davidternst

[davidternst]

Sands of Oblivion

“Sands of Oblivion” (2007) buries a bright idea in a banal B-movie. The ingenious plot twists allows this “Egyptian curse” story to filmed on location in California without ever having to pretend otherwise.

The “Sci-Fi Channel original” cribs most of its plot points from Stephen Sommers’ “The Mummy” (1999). The one ray of inspiration is its link to what was once a real-life legend, “The lost city of Cecil B. DeMille”. The great director would release his silent film epic, “The 10 Commandments” in 1923. Thirty-three years later, he remade his own movie, starring Charlton Heston as Moses. The second version was filmed on location in Egypt and at Mount Sinai itself. However, for his first version of the Exodus, DeMille traveled just 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) northwest of Beverly Hills. There he found the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes, an 18-mile-long strip of land (20,000 acres) that receives more annual rainfall, but on a clear day can pass for the Saharan Desert. Nowadays it is a national wildlife refuge, home to more than 120 species of rare plants and animals.

DeMille had built on site “the City of the Pharaohs”, which at the time was the largest and most expensive movie set in Hollywood history. The “Egyptian temple”, for example, measure roughly 120 feet in height and 720 feet in width, and was flanked by 21 plaster sphinxes thought to weigh a few hundred pounds each. In addition to the set, which blended ancient Egyptian symbols with 1920s Art Deco style, DeMille also created "Camp DeMille", a tent city with street signs and a 24-hour canteen for 3,500 actors and crew members.

After filming was complete, DeMille decided that he did not want to pay for hauling out the elaborate set. But he had signed a contractor with the Union Sugar Company, which owned the land then, to leave no trace of the production after he left. But that only applied to the surface of the soil, so DeMille had everything buried beneath the sand. For decades, no one knew exactly where this burial site was. But in the early 1980s, a pair of amateur archeologists claimed to have found it, and spent the next 30 years raising money for the excavation. The project was finally completed in 2017, 10 years after “Sands of Oblivion”. Their efforts are chronicled in a 2016 documentary “The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille”.There is an exhibit on the recovery at the Dunes Center museum in Guadalupe, California.

Now, the premise of “Sands of Oblivion” is that DeMille took a trip to Cairo, Egypt, and purchased on the black market authentic Egyptian relics to adorn his “City of the Pharaohs”. One relic bore an authentic curse and the real reason DeMille buried the set was to save the world from the ancient being released by the curse. This all is explained for the viewer in flashbacks which bring the contemporary “action” to a grinding halt, but really are the most interesting part of the movie. Cecil B. DeMille is portrayed by Dan Castellaneta, whose other claim to fame is being the voice of Homer Simpson (Doh!). He gives the best acting performance, really convincing the viewer that this must be what the larger-than-life director was like. The vengeful Egyptian deity is accidentally set free once more, and it is up to a bookish but beautiful archeologist and a former soldier to stop “the power of the 10 plagues” from being unleashed on the modern world.

Which is a repetition of the 1999 movie’s error. The 10 Plagues are from the Bible, not ancient Egyptian mythology. Each plague was intended to demonstrate the power of the God of Israel over the forces of nature worshipped by the Egyptians. Each plague challenged the Egyptian gods associated with the natural elements and aspects of life they governed. Through the 10 Plagues, the Lord showed that it was an easy matter for Him to change all the blessings of the country into curses.

The Nile was the primary source of fertility and life in Egypt. Changing the water of the Nile to blood (Exodus 7:14-24) was a direct strike against Osiris, Egypt’s god of fertility and agriculture. This miracle also challenged other Nile-related gods: Khnum (source of the Nile), Hapi (flooding), and Sopdet (fertility through floodwaters), as well as Nu, Naunet, Tefnut, Nehet-Weret, and the fish-goddess Hatmehit. The plague of frogs (Exodus 8:1-15) mocked Heket, the frog-headed goddess of fertility and water. The plague of lice from the dust of the earth (Exodus 8:16-19): Geb, the god of the earth. The plague of flies (Exodus 8:20-32): pestilence and decay, instead of regeneration and life provided by the god Khepri. Death of livestock (Exodus 9:1-7): Hathor, the cow-headed goddess of livestock, and Apis, bull-headed god of livestock. Boils and sores (Exodus 9:8-12) : Sunu, Sekhmet and Isis, deities associated with medicine and healing. Hail and fire from the sky (Exodus 9:13-35) : the goddess of the sky, Nut. Neither Nut nor Set, god of storms, could defend the Egyptians against the devastation delivered by the true God. Locusts (Exodus 10:1-20): Both Set and Osiris, linked to vegetation and agriculture, were both shown to be powerless as locusts consumed the crops of Egypt. Darkness at midday (Exodus 10:21-29): Ra, the sun god. Death of the firstborn, including the son of Pharaoh (Exodus 11:1-10;12:29-30) : the living god-king of Egypt himself. Pharaoh was believed to be the incarnation of Osiris and his son, the incarnation of the god Horus. In fact, all the plagues challenged not only the power of the gods, but the authority of Pharaoh.

The “finger of God” in the 10 Plagues overwhelms the magic of Pharaoh’s sorcerors (Exodus 8:19). But the Israelites not only are spared the worst of the plagues, they gain their liberty from slavery in Egypt through God’s mercy, their sins forgiven through the sacrifice of a lamb at the institution of the Passover (Exodus 12:1-28; 31-51). For New Testament believers, Jesus Christ, through His sacrifice on the cross, has become our Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:8) and the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea from slavery to freedom a sign of cross from death to eternal life through the water of baptism.

[davidternst]

Papal conclave as drama

In the wake of the death of Pope Francis and a relatively brief, real-life conclave, it's time to review movies with a "Who will be the next pope?" theme.

The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968): Anthony Quinn's Ukrainian (!) pope eerily anticipates the real-life Pope John Paul II.

The Godfather, Part III (1990): Francis Ford Coppola tries to weave the fictional Corleone crime family into then-fashionable speculation about the "Vatican banking scandal" and the mysterious death of John Paul I, immediate predecessor to John Paul II.

Angels and Demons (2009): Over-the-top science fiction/ancient conspiracy thriller from Dan Brown. Unlike "The Da Vinci Code", the (eventual) Pope and his cardinals are the good guys. Tom Hanks, as the world's greatest and perhaps only "symbologist", is just the man to track down a serial killer and antimatter bomb in the Vatican City.

Conclave (2024): Forgettable and deplorable wokery-pokery.

I recommend the mighty Quinn in "The Shoes of the Fisherman".

[davidternst]

Tears of the Sun

Bruce Willis leads a team of Navy SEALs tasked with extracting an American doctor (played by the lovely Monica Bellucci) from an African country where all hell has broken loose (the country is fictional, but I believe it is supposed to represent Rwanda or Sierra Leone). She refuses to be airlifted out without the patients who are depending on her care. This being a movie, Bruce Willis doesn’t follow orders, but rather manages to get everybody out. Everybody, that is, except the priest and nuns at the mission who are all brutally murdered by government troops.

[davidternst]

Rambo 4

Sixty-year-old John Rambo ekes out a living on a longboat on the Salween River in Thailand. A team of short-term missionaries asks him to take them upriver and across the border into Myanmar to deliver Bibles and medical supplies to a remote village. Rambo at first refuses, but changes his mind after a personal plea by hot blonde Sarah (Julie Benz). Clearly there is mutual attraction between Rambo and Sarah, which is probably why Michael, the group's leader and Sarah's fiance, treats Rambo like dirt. They cross the border and are boarded by river pirates. The pirates make clear their intent to gang-rape Sarah (the only woman) and massacre everyone else. Rambo, being Rambo, springs into action and kills all the pirates himself. Michael haughtily tells Rambo that they are on a non-violent mission and would he please let them go ashore and continue the journey over land (Michael is a doctor and Sarah describes him as a compassionate man, but we never see any of this compassion in the movie). The missionaries reach the village and there is a fairly accurate representation of them doing what short-term missionaries do before government troops kill all the villagers and take the missionaries as captives. Ten days later, the pastor of their church approaches Rambo and asks him to take a band of mercenary soldiers into Myanmar and rescue the missionary team. This was the part of the movie that I found really hard to believe, based on my experience with church fund-raising. In just 10 days the pastor of some church in Colorado is able to raise enough money to send a half-dozen mercenaries on a near-suicidal trip to rescue people who very likely are already dead. Really? That must be some megachurch. And there you have just the setup for the movie's real action: Rambo and the mercenaries taking on an entire army. Guess who wins?

This movie has been criticized for mixing horrific real-world violence with Rambo's superheroics. In fact, the film does attempt to draw attention to the plight of the Karen people of Myanmar. The Karen (or Kaiyin) are an ethnic minority (about 7 percent of the total population) whose rebel faction has been fighting the government of Myanmar (or Burma, as it was once known) since 1949. From 15 to 25 percent of the Karen are Christians (the rest are Buddhists/animists). Karen Christians are doubly targets of persecution, since the Myanmar government is aggressively anti-Christian as well. Many of the atrocities depicted in the film are based on actual incidents. The point of the film seems to be that you need warriors to protect the innocent and allow missions of peace to continue.

[davidternst]

Nightmare Alley (1947)

I listened to an insightful review by Pastor Ted Giese on Issues, Etc., of the 2021 film adaptation of “Nightmare Alley” by the director, Guillermo del Toro. Afterward, I watched online the 1947 version starring Tyrone Power, Colette Gray, Joan Blondell and Helen Walker (all the actresses give impressive performances as well as Power). The 1946 novel is the most successful work by William Lindsay Gresham. It reflects many of the author’s interests and experiences: A lifelong fascination with carnivals and sideshows (which began when he visited Coney Island as a child); a variety of jobs, including editor of “true crime” pulp magazines; alcoholism and drug addiction; and an interest in various forms of religion and occultism. Another bit of trivia: He dedicated the novel to his wife at the time, Joy Davidman Gresham. She later would divorce him for his open adultery (as well as alcoholism) and marry C.S. Lewis. The 1947 movie brings out the religious themes of the novel with surprising clarity. It’s a cautionary tale on many levels, but one question it raises for the Christian is whether it is ever acceptable to “play” with the occult. Here’s a hint: No.

[davidternst]

Valley of the Kings

Recently I watched this action-adventure movie starring Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker. There are four reasons to enjoy this movie.1. Eleanor Parker was one of the most underrated actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood. While never as famous as Elizabeth Taylor or Vivian Leigh, she was beautiful and accomplished.2. Manly, two-fisted, pistol-packing archeologist teams up with the spunky daughter of his deceased mentor to search Egypt for an artifact associated with the Biblical narrative. Sounds familiar, right? But this was 30 years before "Raider of the Lost Ark", both in real time and movie time. 3. The most remarkable thing about this movie is that it was made at a magical moment in history when it was possible to film in Technicolor on location in Egypt and the Middle East with a maximum of security and a minimum of restrictions. When you see the pyramids, the Sphinx, the Red Sea and Mount Sinai, it's all the real deal. Especially the temples of Abu Simbel where they originally stood for nearly 3,000 years before being moved to make way for the Aswan Reservoir.4. There is an extended cameo by a wild desert rabbit that should not be missed.

[davidternst]

The Mission

When I first saw "The Mission" in 1986, I did not realize at that time what personal significance the history of Latin American missions would have for me. The movie still gives cause for reflection, and what occurs to me now is this. Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Western Hemisphere for the first time on October 12, 1492, ushering in a new era for the whole world. Most Latin American countries do not honor Columbus on this date (he did not have a good reputation even among the Spaniards, who eventually sent him back to Spain in chains), but rather celebrate the good things that have resulted from the mixture of pre-Columbian, European and African cultures. And so we should recognize all human achievement that is noble and beautiful, we should realize that, just as the slave trade existed in Africa before European colonization, so did war, conquest, slavery, famine and disease in the so-called New World. We should not forget the shame of forced conversions of indigenous people, so that the same error might be avoided in the future. But we also should remember that Christian missionaries gave their lives, not just to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Americas, but also to protect the first nations from European empire builders. The first Christians were not light-skinned people who spoke English or Spanish. But neither does the dark, destructive side of human nature belong to one race, nation, party or ideology. "For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one:  There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. (Romans 3:9-12). Yet we are assured the promise of eternal life in Christ is for all nations. "After these things I looked and beheld a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throone and to the Lamb." (Revelation 7:9-10).

[davidternst]

Black Narcissus

“Black Narcissus” was a classic perfume for men and women produced by Ahmed Soliman in the 1920s. It was based on an oil extracted from flowering plants of the genus Narcissus (daffodils and jonquils) which still is used in perfumes and colognes today. The scent is said to have been dark, musky, sultry and erotic. So why is “Black Narcissus” also the title of a 1947 movie about missionary nuns in India?

You have to wait for it, but the perfume figures prominently in a key scene that relates to the budding sexual tensions within the austere religious community. But the discussion of “Black Narcissus” ends with a bluntly racist comment that also fits the film’s underlying themes.

First, it is important to understand that the nuns in question are Anglican, rather than Roman Catholic nuns. In fact, the movie was originally released only a few months before India declared its independence from British rule. The identification with a specific national church, and nationalistic form of Christianity, explains  the nuns’ confusion of the Gospel with British culture, and the taming of a “barbaric” people.

As a result of a political deal, the motherhouse in Calcutta receives property on which to establish a convent, school and clinic in a remote valley of the Himalayan Mountains. The rajah of the region has little interest in Christianity, but he wants to curry favor with the British and also wants his people to have the observable benefits of western European learning and technology, especially medicine.

So a team of sisters is dispatched to the location, led by Sister Clodagh (this was a breakthrough role for English movie star, Deborah Kerr). Yes, it’s also noteworthy that Sister Clodagh is Irish, unlike the others. It turns out that the property is a fortress on a sheer cliff overlooking the village in the valley below. The rajah’s father used it as a pleasure palace, where he housed his large harem. When the nuns move in, the walls are covered with pornographic paintings (what is shown of them is surprisingly explicit for a 1947 movie). That’s interesting, because it is also noted that some monks had previously tried to set up shop in the castle, but left after only five months. No further explanation of that matter is given.

This backstory hints at perhaps some supernatural influence at work in what happens to the nuns. All experience personal breakdowns of varying degrees of severity and their group bond begins to unravel. However, the viewer may interpret this simply as the psychological effects of immersion and isolation within a foreign culture, compounded by repressed sexuality.

It also is strongly suggested that life on the rugged, windswept mountain heightens the women’s five senses, and brings to the surface memories that they had buried beneath a comfortable routine of daily prayer and hard work. The audience only gets a glimpse of Sister Clodagh’s memories of a failed romance in Ireland. These flashbacks feature a radiant, fun-loving young woman in contrast to her severe appearance as a nun. Deborah Kerr, of course, looks gorgeous, even standing in the middle of a stream in flyfishing gear.

Then there’s the movie’s homme fatale, rather than femme fatale. Mr. Dean (David Farrar) is the “British agent” (the local ruler’s liaison with the imperial government). He is a handsome Englishman who has “gone native”. That means most of the time he wears only shorts and an open shirt (in one scene he rushes to the convent without even putting on a shirt). Mr. Dean doubts that the mission will succeed where others have not, and Sister Clodagh considers him “dissolute”. All conversations between them are charged with sexual innuendo.

In a plot twist, the old rajah dies and his son takes over. Unlike his father, the young rajah (Sabu) is sincerely interested in Jesus Christ and what He taught. The sisters fail to understand this. They also fail to pick up on his equally keen interest of another type in 17-year-old Kanchi (Jean Simmons). Kanchi is a, shall we say, precocious orphan that the nuns have taken in. She performs exotic dances when the nuns aren’t looking and otherwise conveys her mutual feelings toward the young rajah. The two elope and are then absent from the movie until the very end.

But there is some dialogue between the young rajah and Sister Clodagh that is worth examining. The sister is explaining to the rajah why the convent is only a spiritual retreat for women and not for men. The rajah points to a nearby crucifix and says, “But Jesus was a man”. Sister Clodagh replies that, “Jesus only took the form of a man.”

Which is not what the Bible and the ecumenical creeds say. The fourth Gospel, that of the Apostle John, probably was written specifically to refute the heresy of the Gnostics. Part of the false teaching of the Gnostics was that the material world, the world of our five senses, is evil. It was not created by God, the Father of Jesus Christ, but by an inferior deity.

The first chapter recaps the account of creation in Genesis, emphasizing how the Word (Logos, a designation of the Second Person of the Trinity) was with God in the beginning and was God. By this Word was everything made and for this Word everything was made. And then the Word “was made flesh and dwelled among us”. The Greek word translated “was made” signifies a change in the nature of something. In this case, what was divine became fully human, although it remained divine, and dwelled among humanity.

After John’s Gospel, the Council of Nicea in 325 AD would reject not only Arianism, the idea that Jesus was a created being inferior to God the Father, but also docetism, the teaching that the human form of Jesus was only a sort of illusion. Thus, the Nicene Creed says that Jesus “was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father.” The story of the ascension shows that Jesus returned to the Father in both His human and divine natures, thus sanctifying forever our human nature.

The Athanasian Creed goes into even more detail. “For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess; that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; God, of the substance of the Father; begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His Mother, born in the world. Perfect God; and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching His Godhead; and inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who although He is God and Man; yet He is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by assumption of the manhood into God. One altogether; not by confusion of substance; but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man; so God and Man is one Christ.”

So Sister Clodagh expresses at the very least, a deficient Christology. Jesus became incarnate that he might experience every human feeling and every human temptation; yet at the same time blessing common human experience. So the nuns see human desires and pleasures as a threat to spirituality to an exaggerated degree. They are all the more vulnerable to the sensuality of the natural and cultural environment in which they find themselves

Yet they are not entirely wrong, because in one case, the unleashing of passion raises something darker than Sister Clodagh’s regrets. Again, there is the suggestion of something like demonic possession, although it could be explained away as jealousy and emotional instability.

At any rate, Mr. Dean is not really the serpent in the garden, although what he considers an offhand remark sets a tragic event in motion. And a simple gesture by the most open and friendliest of the nuns is misunderstood and turns the villagers against the mission.

“Black Narcissus” is filmed in beautiful Technicolor and the scenery emphasizes the vastness of the mountains and the dream-like state that overwhelms the sisters.

“Black Narcissus” was a classic perfume for men and women produced by Ahmed Soliman in the 1920s. It was based on an oil extracted from flowering plants of the genus Narcissus (daffodils and jonquils) which still is used in perfumes and colognes today. The scent is said to have been dark, musky, sultry and erotic. So why is “Black Narcissus” also the title of a 1947 movie about missionary nuns in India?

You have to wait for it, but the perfume figures prominently in a key scene that relates to the budding sexual tensions within the austere religious community. But the discussion of “Black Narcissus” ends with a bluntly racist comment that also fits the film’s underlying themes.

First, it is important to understand that the nuns in question are Anglican, rather than Roman Catholic nuns. In fact, the movie was originally released only a few months before India declared its independence from British rule. The identification with a specific national church, and nationalistic form of Christianity, explains  the nuns’ confusion of the Gospel with British culture, and the taming of a “barbaric” people.

As a result of a political deal, the motherhouse in Calcutta receives property on which to establish a convent, school and clinic in a remote valley of the Himalayan Mountains. The rajah of the region has little interest in Christianity, but he wants to curry favor with the British and also wants his people to have the observable benefits of western European learning and technology, especially medicine.

So a team of sisters is dispatched to the location, led by Sister Clodagh (this was a breakthrough role for English movie star, Deborah Kerr). Yes, it’s also noteworthy that Sister Clodagh is Irish, unlike the others. It turns out that the property is a fortress on a sheer cliff overlooking the village in the valley below. The rajah’s father used it as a pleasure palace, where he housed his large harem. When the nuns move in, the walls are covered with pornographic paintings (what is shown of them is surprisingly explicit for a 1947 movie). That’s interesting, because it is also noted that some monks had previously tried to set up shop in the castle, but left after only five months. No further explanation of that matter is given.

This backstory hints at perhaps some supernatural influence at work in what happens to the nuns. All experience personal breakdowns of varying degrees of severity and their group bond begins to unravel. However, the viewer may interpret this simply as the psychological effects of immersion and isolation within a foreign culture, compounded by repressed sexuality.

It also is strongly suggested that life on the rugged, windswept mountain heightens the women’s five senses, and brings to the surface memories that they had buried beneath a comfortable routine of daily prayer and hard work. The audience only gets a glimpse of Sister Clodagh’s memories of a failed romance in Ireland. These flashbacks feature a radiant, fun-loving young woman in contrast to her severe appearance as a nun. Deborah Kerr, of course, looks gorgeous, even standing in the middle of a stream in flyfishing gear.

Then there’s the movie’s homme fatale, rather than femme fatale. Mr. Dean (David Farrar) is the “British agent” (the local ruler’s liaison with the imperial government). He is a handsome Englishman who has “gone native”. That means most of the time he wears only shorts and an open shirt (in one scene he rushes to the convent without even putting on a shirt). Mr. Dean doubts that the mission will succeed where others have not, and Sister Clodagh considers him “dissolute”. All conversations between them are charged with sexual innuendo.

In a plot twist, the old rajah dies and his son takes over. Unlike his father, the young rajah (Sabu) is sincerely interested in Jesus Christ and what He taught. The sisters fail to understand this. They also fail to pick up on his equally keen interest of another type in 17-year-old Kanchi (Jean Simmons). Kanchi is a, shall we say, precocious orphan that the nuns have taken in. She performs exotic dances when the nuns aren’t looking and otherwise conveys her mutual feelings toward the young rajah. The two elope and are then absent from the movie until the very end.

But there is some dialogue between the young rajah and Sister Clodagh that is worth examining. The sister is explaining to the rajah why the convent is only a spiritual retreat for women and not for men. The rajah points to a nearby crucifix and says, “But Jesus was a man”. Sister Clodagh replies that, “Jesus only took the form of a man.”

Which is not what the Bible and the ecumenical creeds say. The fourth Gospel, that of the Apostle John, probably was written specifically to refute the heresy of the Gnostics. Part of the false teaching of the Gnostics was that the material world, the world of our five senses, is evil. It was not created by God, the Father of Jesus Christ, but by an inferior deity.

The first chapter recaps the account of creation in Genesis, emphasizing how the Word (Logos, a designation of the Second Person of the Trinity) was with God in the beginning and was God. By this Word was everything made and for this Word everything was made. And then the Word “was made flesh and dwelled among us”. The Greek word translated “was made” signifies a change in the nature of something. In this case, what was divine became fully human, although it remained divine, and dwelled among humanity.

After John’s Gospel, the Council of Nicea in 325 AD would reject not only Arianism, the idea that Jesus was a created being inferior to God the Father, but also docetism, the teaching that the human form of Jesus was only a sort of illusion. Thus, the Nicene Creed says that Jesus “was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father.” The story of the ascension shows that Jesus returned to the Father in both His human and divine natures, thus sanctifying forever our human nature.

The Athanasian Creed goes into even more detail. “For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess; that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; God, of the substance of the Father; begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His Mother, born in the world. Perfect God; and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching His Godhead; and inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who although He is God and Man; yet He is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by assumption of the manhood into God. One altogether; not by confusion of substance; but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man; so God and Man is one Christ.”

So Sister Clodagh expresses at the very least, a deficient Christology. Jesus became incarnate that he might experience every human feeling and every human temptation; yet at the same time blessing common human experience. So the nuns see human desires and pleasures as a threat to spirituality to an exaggerated degree. They are all the more vulnerable to the sensuality of the natural and cultural environment in which they find themselves

Yet they are not entirely wrong, because in one case, the unleashing of passion raises something darker than Sister Clodagh’s regrets. Again, there is the suggestion of something like demonic possession, although it could be explained away as jealousy and emotional instability.

At any rate, Mr. Dean is not really the serpent in the garden, although what he considers an offhand remark sets a tragic event in motion. And a simple gesture by the most open and friendliest of the nuns is misunderstood and turns the villagers against the mission.

“Black Narcissus” is filmed in beautiful Technicolor and the scenery emphasizes the vastness of the mountains and the dream-like state that overwhelms the sisters. It may be intrepreted as a cautionary tale against sending missionaries to remote areas without proper knowledge and appreciation of the local language and culture, and a false sense of spirituality.

[davidternst]

The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961) 

Future “Police Woman” Angie Dickinson plays a young and beautiful missionary nurse assigned to a remote clinic in the Belgian Congo in 1939. The resident doctor dies shortly after her arrival, leaving her completely in charge. The loneliness of being a stranger in a strange land and the weight of her responsibilities leave her vulnerable to the charms of a dashing pilot who crash-lands near the mission (he is played by future “James Bond”, Roger Moore). She becomes pregnant and faces some hard decisions.

[davidternst]

Curse of the Undead 

“Preacher Dan” is not identified as a missionary, but he definitely is a newcomer to the isolated frontier town where he must confront a vampire gunslinger. That's right. A killer for hire who does not always draw first, but somehow is always the last man standing. And people are wasting away and dying from some mysterious cause... This 1959 movie is a blend of the western and horror genres played absolutely straight. In fact, someone put a lot of thought into the script, although the production values are typical of B movies of that period. For example, the villain´s first name, Drake, is not short for Dracula and he is not an eastern European. Drake Robey is such a terrific bad guy that it's shame that he is featured in such a low-budget movie. At times he presents himself as a victim of tragic circumstances and you almost believe him, because that is certainly what he believes himself. He is marvelously manipulative as well as being physically threatening when he has to be, and sometimes just plain creepy. Our hero, Preacher Dan, is rather bland, as is his brand of Christianity. An alleged Protestant minister, he officiates at a funeral without once mentioning Christ's resurrection and the hope of eternal life through faith in Him. Too sectarian, I guess. Nevertheless, the scenes where Robey tempts him to fear and doubt are quite good, as Preacher Dan is very much “the straight man” for a twisted trickster. How does he defeat the undead gunman? In a suitably western way, but you can watch the entire movie on-line to find out.

[davidternst]

The Spiral Road

I remember as a young boy reading an excerpt from Jan de Hartog's novel in a volume of Reader's Digest Condensed Books. It was the "duel with the witch doctor" passage. I was reading a lot of Edgar Allan Poe at the time and found it as frightening as anything by Poe. Jan de Hartog, the son of a Dutch Reformed minister and seminary professor, ran away to sea when he was 11 years old and led an adventurous life before finding fame and fortune as a novelist and playwright. The Spiral Road was adapted to film by director Robert Mulligan and released in 1962, the same year as another of Mulligan's films, To Kill A Mockingbird. While To Kill A Mockingbird made the American Film Institute's list of greatest American movies of all time and still featured on classic movie channels, The Spiral Road was perhaps the least critically acclaimed film of Mulligan's distinguished career. This may be because of its unsympathetic protagonist, psychological horror and explicitly religious theme.

The film stars Rock Hudson as Dr. Anton Drager, a brilliant young physician who volunteers to study leprosy in Indonesia. His motives are completely selfish: He figures that at least time spent in Indonesia on a humanitarian project will look good on his resume, and beyond that, his self-confidence is such that he imagines making an important discovery, maybe even a cure for leprosy, that will make him rich and famous. To improve his chances of achieving this goal, he deliberately partners with a more experienced medical researcher (played by Burl Ives) with every intention of sneaking a look at the older man's notes and capitalizing on any information he gains that way. Drager shows great contempt for anyone that he considers "weak", which includes anyone with genuine religious beliefs. Since he must work with a number of missionaries, that leads to some strained working relations.

This situation changes dramatically when Drager is trapped in a remote section of the jungle at the mercy of a witch doctor who is hostile to Europeans and European doctors in particular. Two other men have been driven mad, supposedly by the witch doctor's magic. It is left an open question whether the witch doctor really has supernatural power or is just an expert at malevolent mind games. At any rate, Drager is not equipped to withstand such a spiritual assault, He slowly but surely slips into complete mental breakdown and only when he desperately utters a prayer is he found and rescued.

[davidternst]

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

This movie is not by any means present a realistic portrayal of Christian mission work. However, the Christian missionary, Philip Swift, is a heroic figure. He is captured and tortured by Blackbeard, yet still stands up to the villainous pirate. Philip is a very manly yet sensitive guy, which is why he wins the heart of a beautiful mermaid (that's the part that is not so realistic). In the end, the movie does not tell what becomes of Philip and Syrena, the mermaid. That's too bad, because their romance is more compelling than that of Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, oh excuse me, Captain Jack Sparrow and Angelica Teach (Blackbeard's daughter). This fourth segment of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" saga gives the lie to the idea that the pairing of Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly in the previous movies was just too bland, and that Jack Sparrow was the real hero of the series. Even with the lovely Penelope Cruz thrown into the mix, it is clear that Jack Sparrow works better as a supporting character rather than as the protagonist. By the way, this was the last movie that Luz Maria and I saw in a movie theater when it was released in 2011.

[davidternst]

African Queen

Katharine Hepburn is the prim and proper missionary lady Rose Sayer, and Humphrey Bogart is Charlie Allnut, hard-drinking riverboat captain. Nasty Germans burn down her brother's mission (this takes place during World War I) and her brother dies. So Rose and Charlie embarks on a classic adventure-romance. The "African Queen" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1994.

[davidternst]

Last King of Scotland

A Scottish medical school graduate (James McAvoy) decides to volunteer as a doctor for a Christian mission in Uganda as a way of getting as far from his overbearing father as possible. The doctor who is already there has a beautiful wife (played by Gillian Anderson of "X Files" fame). She does not receive much of  her husband's attention because of the constant demands on his time. McAvoy's character does not really have much in the way of religious beliefs or moral principles, as we see when he engages in casual sex with a woman he meets on the train to the mission. Just when it seems that he may seduce the missionary doctor's wife, a chance encounter propels him into the inner circle of Idi Amin, president of Uganda. Let's just say that his lack of a moral compass gets him into a real bad place. 

[davidternst]

The Painted Veil

Based on a 1925 novel by W. Somerset Maugham, which I have not read. I do not think I would enjoy it as much as the movie with its stunning location shots in China. Excellent acting is another strength of the movie, which stars Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. They take characters who are not particularly likeable or admirable in the beginning and make you care about them and their relationship. Watts plays a 1920s “flapper” who chooses to marry Norton, a nerdy bacteriologist, because he is instantly smitten with her and is planning to move to China, about as far as from her domineering mother as it is possible to be. Once ensconced in a Chinese city (Hong Kong or Shanghai? I can’t remember), the marriage quickly sours. He’s a workaholic, she’s a social butterfly. Watts’ character, Kitty, embarks on a torrid affair with a dashing British diplomat (Lev Schreiber). Her husband finds out and presents with a difficult choice: Either travel with him to a remote part of China where there is an out-of-control cholera epidemic or face the most painful, public divorce possible. Her married lover makes it clear that he has no intention of leaving his wife (eventually Kitty discovers that she is just one of a series of conquests). So she leaves with her husband, Walter, and the arduous geographical journey is only the beginning. Redemption is an underlying theme of this movie and they both find a form of it at a Catholic mission. The mother superior of the nuns who run the mission helps them along in this process. She is played by Diana Rigg, who boys of a certain age will remember as the cat-suited, karate-kicking Emma Peel of “The Avengers” (the British TV series, not the Marvel Comics movie, although Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow brings back many memories of Emma Peel).