By David Wilkinson
“Revenge is the rage at the movies,” proclaims The Wall Street Journal. Well, there’s a surprise.
The WSJ notes that revenge, retribution and retaliation are served up (with heaping helpings of violence, naturally) in a trio of recent releases: “Edge of Darkness,” starring Mel Gibson, “7 Days,” a French-Canadian film, and “44 Inch Chest,” with Ray Winstone. (In my part of the world, the latter two flicks have gone largely unnoticed. But trailers for “Edge of Darkness” have been so ubiquitous over the last month they have about pushed me over the edge.)
Not that vengeance is something new, of course. As the WSJ goes on to point out, it’s been the stuff of storytellers since Euripides. Or, we might add, the storytellers of Genesis.
This time around, however, I think I’ll take a pass.
If you feel compelled to welcome Mel back to the big screen with your eight bucks (can you tell I live in a small town?), that’s your business. Meanwhile, inspired by our recent New Voice Media feature on Christians and radical forgiveness, I have an alternative to suggest. Consider a different movie with a radically different theme. Save yourself a few dollars (and the aggravation of wondering how that group of 12-year-olds got into an R-rated movie), make a visit to your favorite video store, and plunk down $2.99 or whatever to rent “Tender Mercies.”
Made in 1983 and the winner of two Academy Awards (best original screenplay and Robert Duvall for best actor), “Tender Mercies” in my judgment is a classic. It will continue to be appreciated long after “Edge of Darkness” has unceremoniously been buried in that great graveyard of forgettable films.
In contrast to the cinema’s obsession with vengeance, “Tender Mercies” is about, well, mercy. And forgiveness.
Talk about themes that have been underplayed and under-explored. While movies with vengeance themes are a dime a dozen, films that tell compelling stories of mercy and forgiveness are harder to find.
“Tender Mercies” immediately came to mind. After that, it got tougher. So, I consulted a friend at church who is the entertainment editor for the Waco Tribune-Herald. Carl Hoover knows more movie titles than I know words. But he had a hard time coming up with a list as well. “That may prove a point for you,” Carl surmised: “how difficult it is for Hollywood to offer a role model for forgiveness and reconciliation when audiences and filmmakers prefer the shortcut of violence.” The Terminator trumps the Teacher any day.
So, consider taking another step down a road less traveled. If you really want to buck the current entertainment trend, consider watching “Tender Mercies” and then finding a quiet place and reading another classic that has forgiveness as one of its themes, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). You can read the Sermon carefully in less time than it takes to sit through all the pre-feature trailers at the theater.
But beware. The Sermon should come with a warning label. “Tender Mercies” will make you cry. But the way of radical forgiveness preached (and lived) by Jesus is more apt to make you duck. It’s a natural response. In fact, followers of Jesus have been figuring out ways to duck the implications and repercussions of the Sermon since the words came out of Jesus’ mouth.
A few years ago a small group of adults at my church bravely participated in a Companions in Christ spiritual-formation experience titled The Way of Forgiveness. After eight weeks of reading, praying, journaling — and refreshingly transparent and honest conversation — the group discovered several things. The kind of forgiveness taught and embodied by Jesus is hard. Indeed, to forgive as God forgives can only be done through God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. But the experience of forgiveness — to forgive and to be forgiven as God has loved and forgiven us — is also liberating, healing, redeeming.
Revenge, retribution, retaliation. Those themes may play well in the movies. And far too often they describe the way we respond when we are wounded or mistreated.
But they are not the way of Jesus.