Chapter 22 . . . Films that promote Christian values

This month, while recovering from surgery (successfully), I saw two films that promoted Christian values in subtle, powerful ways. Food for thought about how decisions we make either in groups, or as individuals, may have permanent and often serious effects on other people.

The film "Silent Wedding" begins with a cynical young man driving through a Balkan post-war zone with a film crew. He is a news journalist, seeking interviews. The car stops, and a group of old Romanian women, clad in black, emerge from the ruins of a village. A woman tries to answer the journalist's  questions haltingly, as he thrusts a microphone in her face, and the cameramen, intent on getting the light and film angle right, chatter in the background. The story flashes back to the past, to the women's rustic Romanian country village full of bonhomie, mischievous youngsters, wise elders, hardworking women, and irresponsible drunkards, all loveable characters despite their imperfections. The villagers are preparing to celebrate a wedding. In the middle of the post-wedding celebrations, local Russian officials arrive and announce that Stalin is dead. An official mourning period has been declared, and the wedding festivities must cease immediately.  The villagers obediently pack up the party under the watchful eye of the officials. But since Stalin was their colonial oppressor, the villagers gather after nightfall to avoid arrest, and resume the party in silence. At first everything goes well, with the villagers playing silent games, giggling, passing whispers, and feasting. But then the bride, sad that there is no music for the first dance with her husband, breaks down in tears. In sympathy, the villagers spontaneously rebel, courageously resuming their noisy celebrations. Russian troops arrive, shoot the bridegroom and the harmless, happy village idiot, massacre the men, and burn the village, leaving the women to mourn in the ruins. The film flashes back to the interview, showing a birthmark on the neck of the former bride, who is now an old woman, and panning out to the journalists, who are reduced to silence. This film sends strong messages about the precious value of simple but imperfect human communities, and the senseless inhumanity of the violent military massacre. The disconnection between the situation of the privileged, careless journalists, and the dispossessed, innocent, elderly women victims, highlights the injustice of the situation.

The USA film "King of Kong" is also about human competition, overcoming unjust dominance, quiet persistence, and families, but in a totally different arena. It is about two men who are Donkey Kong gamers, and is based on actual events. Both men are intent on achieving a world record score in Donkey Kong. One is a career gamer, a wealthy Donkey Kong champion who holds the world record, who profits from products associated with his gaming success. The other is a quiet, likeable, unassuming family man and school teacher, who plays Donkey Kong in his garage, and dreams of beating the champ. His wife deplores his gaming addiction, and considers him a failure. The quiet gamer sends a tape of his highest scoring game to the Donkey Kong officials. Egged on by the champ, the officials doubt his score. They send spies to look over his gaming machine, talking his grandma into allowing them in while he and his wife are out. Confident of his ability, the quiet player challenges the champ's score publicly, and travels interstate to play publicly at the main Donkey Kong venue. The Donkey Kong champ's fans crowd around and try to distract him as he plays, but are won over by his skill. His prowess impresses the judges, and he beats the champ's record score, but the champ refuses to meet him or play in public. The champ submits a taped game with a higher score than the quiet gamer. The judges notice faults in the tape, but the champ is declared the winner, although he didn't play publicly. The quiet player is devastated and returns home with his family. His wife and children are on his side by now, and encourage him. The judge writes to him, praises his achievement, and urges him to continue his record attempts. He persists, finally sets an unbreakable record, gains the respect of his wife, children and the Donkey Kong community, and gets into the Guinness Book of Records. The film shows the value of quiet, honest, confident persistence against insurmountable odds, and also shows how unattractive, corrupting, self-deceptive and hurtful, greedy ambition for dominance over another, can become.