As a person who has spent most of my life working in theater and film, I’ve always been fascinated by the intersection of story, culture and faith. And that’s because, as a person of faith, I want to engage in how God is shaping our cultural narrative. So I’d like to explore 3 movie genres that reflect 3 competing stories that are playing out in our culture and in our faith.
The first of our three competing cultural narratives is found in the sports genre. We all love movies like “Remember the Titans” and “Rocky”, where there’s a team or hero that we root for. But essential to the hero being a hero is the need for a Goliath — a team or person that we’ve identified as the opponent to beat. They are sometimes faceless, but most definitely one-dimensional. Much of the film is spent training, working hard, figuring out what we’re made of, preparing for the inevitable clash and triumph over them. In “Rocky 4”, we want Rocky to stage a comeback by slaying the huge Russian, which will “#make Rocky great again.”
I see this story playing out in our culture in positive way with a desire to work hard, be victorious and ultimately, be great. Look at any college stadium on a Saturday in the fall and you will see this positive desire to be great and to win. However, the flip side of this narrative can be a constant need to identify an opponent or a threat and too often, treat them as “the Russian”, faceless and one-dimensional, so that we feel better when we triumph over them.
Just an example, as a movie guy, it saddens me every time I see a Christian film where atheist are used as one-dimensional strawmen for Christians to theologically defeat.
The next competing story crosses many genres but is most pronounced in fantasy and sci-fi. And specifically, it is found in the character of the Sage. You know them as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Gandalf, Dumbledore. They are the wise and powerful mentors who have great influence over our young hero. And they dispense truth that is never questioned and is the solution to the hero’s problem and the answer to defeating the villain (#usetheforce).
I see this story structure playing out in our culture positively in the honest desire, like mine, in this moment right now, to pass down wisdom, lessons learned, truths and even prophecy so that dragons can be slain. However, in our current moment, our culture is pushing back against the limited embodiment of a sage being old, white and male. And with so many cultural sages being exposed as having abused that role, disillusionment has set in towards any characters who place themselves above others and have irrefutable answers.
And finally, I found the 3rd competing story structure in a Forbes magazine article on Millenials and mentorship. I now affectionately call this article- The Death of the Sage or #The Last Jedi. It states, “Traditional mentorship is broken. It’s about a one-way road that limits everyone on it. It’s about an older person telling a younger person how to succeed and passing along some contacts. The new model is reverse-mentoring, which is about co-creating something of greater value together. Reverse mentoring starts with a meaningful conversation and has the potential to lead to a substantive relationship. Insights flow in both directions.” And here’s the key- “this generation (millennials) embraces buddy adventures.” Yes, the 3rd story structure is found in a buddy adventure, like “Toy Story”, or “Tommy Boy.”
Sure, buddy adventures have a bad guy to defeat and a problem to solve but that’s not what we, the audience, care about…instead, we care that two people who begin as “not a we” end the movie as “a we”. How does that happen? Well, let’s start at the “not a we” which introduces two characters who have apparently nothing whatsoever in common. It might be an introverted ogre and an extroverted donkey (SHREK)… or a grumpy old man and a wide-open little boy (UP)… or two female detectives, one buttoned-up and the other, street-smart (THE HEAT). In age, type, size, and personality, they are DISsimilar and they DISlike each other.
But then something happens and they are put together to solve a common problem…wait…that sounds like a Sage…no, in a buddy adventure it is not problems to solve, but desires to be met. In “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”, both Neal and Del share the desire to get back home to their families. Buzz and Woody want to get back to Andy, and Tommy Boy and Richard have to save the family business.
Now, the second act of the buddy adventure often is a literal ROAD TRIP, when the odd couple has shared experiences. There’s the moment where there is only one bed, so they have to share it. There’s the moment where the car blows up, or a deer wakes up in the back seat, but rather than abandon the destroyed car, they find a way to make it work. There are moments where they laugh, sing, dance and drink together…and we as the audience love it because they are FINALLY bonding!
But then comes THE moment… the tipping point. I call this moment Shared Humanity. It’s when Woody says “I need you, Buzz”. When Shrek says to Donkey- “You don’t know what it’s like to be an ogre.” When Del reveals to Neal that he actually has no one to go home to. There are fears revealed, apologies given and a shared vulnerability. The scene ends in a classic shot where they turn and look at one another, seeing each other with new eyes…no longer as dissimilar people but human beings who share more in common than they ever knew and, by virtue of this moment, have changed each other.
Now that they are no longer enemies, it’s time to defeat the real villain, which in the buddy adventure is just a nice cherry on top. That’s because…
…we, as the audience are REALLY after, what I call a Shared Future. We’ve invested so much in these two people becoming a WE that we want them to stay together…not apart. And that’s why there’s always a sequel.
From a cultural perspective, I believe there’s a reason that Forbes tied the buddy adventure to “this next generation”. That is because I think the very foundation of my 18-year-old-son’s worldview is built upon a WE. My son has never known a time when we didn’t easily share each other’s thoughts and news, pictures, videos, crafts, reviews…we even share our cars and bedrooms. And to push beyond my son’s generation to the bigger cultural picture, I believe that even though it feels like US AND THEM right now, remember the first step towards a “we” is revealing how we are not a we. So culturally, we are doing a necessary unearthing of the inequality and lack of inclusion for the people who do not feel like a WE in this country, as well as exposing the sins of our past which have caused this.
And finally from a faith perspective, we could choose to play Rocky because we do have an enemy, BUT our enemy is not of this world. And we could choose to play the role of Obi Wan Kenobi, because we do have truth that can solve problems. But I think there’s great power in taking ourselves from above others and placing ourselves along side others in a buddy adventure. Imagine if we got out of our comfort zones and sought out those who are not a WE to us. Imagine if we didn’t try to solve a problem, but just found a shared desire, and then took the time to have shared experiences where we laugh, dance, sing and drink together. Imagine if we found the gift of our common humanity- apologizing, sharing our fears, and even saying “I need you”. This could be a tipping point to a shared future together. And I think the buddy adventures reflects another story of God who was not a we with us, who humbled himself to step into OUR world. He became a WE with US so WE could have a shared future with Him. And THAT… is the power of WE.
