Every year millions of people wait for the Oscars to announce their winners. It is interesting to see the trend of the best picture awards, over the last decade.
In 2001, A Beautiful Mind won the best picture. It's about the American Nobel Prize winner in Economics – John Forbes Nash Jr. and his paranoid schizophrenia. Directed by Ron Howard this film is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book (1998) of the same name. It highlights the events of the life of Nash as he goes from being a young student at Princeton University to receiving the Nobel Prize for Economics in his old age. The incidences that occur in between are of more importance as they reveal Nash’s downward spiral into experiencing strange delusions and hallucinations causing havoc in the lives of his near and dear who have to put him into psychiatric care. The movie also brings out the friendships and romance he experiences on his journey as the brilliant but psychologically disturbed mathematician. The crucial theme of this movie is that despite his debilitating and often ridiculed condition, Nash’s original ideas and theories catapult him into fame as the Nobel Prize winner. A beautiful mind, a superior intellect or fame are not ways to achieve peace of mind. Having a childlike faith in the living God and His Word, is the only way to have peace - John 14:27
Chicago won the Oscar in 2002. This film is based on a stage musical of the same name directed by Rob Marshall. It is set in the 1920s and is a story of about two women murderers sentenced to jail, who fight for freedom through the pathway of singing, dancing and ultimate fame. The film sees them through a series of competitive struggles and fighting that endear them into the public sympathy so that they can finally be set free from the prison that holds them. The story highlights the theme that fame and success moves the world to the extent that they are willing to forgive the morally corrupt from their willful acts of wickedness. As the two ladies struggle for freedom through fame they enlist the aid of the corrupted prison warden, the charismatic lawyer and the obedient husband to fight their way into the hearts and minds of their fellowmen and the viewer alike. This film is based on the flexible morality of the new America where talent and charisma wins over justice and fairness. Although this is a film and may not be based on a factual story, yet it calls evil good and good evil and persuades people to believe that. It is a self-destructive society which has no standards of right or wrong and everyone does that which is right in their own eyes.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – is an epic fantasy film which won the Oscar in 2003. Directed by Peter Jackson, it is the concluding movie in the trilogy of films entitled ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and is based on J.R.R Tolkien’s second and third volume of books by the same name. The movie centers on the destruction of the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom of Mordor by hobbits Frodo Baggins and SamwiseGamgee and their travel companion - Gollum. The film also tells the stories of Aragon, Gandalf the wizard and Theoden the king of Rohan in their defeat of the evil wizard Sauron. Although Aragon enlists other armies to defeat Sauron they realize that they cannot win unless the Ring is annihilated. The nail-biting finish is effectively crafted with the pressure of destroying the Ring at the Mount of Doom and the traitorous Gollum who wants nothing more than to take the Ring for himself. Victory is assured in the end once epic battles have been fought and enemies defeated. The viewer is treated to movie watching at an epic scale and it brings out the theme of defeating the evil within oneself as well as without to obtain true liberty and glory. Although this film is a fantasy epic, the idea that human beings can defeat the evil within oneself is unattainable. The only way to defeat evil within or without is through faith in the power of the Blood of Jesus Christ - this is not fantasy but the truth of the Good News!
In 2004, Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood won the Oscar. This is a film about a hardened boxing trainer and his female protege who wants to become a professional boxer. Eastwood and Hilary Swank play the main characters while the movie is narrated by Eastwood's friend and employee - Morgan Freeman. The story begins with Swank seeking the apprenticeship of Eastwood as she believes that she can really make it big in the fighting arena. However Eastwood believes that no girl can fight like a man and he declines her offer. Swank continues to seek his help and Eastwood relents being impressed by her persistent nature. During the training, Eastwood's relationship with his daughter is revealed as being estranged while his relationship with Swank is blossoming. The story takes an ugly turn when tragedy strikes and Swank’s neck is broken at the championship match. Eastwood then tries to blame his friend for taking up the unlikely fighter that he did but finds that he can only blame himself. His guilt and love for his protege brings him to stay true to her side during her dark hour, while her family are only interested in her money. The final theme of the movie is raised when Swank asks to be put to death saying that she has got what she wanted in life. The movie ends by Eastwood delivering a lethal injection to Swank’s character but before that he reveals the meaning of the nickname ‘Mo Chuisle’ given by him to her which is ‘my darling, and my blood’ in Irish. The end reveals another secret that the movie was a narration of a letter from Eastwood to his daughter sent in the hope of mending his character in her eyes and their relationship. The atonement that Eastwood hopes to achieve in his film has an emotional tug to it. What he hopes the viewer will receive is that it is never too late to heal a broken relationship and that it is possible to redeem oneself in the eyes of one’s own flesh even if it means ‘mercifully’ taking the life of another. This sports saga eulogizes the determination and guts in the sports arena, yet it also lauds euthanasia....human beings never initiated life and neither can we put an end to it. Jesus Christ said that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, and He is the Resurrection and the Life. He is also the Healer and He heals today, even quadriplegics, just as He did two thousand years ago - He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
The 2005 Oscar was won by Crash - a 2004 American/German drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. The film is about racial and social tensions Los Angeles, California. Several characters' stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles; An African/American LAPD detective estranged from his mother, his criminal younger brother and gang associate, the white attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist cop who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the said cop, a Persian immigrant father who is wary of others and a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter. The movie brings to light the unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening situations that are a product of the ever increasing multi-cultural and multi-racial world that we live in. The question the movie poses is how does one live in a culturally, ethnically and racially diverse world without facing negative emotions and attitudes against those who do not resemble or live like us. The answer is in the message of the movie – ‘Moving at the speed of life, we are bound to collide with each other’ as well as in a memorable quote ‘we crash into each other just so we can feel something’. The theme suggested by the movie is that we all have some good qualities and bad qualities and they are in shades of grey so that sometimes we are nasty to one another and sometimes we are able to help them in a crisis. The message of the movie is only half the truth, which is to be able to help others in a crisis, the other half of being nasty to each other is what is getting us all into trouble and it is becoming worse everyday! The redeeming factor in people relations is really to sow in love, that is, being kind to one another without expecting anything in return and not necessarily expressing it in a crisis only situation.
The 2006 Oscar offering was The Departed, an American crime film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hongkong film Internal Affairs. It was directed by Martin Scorsese, written by William Monahan and takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, where Irish Mob boss Francis "Frank" Costello played by Jack Nicholson plants Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) as an informant within the Massachusetts State Police. Simultaneously, the police assign undercover cop William "Billy" Costigan, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, to infiltrate Costello's gangsters and discover their weaknesses in order that they can be brought to justice. When both sides realize the situation, each man attempts to discover the other's true identity before their own identity is made known. The film is a fast-paced thriller which has some hair-raising performances by the main cast and highlights the themes that when one is facing a gun, it does not matter whose side you are on - the good or the bad. This once again blurs the lines between moral choices as power, loyalty and will become the motivating factor for each of the troubled characters. As one can see, the trend at the Oscars is the films' message where the moral choices are in shades of grey. Choosing life and that too abundant life is always the better option to the choice of death.
The film that won in 2007 was No Country for Old Men, an American crime thriller again, directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin. The film was adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. No Country for Old Men tells the story of an ordinary man to whom chance delivers a fortune belonging to somebody else and the ensuing cat and mouse chase for the drug money, as three men crisscross each other's paths in the desert landscape of the 1980s West Texas. The film examines the themes of fate and circumstance and portrays horrific violence as the good and bad guys are killed one by one in seemingly destined circumstances by the psychopathic killer. Just when you wonder if the bad guy has won, he is also done away with, and one is left with an eerie feeling evil has not been purged from this world. The Bible puts it like this in John 3:18-20: “He who believes in Him (Jesus Christ) is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. Galatians 1:4 says - who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
The amazing Oscar win of 2008 was Slumdog Millionaire, a British romantic drama directed by Danny Boyle, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. Surprisingly Slumdog Millionaire is not the first Oscar winning movie about an Indian, that rare feat has been taken by the film Gandhi (1982). While Gandhi was about the revered leader of Indian freedom fighters Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Slumdog Millionaire takes an ordinary slum dwelling boy and puts him in extraordinary situations. The main character ‘Slumdog’ Jamal Malik is portrayed as a contestant on the Television show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’. This movie combines a unique story telling style making use of flashbacks as Jamal Malik answers all the right questions thrown at him by digging into his unique past and searching through a wealth of difficult yet character building life experiences. All the odds are against Jamal, the arrogant game show host, the disbelieving police officer, the maniacal gangster, and the over bearing brother, yet Jamal is poised to win the 20 million rupee question and find his childhood sweetheart all while answering the game show questions. Though the story is unrealistic it portrays India in a negative light in what some call ‘poverty porn’ but others hail as revealing the real picture of India’s slum dwellers. The movie has generated quite a bit of controversy in this sense, however, just like it came out of the blue the hype surrounding the film died down soon after its release and is now a name on the list of Oscar winning pictures that brought India into the limelight of the current generation. The theme the movie highlights is that the will and destiny of a person enables him to overcome the greatest of life’s challenges and portrays the underdog's success against all odds. Such fantasy inducing themes are always winners at the box office as the Indian film industry will concede and glorify 'chance' and 'luck', giving the impression that if you get your chance at hitting the jackpot, you're a winner all the way. These kind of themes inspire people to believe that once you have money you have success, infact money becomes an idol, hardens and turns the heart away from knowing the true God. As king Solomon says in Proverbs 30:8-9 - Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God.
The Hurt Locker is a 2008 Oscar winning American war film about a three-man United States Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team during the Iraq war. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb squad in Iraq for four months and came up with the screenplay of this movie based on his experience during that time. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty. The name of this film is the locker where pain and hurt is stored. The Hurt Locker opens with a quotation from War is a Force that gives us Meaning, a best-selling 2002 book by the New York Times war correspondent and journalist Chris Hedges: "The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug." All the words fade except for the last four. Sergeant First Class William James, a battle-tested veteran, arrives as a new team leader in Bravo company of a US EOD unit during the early stages of the post-invasion period in Iraq in 2004 replacing Staff Sergeant Thompson, who is killed by a radio-controlled 155 mm improvised explosive device (IED) in Baghdad. The rest of his team consists of Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge, who guard him as he works in his bombsuit disarming IEDs. James' maverick methods and attitude lead Sanborn and Eldridge to consider him reckless, and tensions mount. When they are assigned to destroy some of the explosives in a remote desert area, James returns to the detonation site to pick up his gloves. Sanborn openly contemplates killing James by "accidentally" triggering the explosion, making Eldridge very uncomfortable, but does nothing. After a series of bomb disarming adventures, James decides on his own to hunt for insurgents responsible for a petrol tanker detonation, whom he guesses are in the immediate area. Sanborn protests, but when James heads out, he and Eldridge reluctant follow. After they split up, Eldridge is captured by the insurgents and is rescued by James and Sanborn, but they accidently shoot him in the leg. James and Sanborn's unit is called to another mission, where an innocent Iraqi civilian has had a bomb vest strapped to his chest. James attempts to cut off the bolts to remove the vest, but there are too many, forcing him to abandon the mission, and the civilian is blown up. Sanborn becomes emotional and confesses to James that he can no longer cope with the pressure, and wants to return home and have a son. James returns home to his wife and child, however the boredom of routine civilian life agitates him. One night, James tells his infant son that there is only one thing that he knows he loves. At the close of the film, he is seen starting another tour of duty serving with the Delta company of an EOD unit as they are just starting their 365 day rotation. This film gives consequence to the power of control and the lust for violence and adventure. 1 John 2:16-17 says - For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
The latest best picture at the Oscar was The King's Speech. It is a 2010 British historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays King George VI, who, to overcome his stammer, is introduced to Lionel Logue, an unorthodox Australian speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. The two men become friends as they work together, and after his brother Edward VIII abdicates, the new King relies on Logue to help him make a radio broadcast at the beginning of World War II. The story is about King George VI’s speech impediment and how he successfully overcame it with the help of the unorthodox though effective speech therapist. A final title card explains that, during the many speeches King George VI gave during World War II, Logue was always present. It also explained that Logue and the King remained friends, and that, "King George VI made Lionel Logue a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1944. This high honour from a grateful King made Lionel part of the only order of chivalry that specifically rewards acts of personal service to the Monarch." This film was an encouraging theme as it showed that even royalty has human failings and can overcome them and that they are not more equal than others. People can be lonely and need friends even if they appear to be surrounded by other people. The friendship between the king and the commoner was well displayed in this well made film. As Proverbs 22:11 puts it: The king is the friend of all who are sincere and speak with kindness.
Films are a powerful medium in influencing people's opinions and morality. As the trend shows, the lines between right and wrong, are becoming blurred. People base their opinions on the movies they watch, if it happened in the movie, it's okay; rather than on the Word of God. To keep a balance and the proper perspective of life around us, we have to look at everything through what God says in His Word. Nowhere will you find the teaching to love your enemies as you do in Jesus' Words. If we can do that, this world would be a great place to be in and the movies we watch would be full of fun and laughter! We're made for laughter and love and not hate and violence.
