Little Boy
Movie Review **** (Four Stars)
April
24, 2015
In
1946, a movie came out by Frank Capra that the critics panned. It was so cheesy
and corny that the critics dubbed it “Capracorn” and “movie fakery at its
worst.” It was a flop at the box office and a bust at the Academy Awards. The
film? It’s a Wonderful Life.
In
2015, another movie has been released that, while different, shares some of the
peculiarities of It’s a Wonderful Life.
For starters, like its predecessor, the entire town is a set built just for the
movie. It is unlikely to garner any Oscars. And like It’s a Wonderful Life, I believe Little Boy will have staying power, though it may take another
generation to recognize its true worth.
Little
Boy is the best movie in a long time, and on so
many levels. Not least because it does not even purport to be Christian, but is
merely set in America’s faith-based 1940s. Go see it.
We will expect the secular critics to pan this
movie, because the world has moved on, but to what? There are not many
opportunities to divert the world’s attention from the cliff they are heading
toward and show them a better way. But this film is one such opportunity, and
it is well done, which is exactly why we need this film to be seen by as many
people as possible. On the “well done” side of things, it’s the very thing that
prompted Rick Warren to tweet to everyone that we all need to see this movie. It’s
the very thing that prompted Pope Francis to embrace producer Eduardo
Verástegui in gratitude. It’s the very thing that made National Review recommend it as a movie
that “packs a powerful punch.” You
will be riveted from beginning to end. But
only if you are still a child.
Our generation has grown a hard shell, as we
have been increasingly bombarded with in-your-face movies, in-your-face
arguments, in-your-face special effects – in other words, with the jaded obvious
we have come to expect in the films we see. We no longer can cope with the
poetic, or even recognize it for what it is. As a result, the movies we are
accustomed to seeing are a mile wide and an inch deep, in general. And so we
dive an inch down and think we are swimming in the deeps. Little Boy is a mile deep and an inch wide. And so we dive an inch
down, don’t see much, and think there is nothing there. I have only seen this
movie three times, but each time I see it, I see and learn more than I did before.
It’s a complex movie that only looks
simple. I am looking forward to buying the DVD so I can see it as many times as
I like.
And
so, it can be a challenge to shed that tough skin we have grown, and to re-enter
the world as an eight-year-old boy in the 1940s.
(WARNING!
Spoiler here.) Some viewers may be confused by the announcement of the atomic
bomb being dropped on Hiroshima as a cause for celebration. If you pay
attention, you will see that you are being invited into the American ethos of
that time, and then slammed back into reality. In fact, you might just get
whiplash if you’re not careful. Was America generally amazed by the atomic bomb
and euphoric that it might end the war? Yes, they were, and the film reflects
that. That was the scene in a thousand towns across America, without any
“Little Boy” (other than the bomb itself) to focus on. Was that euphoria fully
informed and justified? Sadly, no, and the film does a magnificent job of
showing that, by cutting short a patriotically joyous scene featuring Johnny
Cash’s “This Little Light of Mine” playing, with the gravity and trauma of the
atomic bomb exploding over Hiroshima. That blast and its aftermath brings us
all up short. The audience is given a fleeting glimpse of what small-town
America felt on that day, and then we are jerked back into the reality of the
horrors of what it meant.
That
reality is not lost on the filmmakers, and certainly not on the little boy Pepper.
To wit, the movie has Pepper watching the bombing and aftermath of Hiroshima in
a movie theater as part of a newsreel, when in fact all of that actual footage
was confiscated by the U.S. government and not released until the signing of
the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951. Still, the devastation of war is such
an important part of the larger story that the filmmakers in this case chose to
telescope it into 1945.
The
story elements involving the internment camps, the war in the South Pacific and
the destruction of Hiroshima are very much at odds with the Norman Rockwell
“candied” feel of the rest of the film. But that’s just the point. To use a
current example, the violence in the Middle East and North Africa does not sit
well with the candied lifestyle of Lake Forest, but that is exactly why it is a
service to humanity for journalists to bring us the story. We need perspective
to break through the hard shell of our insularity and prejudices.
The
film views the world in some ways with the simplicity of a comic book. And
that’s good, because we are being asked to take a journey with an eight year
old boy in the 1940s. He asks the questions we have all asked ourselves in one
form or another: “Why wouldn’t God want to bring my dad back?” “How can I get
bigger faith?” and “Do you think I should stop?”
Small
children learn concretely, and that list was a concrete way for Pepper not only
to learn faith and mercy, but also to unlearn
magic and power. Even Hashimoto realizes the value of the Ancient List, even after
he has argued against it throughout the movie: “All the love you have for your
father was contained in that list.”
Some
folks may see the list as a works-oriented view of salvation. Rest assured that
this is not the case; salvation is in Christ alone. God’s will is what matters,
as we are reminded repeatedly in the film. But the items on the list that the
Little Boy is given…the Ancient List… change
him… as they will change each one of us if we do them.
Just
how ancient is this list? Well, it’s actually two thousand years old:
o
Feed the Hungry (Matthew 25:35)
o
Shelter the Homeless (Matthew 25:35)
o
Visit Those in Prison (Matthew 25:36)
o
Clothe the Naked (Matthew 25:36)
o
Visit the Sick (Matthew 25:36)
o
Bury the Dead / Mourn with Those Who
Mourn (Romans 12:15)
o
Befriend the Friendless / Love Your
Enemies (Matthew 5:44)
Little Boy
is sure to be misunderstood by the secular media. But that’s okay. The Roman
Empire misunderstood the Christian message. But the people understood it, and
it swept the world. This film is not directed at the secular media. It is
directed at the human heart, and there will be no misunderstanding among those
who view it not as a critic, but as a child.
Rand
York+
©2015
