It is time for some movies and popcorn
January 24, 2006
From time to time my wife and I want to just play vegetable at home by doing nothing but “veg out” with a movie. It is becoming harder and harder to find anything worth watching. When we go to a movie rental store, the first thing we read after the title is the rating. There are way too many “R” movies that we won’t even take off the shelf. When a new kids’ cartoon movie comes out, like Finding Nemo we are among the first to see it (just previewing it for our grandchildren … yeah, right!). But times, they are changing.
There are two new Christian films that I want to encourage you to take your family and lost friends to see. The first film, that many of you have already seen (it has topped box office receipts beating out secular offerings for weeks) is C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. This film is wonderfully done from a book that is a classic best-seller. When you go, don’t go alone. Take a lost family with you. There will be many good discussion points about the message of the film afterward.
C.S. Lewis was a brilliant man and taught for years at Oxford in England. He read books insatiably, remembering everything he had ever read. A colleague of his at dinner one night wanted to test this photographic memory, so he went to the library and found a small obscure book of poetry. He brought the book to dinner and read four lines out of a poem in the middle of the book. He paused, and C.S. Lewis finished the next ten lines of the poem, word-for-word.
This ability to recall everything he read gave him access to ideas that he wonderfully wove into the stories he told and books he wrote, like the series called The Chronicles of Narnia. For example, the central figure of Chronicles is “Aslan” the lion. Aslan is a Turkish word that means lion. In any event, due to the popular and commercial success of this film, this series of books will likely become a series of films like The Lord of the Rings by J.R. Tolkien, Lewis’s friend.
Focus on the Family ministries has produced a collection of CDs that have all of The Chronicles of Narnia books read word-for-word on them. Suzie and I listen to them as we drive and they are wonderful! I highly recommend them to you as well.
The second film that is just being released is also a must see for Christians. It is titled, The Point of the Spear. This movie is being released on Jan. 20, which is the 50 th anniversary of the martyrdom of five missionaries to the Waodani Indians in Ecuador. Those five martyrs are Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian and Pete Fleming. Many people know of this event because of a book written decades ago, Through the Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliot about her husband, Jim.
The Point of the Spear is a film that looks at this event through the eyes of another of the missionary families. I was privileged to see this film in a pre-release screening last December. It is EXCELLENT. This is a movie that is aimed at the secular audience as well as Christians. You can take your lost friends and they will be as enraptured with it as you are. It will start discussions in the coffee shop after the movie. If you want to learn some more about it visit this website: w ww.endofthespear.com. At this website, you will find information about the movie, story, cast and crew and it includes downloads of wall papers and short behind-the-scenes glimpses of the production.
Don’t forget to get your popcorn before you go in to see these movies. Because when the movies begin, you will not be able to leave your seat.