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Meaning at the Movies

By Grant Horner (Crossway, 2010)

Reviewed by Joshua Maule

27 Aug 2010

9:37am Friday, 27th August 2010

The scenario is not uncommon, is it? The week's been tiring, a vacant Saturday rolls around and so does the opportunity for a night in with large volumes of junk food and a Hollywood new release.

It's not that Grant Horner is going to tell you to stop in Meaning At The Movies. Quite the opposite. But he will challenge your state of near-paralysis during the exercise. "Film," he says in his introduction, "is the modern day equivalent of philosophy. It is an artistic representation of what we believe, what we dream of, what we hope for - indeed, of what we are in the core of our being." You wouldn't pick up Plato, Kant or Nietzsche with such casual resolve, so what's the difference when it comes to Jackson, Spielberg, or Nolan?

Horner's refreshing treatment on film is long overdue on many a Christian bookshelf. Watching films as "mere entertainment" is foolish he says, and our relationship with the God who is sovereign over every aspect of life is at stake.

Broken into two halves - "practical considerations" and "analysis" - Meaning at the Movies lays out a framework for Christians to begin thinking about movies. Horner encourages us to avoid the pitfalls of an extreme reactionary attitude on the one hand, and blind acceptance on the other. He calls for every Christian to have "discernment" - more than just a "useful skill". In his words it's something "required of every believer who desires to obey God".

To get discernment the Christian needn't attend Bible college or understand the ins and outs of hardcore theology (though neither would hurt). Just two elements are needed. First a mind "saturated" in scripture and second a basic understanding of the "worldview systems", perhaps a foreign idea to many casual viewers. Horner says because "thought does not occur in a vacuum", viewers would do well to understand worldviews such as Christian Theism, Naturalistic Materialism, Nihilism, to name a few.

Failure to grasp such thought systems may lead one into the trap of misinterpreting the ideas undergirding a particular movie. A case in point according to Horner, is the Matrix trilogy which many Christians claimed to have "Christian themes". In fact he says, nothing could be further from the truth. And the difference comes down to the worldview of the filmmakers: "the polar opposite of what the Bible teaches"

The latter half of Meaning At The Movies contains an overwhelming number of actual film references and will reward a close, slow reading. Here Horner gives a chapter to Comedy, Horror, Romance, Film Noir and Memory - and analyses films in each specific genre.

It is the more difficult half of the book to digest due to the swift treatment of a multitude of ideas and film references. Heeding the author's advice to watch a list of recommended films prior to reading will no doubt help. But Horner does a good job of showing how both the low-brow rom-com and esoteric "masterpiece" can be unlocked with a critical mind. Take this insightful quote from the chapter on Film Noir for example: "...noir is as biblically accurate about human nature as Hollywood has ever gotten."

Horner's book is a brilliant reminder that Christians ought to think critically not only when selecting a DVD but during and after watching it. While it is a very readable book, I suspect his academic background may ostracise the casual Christian reader, which is a shame given films are consumed by Christians of all stripes.

While it may well seem a harmless practise to watch without caring, such an attitude may lead to an area of life lived somewhere other than under Christ's Lordship. And that's nothing to be eating choc-tops about.