Dick Staub Interview with Neil Gabler, "Walt Disney The Triumph of the American Imagination." Walt Disney's influence on American life and culture is unquestionable, but Disney himself is shrouded in myth and mystery. Now one of our finest analysts of entertainment in American life brings us a well-documented and definitive look at Walt Disney and raises provocative questions about the Disney mythology and about the mythmaker himself.
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A Dick Staub Interview with Neil Gabler, "Walt Disney The Triumph of the American Imagination." Walt Disney's influence on American life and culture is unquestionable, but Disney himself is shrouded in myth and mystery. Now one of our finest analysts of entertainment in American life brings us a well-documented and definitive look at Walt Disney and raises provocative questions about the Disney mythology and about the mythmaker himself.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (8.9MB)
By any account Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ was a wake up call for Hollywood. Combining what Gibson called art and what evangelicals saw as an evangelistic opportunity, Hollywood saw the potential for faith-fueled films. Into the gap stepped billionaire Phillip Anshutz with his Walden Films. Fox launched Faith Movies and got behind movies like One Night with the King. Armed with vision a $100,000 budget and amateur actors, Sherwood Baptist produced Facing the Giants (FTG), which when partnered with some marketing muscle of Christians in Nashville and a widespread grassroots marketing campaign has already generated $5 Million in Box Office. But Facing the Giants also became the center of a firestorm within the faith community itself, revealing a division pitting those who believe the art and craft of the film is as important as family and faith friendly content against those who seem willing to forgive substandard moviemaking if the film is made by Christians or honors faith and family. So while FTG is making money and Christian marketers are urging the faith community to support this film, it languishes with a 7% positive rating by film critics at rotten tomato and less than 17% by Christian film critics. Our subject is Facing the Giants: Film and Faith. Why Art and Craft Matter. Our guests are film critics Michael Medved and Stephan Ulstein and film producer Jennie Spohr.
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By any account Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ was a wake up call for Hollywood. Combining what Gibson called art and what evangelicals saw as an evangelistic opportunity, Hollywood saw the potential for faith-fueled films. Into the gap stepped billionaire Phillip Anshutz with his Walden Films. Fox launched Faith Movies and got behind movies like One Night with the King. Armed with vision a $100,000 budget and amateur actors, Sherwood Baptist produced Facing the Giants (FTG), which when partnered with some marketing muscle of Christians in Nashville and a widespread grassroots marketing campaign has already generated $5 Million in Box Office. But Facing the Giants also became the center of a firestorm within the faith community itself, revealing a division pitting those who believe the art and craft of the film is as important as family and faith friendly content against those who seem willing to forgive substandard moviemaking if the film is made by Christians or honors faith and family. So while FTG is making money and Christian marketers are urging the faith community to support this film, it languishes with a 7% positive rating by film critics at rotten tomato and less than 17% by Christian film critics. Our subject is Facing the Giants: Film and Faith. Why Art and Craft Matter. Our guests are film critics Michael Medved and Stephan Ulstein and film producer Jennie Spohr.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB)
By any account Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ was a wake up call for Hollywood. Combining what Gibson called art and what evangelicals saw as an evangelistic opportunity, Hollywood saw the potential for faith-fueled films. Into the gap stepped billionaire Phillip Anshutz with his Walden Films. Fox launched Faith Movies and got behind movies like One Night with the King. Armed with vision a $100,000 budget and amateur actors, Sherwood Baptist produced Facing the Giants (FTG), which when partnered with some marketing muscle of Christians in Nashville and a widespread grassroots marketing campaign has already generated $5 Million in Box Office. But Facing the Giants also became the center of a firestorm within the faith community itself, revealing a division pitting those who believe the art and craft of the film is as important as family and faith friendly content against those who seem willing to forgive substandard moviemaking if the film is made by Christians or honors faith and family. So while FTG is making money and Christian marketers are urging the faith community to support this film, it languishes with a 7% positive rating by film critics at rotten tomato and less than 17% by Christian film critics. Our subject is Facing the Giants: Film and Faith. Why Art and Craft Matter. Our guests are film critics Michael Medved and Stephan Ulstein and film producer Jennie Spohr.
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A Dick Staub conversation with Anne Rice: Segment 1. You can't judge a book by its cover goes the old adage. After years of interviewing culturally influential authors I would add, neither can you always judge the author by the book. Who knew Margaret Atwood, author of "A Handmaid's Tale," would tell me (off-the-air) of her insistence on attending Sunday School as a child, though her scientist parent's were both atheists? Who knew feminist Susan Faludi would take the time to sit in on a Promise Keepers meeting and then defend the movement to her less informed cadre of friends, having concluded, "what can be so bad about a group of men who want to be better husbands and fathers?" Who knew the real story behind Anne Rice's "Interviews With a Vampire?" You will after listening to this amazing conversation.
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Don't miss the "The Da Vinci Code" discussion on at Dick Staub's podcast, "The Kindlings Muse." Also this Sunday The Hallmark Channel carries a special on Opus Dei and another titled: "The Da Vinci Code: Fact and Fiction?" Dick Staub appears on the panel moderated by Krista Tippett, host of "Speaking of Faith," public radio's weekly conversation about religion, produced by American Public Media and broadcast on more than 165 public radio stations. Other panelists include Jill Levine – professor of New Testament Studies, Vanderbilt University and Ed Murray – president and chief executive officer, Faith & Values Media. Check local listings. The last we heard the "Da Vinci" broadcast was scheduled for 9AM Eastern and Pacific, 8 AM Central, 7 AM Mountain Time and 6AM Pacific. The show was taped in front of a live audience at Minnesota Public Radio. (In the spirit of Garrison Keillor, only MPR would produce a TV show in a radio station!)
Hollywood wants to make spiritual movies well at least what it understands to be spiritual movies.
With the success of "Passion of the Christ," "Lord of the Rings," and "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" you can expect a slew of "spiritually themed" movies. Something many have prayed for. This is a good thing, right? Well remember the closing line in "Capote," "more tears have been shed for answered prayers than unanswered ones."
Today's cleverly timed release of "The Omen 666" is an example. It is a remake and a stinker as the LA Daily News critic says, "The original Omen spawned two sequels. This lifeless remake guarantees we'll be spared the run-up to Armageddon." (Even some Christian retailers are embracing the 666 tie-in Even some Christian retailers are embracing the 666 tie-in, according to the publishers, selling paperback versions of earlier Left Behind novels for .66. "Why not make the connection?" Jenkins asks in the book's press kit. "The funny thing is that the number never appears anywhere in our books. . . . People are naturally afraid of the number because of who it is associated with. It's just a number. It's the Antichrist who is evil.")
Meanwhile back to Hollywood. 666 is a Hollywood version of a "spiritually themed movie" as was "Stigmata," based on the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, "End of Days" based on the Book of Revelation AND "The Da Vinci Code," loosely based on the Gnostic "Mary of Magdalene."
Sometimes Hollywood productions are relatively harmless, teaching some sweet lessons as in "God Almighty" where the central character played by Jim Carey is saved by Grace a character played by Jennifer Aniston after an encounter with God played by Morgan Freeman. Other times it is not so benign, such as in Da Vinci.
Here are three quick lessons.
1) Hollywood productions tend to be spiritually delusional, practicing what I call "spiritual blenderism," stick a bunch of beliefs in a blender and push the button. The trend is towards spiritual seeking without seeking God, moral and intellectual relativism and anti-Christian.
2) Hollywood productions are spiritually influential. As Phyliss Tickle reminds us in "God Talk In America," More theology is conveyed in, and probably retained from one hour of popular television, than from all the sermons that are also delivered on any given weekend in America's synagogues, churches and mosques." It does make a difference,–a poll in the UK said people are twice as likely to believe Jesus is married after the Da Vinci code. In our country Christian Smith says even the typical Christian teen believes what he calls, "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism."
3) Christian reactions tend to be unproductive: cocooning, combating and conforming won't do. We've been called to be a loving transforming presence in the world. There is a better way: One) we need to create a richer culture by producing art that tells the truth and does so in a craftsmanlike way. Don't get excited that "Christians are starting to make movies." Get excited when thoughtful, imaginative well made movies are porduced by people who are Christian; Two) We need to counterculture, resisting and fleeing when appropriate; Three) We need to communicate like ambassadors in culture, mastering the language of faith and culture and connecting the two.
Last night as we launched our new live event/podcast/broadcast, The Kindling's Muse (TKM, I came as close to childbirth as I guess I ever will.
It was messy. Everyone who was there will agree a baby's first sounds are a little scary and the little critter learns to crawl before it walks. We got off to a late start (10 minutes) and when we played the pre-recorded introduction to the show, we could hear the music but not the rich basso profundo of Ron Turner. We thought it was because of a last minute switch to stereo recording from mono, but a hour later and a lot of buttons pushed and cables checked, we discovered the culprit: a chair tangled with a cord unplugging it from our system! I hear the newborn is as messy as the birthing process! Next come the dirty diapers, spitting up and crying though the night!
It was paced poorly. Mom wants baby now, but delivery can go on forever! I tried to move the conversation too quickly and it kept us from getting very deep with our stellar panel (Bryan Burton, Heather Hawkins, & Gregory Wolfe). Pacing also prohibited us from getting to MOST of the audience questions and comments (We're going to post them with the podcast so everybody can see the kinds of audience reaction we were getting).
TKM has a face only a mother could love. Every baby is beautiful to mom and dad and we were able to see glimmers of beauty in the newborn TKM. We had a great crowd, good venue (Thanks to Mike and Kathleen Hale), the panel was superb, intelligent and engaged. Robert Deeble's music was spot on and Jeff Berryman's reading of the late poet laureate Stanley Kuntz's "The Layers" was inspired.
The kid has potential. When our son was a child I liked to play a little song titled "I am a Promise." It went something like this: "I am promise, I am a possibility I am a promise, with a capital P, I am a great big bundle of potentiality. And if I listen and hear God's voice and if I promise to make the right choice, I can be anything, anything God wants me to be!" And that is how I feel about "The Kindlings Muse." I believe there is a need for intelligent, imaginative, hospitable explorations of ideas that matter in contemporary life, and as Stanley Kunitz said in The Layers:
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
Live in the layers,
not on the litter.
Though I lack the art to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written,
I am not done with my changes.
Yours for the pursuit of God in the company of friends, Dick Staub.
