What a culture we live in.

The movie Spanglish provides some beautiful insights into the hideousness of certain aspects of our beloved American culture. The movie is about a wealthy American family and their Mexican housekeeper and was on the Bishop's Top Ten list for 2004. Most poignantly it shows a stark contrast between what Mexico and America expect from women. The film did show one aspect of American culture that was not so unappealling. Our modern American culture allows husbands and fathers to be sensitive and loving rather than just "macho." Now I don't want to hear any comments about what a pansy I am! I can watch sports and drink a beer like nobody's business, but I still love my wife and son all right!

And of course you can't beat the greatest line of the movie, "We understand guilt. We're Catholic!"

Christian values in the movies.

Here is an interview with Barbara Nicolosi about Christian values in the movies, about which she is one of the foremost authorities. The whole article is great, from the perspective of a parent there is one thing about her father that particularly resonated with me:

"My father’s theory was that if you exposed children to beautiful things, they would lose their taste for barbarism."

What a beautiful theory. I think I agree with this pretty strongly. Too often I think we worry about what we shouldn't watch rather than focus on what we should watch. The same is true for adults also. I know the more I watch good movies and listen to good music, the less taste I have for the mediocre.

Movie Recommendations.

I got to see The Pursuit of Happyness last night, and it is fantastic. It is an especially powerful example of the love of a father. This movie certainly means more to be than it would have before my son was born.

I also saw 16 Blocks this week. It is by no means the same caliber of movie as Pursuit of Happyness, but if you like suspense/drama movies this is a good one that is morally satisfying. For a police drama there is surprisingly little violence and language, and the overall message is one of doing the right thing even when it is hard. I am pretty sure that there was a guy named Jesus once upon a time who taught us the same thing.

Joseph is the man!

I got to see the Nativity Story last night. It was not without its questionable moments – it seemed like the filmmakers did not believe that Mary was without sin – but it was certainly not lacking in truth, beauty, and, goodness.

There was one part in the movie that I honestly have never really considered in the way that the movie opened to me, and that is the faith of Joseph. My favorite part of the movie was seeing the reaction that the people of Nazareth had to Mary being pregnant out of wedlock. The part that I had never considered was that when Joseph decided to accept Mary, he was also accepting that people would think he was the father of the child and also guilty of premarital sex. We know that Joseph is only the adoptive father of Jesus, but the people of Nazareth didn’t. They went from thinking that Mary was unchaste to thinking that Joseph was too. Joseph had to give his “fiat” to that ridicule also. To me, this was beautiful. It showed Joseph’s great love for his wife, for Jesus, and above all for his God. This love and dedication of Joseph was very strong throughout the rest of the movie also. To me it is the organizing structure for telling the whole story, and I found it to be a very interesting and moving perspective.

I expected this movie to be very devoted to Mary and Jesus, and to portray them in the glory that they deserve. I was not expecting the same focus on Joseph, but I was very pleased with it. Seeing his example in this way is a great source of strength for myself, and I feel it would be for any husband and father.