Post by Zabimaru on Apr 18, 2009 15:41:24 GMT -5
**Warning: Massive spoilers for an old movie ahead**
I often get into discussions about books and movies, and recently I was discussing the movie “Signs” by M. Night Shyamalan. It was a discussion about bad and stupid movies, and I was expressing my opinion that this movie is a particular good example of that, with plot holes big enough to push a planet through.
That garnered a lot of angry comments from people who love the movie. They didn't directly object to my examples of plot holes, or offer any explanation for them, but instead told me that I shouldn't focus on such insignificant details. I was told that the important thing is the message that the movie brings; the message of faith.
Now I'll agree that some things can be excused in a movie depending on which standard it should be judged. If Signs is to be judged as a movie about faith and religion instead of a sci-fi horror flick, then maybe the stupidity of the sci-fi-bits shouldn't matter so much.
But I honestly can't understand how anyone can think that the movie brings a good religious message. Sure, I usually don't enjoy any religious message, but I still feel that the movie is very bad at presenting the message even to those who would like to hear it.
Maybe I'm missing something though… I'll tell you how I interpreted things in the movie, nitpicking along the way, and then coming to my biggest gripe at the end, and hopefully someone can tell me if I've missed something revolutionary :)
The movie is about a former priest who has lost his faith after his wife was killed in a car accident. It's the usual old “What loving God would allow this?”
The ex-priest lives with his two kids and his brother. His son has a crippling case of asthma, something that strengthens the man's unbelief, and his daughter has an extreme obsession with leaving half-drunk glasses of water all around the house. Chekhov's gun has never been so obvious before.
The priest's wife's dying words after the car accident were “Swing away” – something that was directed at his brother. The brother used to be a baseball player who was extremely good at hitting the ball very hard, but not so good at much else. The priest assumes that these dying words are of no significance, just something triggered by a random memory of his brother. He doesn't seem too worried about the fact that he thinks that his wife was thinking about his brother rather than him as she died.
Then an incredibly stupid (but technologically advanced) spacefaring race invades earth. They spend a lot of time running around in cornfields and (for unexplained, cosmic reasons) spying on the former priest's little farm, as well as some kid's birthday party (which is creepy, but maybe not in the way they intended).
The aliens start making some trouble, and after getting its fingers chopped of by the former priests one of them takes his son hostage. The alien threatens the boy with some sort of short range gas-attack weapon (the only weapon they seem to have available) and things seem somewhat desperate. But then; turnaround! Excitement!
The boy is saved from the gas by his asthma closing up his airways. And the old priest sees his brother's old baseball bat hanging on the wall. And miracle of all miracles – he remembers the dying words of his wife and tells the brother to take the bat and “swing away.” And he does.
So, apparently, when you have a guy who can hit things really hard with a baseball bat, you have an intruder in the house, and you have a bat handy, you need the dying words of your lost wife to put it together? God had to let his wife to deliver the message “Hit the bad man with the bat, that might hurt him!”? Was he really so stupid that he would never have figured that out by himself?
Oh, anyway, eventually it turns out that the mighty aliens are deathly allergic to water – one of the most common substances in the universe, which covers a majority of this planet's surface – and they hadn't even bothered to wear raincoats. They came here freaking naked. So the daughter's neurosis proves valuable in providing them with ample supplies of tap water to pour at the silly alien.
OK, so God causes a car crash (or at least lets a car crash happen and uses it to deliver a message), gives the guy's daughter a strange neurosis and the boy an illness - all to make things happen as he wants them to. At least that's apparently what we're supposed to think. Numerous people told me that the message here is that “everything happens for a reason,” “God cares about us” and so on. And of course it all works in the movie; he sees the miracles, regains his faith and becomes a priest again.
And here comes my biggest gripe: What the hell kind of god acts like that? Only a micromanaging god who cares about, and meddles in, the lives of individual humans would do these things. Apparently the faith of this one, lost priest was so important that God almighty had to put on a hell of a show for him, with death, despair and baseball – just like in the Old Testament.
But how could it be good to advertise such a god? Sure, I'm 100% atheist myself, but I can respect believers – but I have very hard time respecting people who want to believe in a god like that. A god who really cares about some little family in rural America (well, except for the wife of course), a god that meddles and performs miracles… but lets millions starve to death every year, lets diseases and wars run rampant and apparently allows an alien invasion to teach a guy a lesson about faith.
Can someone explain why so many think that this is a great message? I'm honestly curious :)
I often get into discussions about books and movies, and recently I was discussing the movie “Signs” by M. Night Shyamalan. It was a discussion about bad and stupid movies, and I was expressing my opinion that this movie is a particular good example of that, with plot holes big enough to push a planet through.
That garnered a lot of angry comments from people who love the movie. They didn't directly object to my examples of plot holes, or offer any explanation for them, but instead told me that I shouldn't focus on such insignificant details. I was told that the important thing is the message that the movie brings; the message of faith.
Now I'll agree that some things can be excused in a movie depending on which standard it should be judged. If Signs is to be judged as a movie about faith and religion instead of a sci-fi horror flick, then maybe the stupidity of the sci-fi-bits shouldn't matter so much.
But I honestly can't understand how anyone can think that the movie brings a good religious message. Sure, I usually don't enjoy any religious message, but I still feel that the movie is very bad at presenting the message even to those who would like to hear it.
Maybe I'm missing something though… I'll tell you how I interpreted things in the movie, nitpicking along the way, and then coming to my biggest gripe at the end, and hopefully someone can tell me if I've missed something revolutionary :)
The movie is about a former priest who has lost his faith after his wife was killed in a car accident. It's the usual old “What loving God would allow this?”
The ex-priest lives with his two kids and his brother. His son has a crippling case of asthma, something that strengthens the man's unbelief, and his daughter has an extreme obsession with leaving half-drunk glasses of water all around the house. Chekhov's gun has never been so obvious before.
The priest's wife's dying words after the car accident were “Swing away” – something that was directed at his brother. The brother used to be a baseball player who was extremely good at hitting the ball very hard, but not so good at much else. The priest assumes that these dying words are of no significance, just something triggered by a random memory of his brother. He doesn't seem too worried about the fact that he thinks that his wife was thinking about his brother rather than him as she died.
Then an incredibly stupid (but technologically advanced) spacefaring race invades earth. They spend a lot of time running around in cornfields and (for unexplained, cosmic reasons) spying on the former priest's little farm, as well as some kid's birthday party (which is creepy, but maybe not in the way they intended).
The aliens start making some trouble, and after getting its fingers chopped of by the former priests one of them takes his son hostage. The alien threatens the boy with some sort of short range gas-attack weapon (the only weapon they seem to have available) and things seem somewhat desperate. But then; turnaround! Excitement!
The boy is saved from the gas by his asthma closing up his airways. And the old priest sees his brother's old baseball bat hanging on the wall. And miracle of all miracles – he remembers the dying words of his wife and tells the brother to take the bat and “swing away.” And he does.
So, apparently, when you have a guy who can hit things really hard with a baseball bat, you have an intruder in the house, and you have a bat handy, you need the dying words of your lost wife to put it together? God had to let his wife to deliver the message “Hit the bad man with the bat, that might hurt him!”? Was he really so stupid that he would never have figured that out by himself?
Oh, anyway, eventually it turns out that the mighty aliens are deathly allergic to water – one of the most common substances in the universe, which covers a majority of this planet's surface – and they hadn't even bothered to wear raincoats. They came here freaking naked. So the daughter's neurosis proves valuable in providing them with ample supplies of tap water to pour at the silly alien.
OK, so God causes a car crash (or at least lets a car crash happen and uses it to deliver a message), gives the guy's daughter a strange neurosis and the boy an illness - all to make things happen as he wants them to. At least that's apparently what we're supposed to think. Numerous people told me that the message here is that “everything happens for a reason,” “God cares about us” and so on. And of course it all works in the movie; he sees the miracles, regains his faith and becomes a priest again.
And here comes my biggest gripe: What the hell kind of god acts like that? Only a micromanaging god who cares about, and meddles in, the lives of individual humans would do these things. Apparently the faith of this one, lost priest was so important that God almighty had to put on a hell of a show for him, with death, despair and baseball – just like in the Old Testament.
But how could it be good to advertise such a god? Sure, I'm 100% atheist myself, but I can respect believers – but I have very hard time respecting people who want to believe in a god like that. A god who really cares about some little family in rural America (well, except for the wife of course), a god that meddles and performs miracles… but lets millions starve to death every year, lets diseases and wars run rampant and apparently allows an alien invasion to teach a guy a lesson about faith.
Can someone explain why so many think that this is a great message? I'm honestly curious :)
