Year’s redeeming films

Last week, Christianity Today’s website published its list of the 10

Most Redeeming Movies of the Year, honoring films as diverse as “The

Passion of the Christ” to “Hotel Rwanda” to “The Incredibles.” In

that same vein, what piece of entertainment -- movie, television,

music -- in 2004 touched you the most?

The year 2004 wasn’t lacking in wonderfully entertaining films.

I’ve seen several in the last few weeks alone -- “Ray,” “Million

Dollar Baby,” “Being Julia” and “Sideways.” Although the acting in

all of these was often superb, and I left feeling the evening was

well-spent, none of the films was as meaningful as the PBS special

aired in January, “Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State.”

I don’t normally choose such a dark subject for an evening of TV

viewing, and I must admit I was channel surfing when I came upon the

third episode of the six-part series. I made a point of watching the

rest of it.

Like so many others, I am drawn to and repelled by the horrible

question of the Holocaust -- “Why?” Why this horror in particular,

and why does genocide continue today even after the cry of “Never

again!”

This PBS series offers much new insight into how Auschwitz, a

slave labor camp in 1941, became an extermination factory in 1942.

The documentary details the step-by-step decision-making and twisted

rationale that resulted in the murder of more than a million men,

women and children at Auschwitz alone, delving into information that

came out of the Soviet Union during the 1990s, such as the building

plans for not only the crematory, but all of Auschwitz, and the desk

diary of Heinrich Himmler, the second in command under Hitler. And

the series highlights the ideological war as one between fascism

(Germany) and communism (Soviet Union) and the way in which

anti-Semitism, and finally extermination of Jews, became “the final

solution.”

In an interview with Laurence Rees, producer of the PBS

documentary, he is asked: “How is this program different from other

programs about the Holocaust?” He mentions the important new

documents that have now been the subject of over a decade of

research, but also notes the technology in computer graphics that is

now available.

“We are able to recreate the very places the Nazis never wanted

anybody to see,” Rees says

Rees also adds that one of the intents of the documentary is to

reach out to a younger audience, a group that may know very little

about the subject. The PBS series was aired in conjunction with the

60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Realizing that the

generation that endured the traumas of World War II and, in

particular, the genocide of the Holocaust is passing, it is vitally

important to document the face of this type of war and killing.

Alain Destexhe, the former secretary-general of Doctors Without

Borders, says, “Genocide is both the gravest and the greatest of the

crimes against humanity.”

We all must take this crime personally, both the crimes of the

past and those in the present.

This documentary, along with the tools offered at

www.pbs.org/auschwitz, are a precious offering helping us to dig more

deeply into the links between righteousness, patriotism, nationalism

and genocide. Ideas can be treacherous. The more we can become aware

of the suffering caused by ideologies, the better we can create a

truly civilized world.

REV. CAROL AGUILAR

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa

All-American attitudes abounded in 2004! As we love to do, we

rooted for underdogs. I was glued to TV at the end of baseball season

and am confident that, in years ahead, I will look back and think,

“2004 ... that’s the year the Red Sox were world champions!”

As Tom Verducci wrote when Sports Illustrated declared them its

Sportsmen of the Year, “The most emotionally powerful words in the

English language are monosyllabic: love, hate, born, live, die, sex,

kill, laugh, cry, want, need, give, take, Sawx. The Boston Red Sox

are, of course, a civil religion in New England ...”

Their victory in the 2004 World Series brought joy to people well

beyond Boston (except, naturally, the Yankees and their fans). Their

triumph is an event that gives us all hope that anything and

everything is possible, a truth at the heart of the Christian

message.

Confident that professional teams are “entertainment,” while

school sports are more tribal, another “entertainment,” the novel by

Gregory Maguire, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of

the West,” became a play, “Wicked,” with Idina Menzel as Elphaba, the

Wicked Witch.

I saw it in San Francisco and found it both wonderfully

entertaining and provocative (and I understand that it is coming to

Southern California next June). It asks not only “Where did Dorothy’s

arch-nemesis come from and how did she get so wicked?” but also “What

is the true nature of evil?”

The conclusion of section seven of the final chapter of Maguire’s

novel has the best two-page discussion of the nature of evil I’ve

read; it may well be a reflection on our culture. It ends, “The real

disaster ... is that it is the nature of evil to be secret.”

Thankfully, the underdog Red Sox triumph is far from secret and

gives me joy in the present and hope for the future.

(THE VERY REV’D CANON)

PETER D. HAYNES

St. Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

I haven’t seen any of the movies that were nominated for Oscars,

except “The Incredibles” and “The Passion of the Christ.” I saw both

of them twice.

“The Incredibles” was just pure fun and a great story. I cannot

call “The Passion of the Christ” entertainment. I felt stripped naked

and left in pain and yet eternally grateful at the end of the movie.

I bought the DVD, but have not watched it yet because I want to be

able to completely focus on it again. To just watch parts of it or be

popping popcorn while watching it seems so disrespectful.

It is truly not just a movie, but also a question. It raises the

question of what impact the real event had on my life. Is my faith no

more than a crucifix that decorates the hallways and culture of my

life, or is it so foundational that everything else is changed by it?

The movie left me embarrassed that my faith has far too often become

a decoration and not a catalyst in my life.

SENIOR ASSOCIATE PASTOR

RIC OLSEN

Harbor Trinity

Costa Mesa

Over the past year, I was entertained by numerous Hollywood

figures. My amusement was not roused by their on-screen performances,

but in their chosen roles as military strategists and political

spokesmen.

Because they play the parts of national leaders, soldiers,

professors, politicians and diplomats, many actors believe they are

qualified to offer counsel in areas beyond their expertise as

entertainers. No doubt, Martin Sheen is convinced that President Jed

Bartlet could do a better job than President Bush. Sheen is not the

president, but goes him one better: he is our television president.

Mike Farrell was a soldier on “M*A*S*H,” so he qualified as an

authority on defense. George Clooney was a Gulf War movie veteran, so

his views on Iraq were significant. Angelina Jolie raided tombs

overseas, so she positioned herself as an expert on the global

economy. They have confused themselves with their roles.

Susan Sarandon spoke of the moral equivalence between Al Qaeda and

the U.S. government. Richard Gere advised us to “see the terrorists

as relatives who are dangerously sick and we need to give them

medicine and the medicine is love and compassion.”

David Clennon of the television program “The Agency” likens

America’s current “pro-war” atmosphere to that of Nazi Germany.

Was he comparing Hitler to President Bush?

“No,” Clennon said, “Hitler is smarter than Bush.”

Pundits like Sean Penn and Madonna bestowed their geo-political

wisdom on a grateful America.

“Go have your war if you want,” Brad Pitt said. “I’m just saying

that if it all goes to hell and buildings here at home start blowing

up, remember that I was never comfortable with it.”

Yes, Brad, we will remember. How could we forget when a prophet

speaks?

Celebrities revealed to European audiences their shame over the

president of the United States. What next? Paris Hilton’s thoughts on

nuclear deterrence?

These entertainers really believed what John Kerry told them

during the campaign: “Hollywood is the heart and soul of America.” It

is not the heart and soul of my America. Soon, no doubt, the views of

these “beautiful people,” whose lives are testaments to the pitfalls

of self-absorption, will be featured in a new publication: “The

Hollywood Foreign Policy Review.”

No one questions their right to rant. They are free to call

America a cesspool of evil on the fast track to fascism, led by a

moron seeking to dominate the world. But it is ironically

entertaining to see the fallout when actors cannot depend on the

words that scriptwriters put into their mouths.

When Alec Baldwin departs from his movie scripts and says, “I

believe that the election in 2000 did as much damage to the pillars

of democracy as terrorists did to the pillars of commerce on 9/11 in

New York City,” you know that improvising is not his strong suit.

In the 1920s, silent movies were about to become a thing of the

past. The question posed in 1927 by H.M. Warner of Warner Brothers

reverberates today: “Who the #&!* wants to hear actors talk?”

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yam

Newport Beach