Unthinkable, Legion, and The Book of Eli

In June these three religious movies became available to rent. We watched them separately, but found that it was interesting to think about the three of them together. We should preface this with the fact that (being Christians) we thought about these movies from a Christian perspective.

All of them keep Jesus out of it, even though two of them think biblically. In Unthinkable the government confronts radical Islam but thanks to its secular mindset, it is unable to successfully understand its opponent. Both Legion and The Book of Eli are capable of imagining angels and prophets as the proper subject of movies, provided these holy beings operate as if the son of God did not and will not be present on the earth. The movies are entertaining and worth thinking about, although The Book of Eli is decidedly better.

Legion proposes the preposterous notion that God has changed his mind: In lieu of sending Christ down to bring an end to the age and usher in a far better one, he is sending his angels to destroy mankind. The field general of angels, Michael, thinks God has erred and rebels. He does his darnedest to keep a specific, single, expectant mother alive because her child can supposedly lead mankind back into God's good graces.

We are reminded of Moses' efforts to bargain with God to keep him from destroying all of the Hebrews wandering the desert. Moses argues that keeping the woebegone Hebrews alive and getting them to the promised land is far better public relations than choosing yet another people to be His. God 'relents'. Of course, it is not clear whether God is only zooming Moses when he threatens the eradication of the Hebrews. If that were the case, than the threat of extermination would have been a test to see whether Moses truly loved his thoroughly lost people.

If God is testing Michael in Legion, it is rather a more expensive test in lives than the test of Job. And it would seem that after such a long time God would already know what he had in Michael... But it is a good tale, so long as you forget about Jesus - which does seem to be the basic agenda of this century.

In the Book of Eli the apocalyptic scenario does not seem to be anything out of Revelations either. A man who has no business finding the last remaining copy of the Bible protects it against all odds in a decades long trek across the country teaching people to pray and look out for one another while dispensing God's judgment on evildoers. Take Elijah and set him in a samurai movie and you will have the idea. It is spellbinding and captures the spirit of the old Testament well (particularly with its twist at the end).

Both Legion and The Book of Eli work out the implications of the New Testament. Both Michael and Eli, each in their own way, emulate Christ, which is the task of all Christians. But acting like a Christ in an apocalyptic future is one thing, how about emulating Christ now?

Nobody in Unthinkable is capable of such emulation. The radical Islamist is capable of sacrificing himself for his holy cause (to bring US troops out of the Middle East), but he is also content with the destruction of millions of his former citizens, i.e., Americans. As one would guess, agents of the government are willing to do the 'unthinkable' in order to thwart his plans (but he outwits them in the end).

When the most humane of his captors reminds him of freedom, our terrorist, a former special forces man, tells her that freedom is a false god. No one has a response for this. And it is an assertion that should give us pause. It is Islamist to find the advocacy of freedom to be a form of idolatry, a violation of the first commandment. This is not the case for Christians. Jesus, is often asking people who they think he is, and makes it clear that their deciding that he is the son of God is pivotal to their salvation. They have to be free to make such a decision. Indeed, in Christian doctrine our being cast from the Garden insures us of the freedom we demonstrated when we ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

But in the face of radical Islam how should Christians be emulating Christ? By doing the unthinkable or by being willing to ask the pivotal question Christ asked..."And who do you think I am?"

Unmistaken Child *****

This is an enchanting documentary that definitely leaves you thinking.

“Unmistaken Child” follows the physical and spiritual journey of Tibetan Buddhist monk, Tenzin Zopa, as he seeks to identify the child who is the reincarnation of his deceased master, Lama Konchog. In the process to find his master, a “Rinpoche” or reborn, enlightened Buddhist, Tenzin relies on astrology, the ash remains of his master’s cremation, and dreams. However, Tenzin is chosen for the job of finding his master not because of his great skill at interpreting these signs, but because of his great love for his master and the close relationship that he had to him all of his life. Rinpoche literally means "precious one"

A the beginning of his journey Tenzin has mixed emotions. He is happy at the prospect of the rebirth of his master, but he is filled with trepidation about being chosen to identify this reincarnation. How will he know? And once he does find “the unmistaken” child, he must convince the parents to release the child and let him become the guardian.

Tenzin looks for signs and he finds them. The film is filled with beautiful and moving scenes. We see Tenzin’s grief at the loss of his dear master and the mixture of pride and anguish experienced by the parents who make the difficult decision to release their child in his care. Perhaps most haunting, however, are the images of the “unmistaken child”. It is truly a bit unnerving to see a toddler so poised and quite inexplicably showing a very grown up interest in, the daily watering of an apple tree (which we later learn was planted by Lama Konchog).

But are these signs really what convinces Tenzin in the end or is it something else…something intangible and only recognizable by him? The ones we love, our precious ones, are more, much more, to us than simply the sum of their parts that reads like a personal ad. Let’s face it “blonde hair, blue eyes, enjoys walks on the beach and sushi” isn’t going to cut it when you are looking for the soul inside the body of a child. So what does?

I have a picture of my husband that I keep on my nightstand. It was taken over 40 years ago (that’s before I was born). He was a student at Columbia in NY and is standing on the street looking over his shoulder and smiling. I love that picture because for whatever reason, I’m convinced when I look at it that he is smiling at me. It is the look in his eyes, that indescribable something that I have seen now a thousand times, was there before and will be there always. Would I recognize it coming out of someone else’s eyes? When I asked him “How would you find me?” he replied, “Oh, I’d know by the shine coming out of your eyes”.