Author Topic: Movies (Read 736 times)

Kephapaulos · « **on:** November 11, 2015, 12:14:30 AM »

One of the things I remember my former priest saying in one of his last sermons was, "Life is not a movie." Indeed it is not, but it can be hard in our minds to probably fathom some things outside what we know from movies and television that we have seen in the past. Happy "endings" are not always going to be the case; neither will there be always sad "endings." Also, I see that various shows of an apocalyptic or epic nature are something of a mimic or mockery of the true state of affairs we encounter today. The reality as opposed to the storyline of a movie is not the same. I don't have to tell everyone this, but here is a listing of the genres of movies and their problems that I see in them.

1) Horror - promotes the devil overtly, instills a false sense of fear, just plain demonic, hideously grotesque, profane, downplays the power of God.

2) Drama - sentimental and can have hidden agendas or be neutral.

3) Comedy - can have crudeness and profanity, dark humor, just plain weird and immature.

4) Romance - sentimental, promotes sins of the flesh.

5) Action - can lack a good plot and promote unjust violence and sins of the flesh.

Since we have the advantage of hindsight now, even old classic movies had their problems (even though we see remnants of the old order in them) with the revolutionary ideas being promoted in many of them. Although, immodesty was part of them too. I'm not sure now, but I had thought I read possibly on the forum in the past about there being some kind of rule or rules in the production movies today for encouraging sins of the flesh and violence. It seems there would be some kind of rule that even "clean" movies have to have some kind of sɛҳuąƖized or crude element in order to be considered for production and public viewing and sale.

Neil Obstat · « **Reply #1 on:** November 11, 2015, 02:43:24 AM »

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I have had friends who thought that classic cowboy movies contain lots of moral virtue and sound principles of justice.

Then while watching one with them, I would ask how the rampant disregard for human life can be construed as moral. Their answer was that's just the way the movies are, and that I should get over being critical and just enjoy the movie. I find it rather difficult to "enjoy" wanton murder.

One example comes to mind where a well-known actor is portrayed being the hero of a shoot-out with the "bad guys" and at the end of the scene, a crowd of Mexican villagers come out, making the sign of the cross over the dead men, while the 'hero' turns on his heel and walks away. The message to me was that he was being made out to be a smarter person because he has nothing to do with any religious sentiment. The simple townsfolk who were obviously praying for the repose of the deceased could be expected to follow this up with practicing a corporal work of mercy, namely, to bury the dead. But the 'star' of the movie would have nothing to do with any of that.

You could go down your list and find elements of other vices as well in classic cowboy movies, such as avarice, greed, marital infidelity, pride, gluttony, drunkenness, etc. How many bar scenes are there with men gulping down shots of whiskey repeatedly, or even drinking straight out of a fifth gallon bottle?

Perhaps the movie industry has found that films depicting religious sentiment do not sell as well in a Godless culture, so they produce what sells, IOW Godless movies.

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Antony · « **Reply #2 on:** November 11, 2015, 06:58:18 PM »

Quote from: Kephapaulos

One of the things I remember my former priest saying in one of his last sermons was, "Life is not a movie." Indeed it is not, but it can be hard in our minds to probably fathom some things outside what we know from movies and television that we have seen in the past. Happy "endings" are not always going to be the case; neither will there be always sad "endings." Also, I see that various shows of an apocalyptic or epic nature are something of a mimic or mockery of the true state of affairs we encounter today. The reality as opposed to the storyline of a movie is not the same. I don't have to tell everyone this, but here is a listing of the genres of movies and their problems that I see in them.

1) Horror - promotes the devil overtly, instills a false sense of fear, just plain demonic, hideously grotesque, profane, downplays the power of God.

2) Drama - sentimental and can have hidden agendas or be neutral.

3) Comedy - can have crudeness and profanity, dark humor, just plain weird and immature.

4) Romance - sentimental, promotes sins of the flesh.

5) Action - can lack a good plot and promote unjust violence and sins of the flesh.

Since we have the advantage of hindsight now, even old classic movies had their problems (even though we see remnants of the old order in them) with the revolutionary ideas being promoted in many of them. Although, immodesty was part of them too. I'm not sure now, but I had thought I read possibly on the forum in the past about there being some kind of rule or rules in the production movies today for encouraging sins of the flesh and violence. It seems there would be some kind of rule that even "clean" movies have to have some kind of sɛҳuąƖized or crude element in order to be considered for production and public viewing and sale.

Good post. One thing I find discouraging is that many Traditional Catholics watch movies that they should not be watching. I was somewhat scandalized when I first came to tradition to find that many Trad Caths watch filthy movies and listen to demon music such as rock, pop, and rap. I was also shocked to find that some Trad Caths also think smoking marijuana is morally permisable. I naively thought that most Trad Caths were solidly morally established people who were good examples. Obviously there are many holy and morally upright Traditionalists, but there are also many lacking these virtues.

RomanCatholic1953 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 11, 2015, 11:50:19 PM »

Most of those whom write the scripts since the beginning of the movie
industries were, and are Jєωs.
The movies, along with radio and TV have contributed to the pagan
and Godless culture we are living in today.
At lease earlier part of my life there was the Legion of Decency that
informed Catholics of what movies to avoid. Even the movies
that could be viewed by Catholics and some were objectionable.
Such as every cowboy movie has a bar room fight, drinking,
and immodest dressed women.