Hollywood Worldviews
Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment
by Brian Godawa
InterVarsity
Press, ISBN
00-8308-2321-2
Reviewed by Tom Fulce
Brian Godawa's new book, 'Hollywood Worldviews' is a good tool to help the follower of Christ struggling with how to be 'in' the world without being 'of' the world. Godawa is a screenwriter and a Christian. As the cover blurb states, he writes with the sensibilities of a successful screenwriter and the sensitivities of a thoughtful follower of Christ. The emphasis should be on 'thoughtful' because 'Hollywood Worldviews' lives up to its subtitle, 'Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment.'
Godawa gives an insider's view of movie making, while looking at this area of modern culture with the open eyes of one who appreciates the arts, especially the art of storytelling through movies. He writes in the introduction that his goal is
Godawa wants us to view movies with our eyes open and our brains engaged with the underlying thoughts of the moviemaker. He wants us to discern what we are consuming.
Gluttons and Anorexics
Godawa is concerned that many people are seeking mere 'amusement' (which he defines insightfully as 'without thought,' and says that its original usage was 'to deceive or delude.') And he is right on when stating that what usually happens when we go to the movies is that
Godawa identifies this as the tendency of the 'cultural glutton', who indiscriminately absorbs the culture and attempts to defend their non-thinking viewing habits by declaring 'It's just a movie', and 'I just want to be entertained.' My reaction is that many followers of Christ, if challenged to explain the message of any particular movie, cannot give a reasoned analysis, even though they are mandated to do so by the apostle Peter (1 Peter chapter 3 verses 15-16).
The 'cultural anorexic' is the person who adamantly rejects their culture and all movies with statements like 'Movies corrupt the values of society' and 'They're worldly and a waste of time.' Godawa warns that such people endanger their own humanity and the image of God in humanity. He states that our creations reflect the image of God, and he reminds us that all truth is God's truth. He warns that
Redemption
'Hollywood Worldviews' is divided into three sections:
- Storytelling in the Movies
- Worldviews in the Movies, and
- Spirituality in the Movies
In the first section, Godawa writes about stories, myth and redemption. He believes the simplest common denominator of all religious and philosophical worldviews is the belief that something is wrong with the world, and that all stories are about how to fix the wrongness of the world - or in another word, redemption. He says
Godawa uses movies extensively to illustrate his points. In the process, he gives innumerable insights to watching movies with the Biblical worldview in mind. In discussing the concept of storytelling and redemption with my wife, before, during, and after the next couple of movies we watched, I have to agree with him that redemption is not hard to find in most stories. The new experience was very rewarding.
Small criticisms
I have a couple of small criticisms of 'Hollywood Worldviews': The first is that it would be greatly improved with an index. There are references to so many movies that an index would be very useful. The second criticism is that I am not sure that Godawa makes a strong enough case against watching every movie that comes out of Hollywood. If pushed to make a choice, he would probably err on the side of 'cultural gluttony' rather than anorexia.
In my opinion the conclusion needs to be placed at the beginning of the book because it is here that Godawa attempts to makes the point of 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 12,
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable... I will not be mastered by anything.
He really needs to spend more time on this section, because it is here that 'Hollywood Worldviews' is likely to receive its greatest criticism from those who need to read it the most, the cultural gluttons and anorexics.
The appendix is devoted to the subjects of sex, violence, and profanity in the Bible, and it too would have benefited from a more extensive treatment.
'Hollywood Worldviews' deserves a second edition. I would buy one, especially if these shortcomings are corrected. I hope we see more in print (and on screen) from Mr. Godawa. He deserves it, and so does his book.
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