger with the ending as it stands is that it may be read as a triumphalist eradication of the violent past, rather than an indictment of the fact that we have not changed our values that much since gangs beat each other to death in the streets for control of a city.

any thoughts?

a new tragedy every day

According to reports today, "the Illinois church made famous in The Blues Brothers film has been badly damaged in a fire. Firefighters were forced to smash down the Pilgrim Baptist Church of South Chicago's stained glass windows to tackle the blaze last week. The place of worship gained fame after funk legend James Brown sang there during a scene in the hit 1980 movie".

That's rather an understatement, to any of us who remember our first appreciation of the concept of vocation - when the blue light shines through the now charred stained glass of Pilgrim Baptist, and the messed-up saint John of Belushi sees that he finally has a purpose in life - to put the band back together and save the nuns' orphanage, thousands of young, lonely men discovered their own vocation too: to watch a lot of movies.

For those of you who really love The Blues Brothers, donations can be made to the Pilgrim Baptist Church of South Chicago Fire Relief Fund, c/o Charter One Bank, 9200 S. Commercial, Chicago 60617.

children of men

if you want to see a magnificent film - though very depressing - but a tremendous story of being in favour of life above all else, go see 'children of men', just released in the uk (it's out in the states on christmas day)

this story of a dystopian future in which all women have become infertile, and humanity awaits its end stars the appropriately distant clive owen, along with julianne moore, michael caine in a superb and moving cameo that reminds us why he should be allowed to live forever, and peter mullan as a crazed scotsman who always refers to himself in the third person.

as is my wont i'll prefer not to say much about the plot, but this really a remarkable film. its key theme is doing everything to keep life alive, and the documentary-style fashion in which it is made grips your vision as if your own life depends on it. alfonso cuaron directs some of the most incredible one-take scenes i've ever seen, and the narrative throttles along to make it one of the smartest action films ever made.

let me reiterate - this is a very depressing film but its heart is set on one thing: the absolute need, in the face of what may seem like unremitting darkness, to honour human life.

along with 'little miss sunshine' and 'the new world' it's the best film i've seen this year.

maybe this is what he meant

there's a fascinating response to the pope's speech in the australian newspaper 'the age', written by a muslim leader from down under - though it doesn't cover all the bases i've been concerned about i think it's well worth reading.

Subtle scholar, but what an inept politician
Waleed Aly
September 18, 2006

The Pope should mind his words. So should some of his Muslim critics.

LET me get this straight. Pope Benedict XVI quotes the 14th century
Byzantine
Emperor Manuel II Paleologus asserting before a Persian Islamic scholar that
the prophet Muhammad brought nothing new to the world except things "evil
and
inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".
Some Muslims clearly interpret Benedict to be quoting Manuel with approval,
and take offence at the suggestion that Islam is inherently violent. The
response is to bomb five churches in the West Bank, and attack the door of
another in Basra. In India, angry mobs burn effigies of Pope Benedict. In
Somalia, Sheikh Abu Bakr Hassan Malin urges Muslims to "hunt down" the Pope
and kill him, while an armed Iraqi group threatens to carry out attacks
against Rome and the Vatican.

There. That'll show them for calling us violent.

Meanwhile, other commentators seem to be vying to be most hysterical.
Libya's
General Instance of Religious Affairs thinks Benedict's "insult . pushes us
back to the era of crusades against Muslims led by Western political and
religious leaders". And a member of the ruling party in Turkey has placed
Benedict "in the same category as leaders like Hitler and Mussolini", in
what
must surely be an insult to those who suffered under them.

Closer to home, Muslim Community Reference Group chairman Ameer Ali
cautioned
Benedict to "behave like (his predecessor) John Paul II, not Urban II (who
launched the Crusades)", while Taj al-Din al-Hilali declared startlingly
that
the Pope "doesn't have the qualities or good grasp of Christian character or
knowledge". It's fair to say perspective has deserted us.

Parallels with February's Danish cartoon saga are begging to be drawn. As
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya and Syria did with Denmark, Morocco has now
withdrawn its ambassador from the Vatican. Egypt and Turkey called for an
apology. Indeed, one expert has suggested Morocco's
decision may have been a tactic to prevent a wave of street protests similar
to those that stunned the world in February. There is an awful sense of
history repeating: a provocative gesture triggers an overblown response of
surreal imbecility.

But this is not the same as the Danish catastrophe. On that occasion, the
cartoons' publication was an act calculated specifically to offend Muslim
sensibilities. The reaction was irredeemably contemptible, but the sense of
offence was justified.

Pope Benedict's speech was an academic address at a German university on an
esoteric theological theme that had nothing to do with affronting Muslims.
The apparently offending remarks were almost a footnote to the discussion.
The contrast is manifestly stark.

But it seems some elements in the Muslim world are looking avidly for
something to offend them. Meanwhile, governments looking to boost their
Islamic credentials are only too happy to seize on this, or nurture it, for
their own political advantage. At some point, the Muslim world has to gain
control of itself. Presently, its most vocal elements are so disastrously
reactionary, and therefore so easily manipulable.

Here, the vociferous protests came from people who, quite clearly, have not
bothered to read Benedict's speech. Worse, some (like al-Hilali and Ameer
Ali) themselves regularly complain of being quoted incorrectly and out of
context.

Had such critics done their homework, they would have noted Benedict's
description of Manuel II's "startling brusqueness". Manuel's point was that
violent doctrine could not come from God because missionary violence is
contrary to rationality. Benedict's point was a subtle one: that Manuel
draws
a positive link between religious truth and reason. This was the central
theme of the Pope's address. He was silent on Manuel's attitude to Islam
because it was beside the point he was making. Clearly, Manuel II was not a
fan of the prophet Muhammad. But that does not mean Benedict isn't either.

The trouble with being the Pope is that you are simultaneously a theologian
and a politician. Theological discourse is regularly nuanced and esoteric.
Political discourse is not.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said "the Pope spoke like a politician
rather than as a man of religion", but the truth is the exact opposite. In
theological terms, Benedict chose an example well suited to his narrow
argument.

In political terms, his choice was poor. He was naive not to recognise how
offensively it would translate into the crudeness of the public
conversation,
and should at least have made clear that he was not endorsing Manuel II's
words.

I happen to think Manuel had a shoddy grasp of Islamic theology. Indeed, the
Islamic tradition would have much to contribute to the theme of Benedict's
lecture. While medieval Christendom fought science stridently, the
relationship between faith and reason in traditional Islam was highly
convivial.

That's why I would be interested to have heard how the Persian scholar
responded to Manuel's argument. I'm fairly certain, though, he wouldn't have
called on Muslim hordes to hunt down Manuel and kill him.

Waleed Aly is an Islamic Council of Victoria director.

http://tinyurl.com/hzxf5

what did the pope mean?

last week pope benedict quoted from a 14th century document which uses deeply intemperate, and in the pope's own words, 'shockingly brusque' language to condemn those who link religion and violence. he may or may not have intended to offend muslims. i suspect not - the comment was made in the context of an academic paper, and it is likely that it was assumed that the comments would not be heard by anyone not present at the gathering. while this may be evidence of naivety on the part of the former cardinal ratzinger, or perhaps arrogance, i frankly find it hard to believe that he expected never mind intended the reaction to the way his words have been construed in the press.

the fact that there have apparently been militant and even violent protests in response tends to prove the point that those who would use religion to endorse violence against the human person need to be engaged with, at least in terms of the kind of dialogue that academic popes may not yet be capable of, and better still in terms of religious leaders articulating a religious path that is both authentically spiritual and pro-actively non-violent, rather than the kind of practice that passes for mainstream religion in the west - which these days, in spite of some noble exceptions (e.g. yesterday's intervention by rowan williams regarding the crisis in childhood), tends toward either insipid and unengaging, or nationalistic and so blindly supportive of violence that it becomes about as far away from the teachings and way of jesus as it's possible to get without coming back in the opposite direction.

the queen and i

just saw stephen frears' film 'the queen' - a strange and rather splendid movie, with helen mirren in what is immediately out of the gate as the front runner for performance of the year.

we're used to seeing nothing of the 'real' royal family, and portrayals of them on-screen tend toward the satiric - but frears is too mature a director for that - while there is almost no way we could possibly judge the veracity of the story in this film - that of how the queen responded in the immediate aftermath of the tragic death of princess diana - this film manages to make convincing human beings out of - especially - elizabeth windsor and tony blair.

there was a sense of something like relief among the audience i saw it with - as if we have been bursting to see these public figures behave like real people. the communal feeling might best be summed up as socio-psychological dam bursting - as finally got to see humanity behind the usual steely public demeanour. blair comes out of the film as a calculating man, alistair campbell as a political machine, the queen as a woman of stature and dignity who represents something rare in contemporary society - someone who believes that their life exists for the sake of something bigger than themselves.

now i would not want to go much further than that - the monarchy is not an institution that i would invest a lot of time endorsing - but there is something about this film that made me feel that i understood more about the epochal cultural changes that have happpened to britain, ireland, and europe in the past ten years.

harvey keitel, osama bin laden, and the ministry of disney

so, abc television's drama 'the path to 9/11' aired last night - i only caught a few minutes of shaky hand-held camerawork so wasn't sure what to make of it. the film has been criticised for putting the blame on the clinton administration for not being wise to the threat. there's also an interesting christian missions connection to the film in the form of its director - check out david l cunningham and see what you find if you're interested.

would love to hear from any of you who have seen it - what's it like?

little miss sunshine: funny and smart, smart and funny

'little miss sunshine' is, i suppose, what they call 'this year's sleeper hit' - a beautifully observed comedy in the truest sense - something about what real life is really like. i won't say much about the plot, other than it's a very dysfunctional family (or maybe it just seems that way - i've only encountered a couple of families that seemed functional) on a road trip. as is usually the case in this kind of film, the journey is the destination, but the joys and sorrows of this journey manage to take in a critique of the american dream, father-son relationships, ambition, teenage angst, the sexualisation of almost everything in our society, and ultimately the truth that it is in broken moments when we are both most human, and possibly most lovable.

it's also profoundly funny.

but it's that last point that stays with me - when we are most broken, we are perhaps most able to be ourselves. at the same time, when we it seems like we have lost everything we held most dear, that's when we can make an exuberant gift of our usually hidden abilities to take risks. if this sounds ambiguous, it's because i'm trying not to give away too much of the film...so go see it and let me know what you think.

where has wim wenders' mojo gone?

saw 'don't come knocking' last night - new film by wim wenders and sam shepherd - great pedigree, great photography and music, great territory - lonely man wandering through the american west - that both wenders and shepherd have worn well before.

so it was sad to see that, as with many other older directors, the late vintage wenders only made me want to return to his earlier films - at least two of which - 'paris, texas', and 'wings of desire' - can be legitimately called masterpieces. both of them deal with the sense of being 'outside' the mainstream, of not being able to 'fit in', making serious mistakes, and trying to atone because of them.

'don't come knocking' just doesn't convince. wenders, like woody allen, and, i fear, martin scorsese, appears to have got caught in a rut of doing only things that he has done better before...by this token, you could make a case that steven spielberg is one of the riskiest directors working in the mainstream today - consistently challenging himself to do something new. if only someone could persuade woody allen to slow down and make fewer films, or wim wenders to make a non-narrative film in ireland, or scorsese to forget catholicism and gangsters for a while...