Avatar

I think that is important to dig as deep as is warranted into the books we read, the films we watch, the music we listen to and so forth. Some of what is out there may not ultimately prove to have much artistic merit or subtextual content, however we should think critically about these things as far as possible.
There is a place for realtively mindless diversion, as we all need to switch off from time to time and simply be entertained. Watching Con Air may fall under this heading. However, focussing on films for the moment, they all present value systems and world views that we need to evaluate. It may be something like a political bias, or a negative view of a certain gender or race. It may be objectifying women, championing infidelity or undermining Biblical truth. We may filter what we watch to a sufficient degree to ensure that these values do not infiltrate our own thinking or mindset, but we must take the time to weigh these things up. What do I consider to be the message of that film? What was it trying to say? How might it influence my own thoughts or conduct?
I watched Avatar last night (I know, everyone else has already seen it at least a couple of times) and it has given me a great deal to think about. It would be easy to dismiss it as a load of trippy-hippy tree hugging nonsense with 45 minutes of bombastic fighting at the end, but in fact that is a superficial and inaccurate assessment in both respects.
The idea of a deity dwelling in creation and connecting all living things is hardly novel and I do not think James Cameron would try to suggest that it is. The respect for nature that the Na'vi demonstrate and their sense of connectedness with creation could be swatted aside as paganism, however I think that without wanting to endorse a pantheistic doctrine, there is much to be considered about our own approach to creation. Do we think of it as a possession to be taken, used and discarded at our whim? Are we stewarding the creation that God has made for us and with which he has entrusted us? We must not worship creation, however we must look after it and use it responsibly. This should have an impact on our views on intensive farming methods, strip-mining, forest conservation, short term profit making enterprises at the expense of sustainability. We share this earth with all that God has made and although he placed us in charge of it, it is no more appropriate for me to misuse that authority than it would be for me to be a domineering husband or an abusive father.
The Na'vi say that they are born twice. Once bodily and then again into the Na'vi people. How similar to our own belief that we must be born again. We are born in the flesh at birth and then when we are called by God and saved we are born again by the spirit into the family of God. In the same way as Jake was able to say that he was now one of the Na'vi and referred to the other Na'vi as his brothers and sisters, so too do we enter into the family of Christ, becoming brothers and sisters with all of those who have likewise been saved by the grace of God. God gives us the spirit of sonship and by the Spirit we cry "Father!"
Jake found it an increasing wrench to return to his own body and felt increasingly more at home as a Na'vi. Although we do not "return" to our former state after we have been saved, our new life in Christ and by the Holy Spirit so quickly becomes so natural and so familiar that our former life apart from God increasingly feels like a bad dream from which we have awoken and all we want to do is remain as we are, with God forever. Which is precisely what He has planned for us.
I could carry on about Iraq allegories, unobtanium vs oil, Dances with Wolves or Pocahontas remakes and the age old imperialist lie of bringing civilisation to the savages, while actually exploiting or persecuting them for commercial gain. These themes are addressed in detail on all manner of secular websites and blogs, so I felt it more constructive to look from the angle I have as a different approach for those interested in such things.

2012

SPOILER ALERT!
Okay, so I've just watched 2012 and having listened to quite a few podcasts from the Mars Hill "Cinemagogue" series I am trying to think about films a little more critically. I'm not interested in looking for meaning when there is none there. Charlies Angels: Full Throttle tells us nothing much more than "teenage boys like boobies". Films are not always full of profound insight, however they are an art form and therefore open to legitimate interpretation. JRR Tolkein rejected attempts to allegorise his Rings work, CS Lewis by contrast clearly intended The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to be full of symbolism.
So what of 2012? Initially I found it difficult to see any deeper meaning to it. It is basically two and a half hours of the earth getting torn apart by tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes. It is a tale of destruction and is more pre-occupied with impressing us with the scale and realism of the havoc than really engaging us with philosophical considerations. More Armaggedon than Deep Impact, if you will. Nonetheless, there are legitimate subtexts to be mined.
I found myself thinking of the arks into which the few survivors are to be ushered. Everyone with a place had either earned it through their political or scientific seniority or usefulness, or had bought a ticket (at 1 bn euros a pop). As a devastating tidal wave breaks over the Himalayas and the arks ready to float away, thousands of passengers whose ark has been damaged and an army of workers who had built the arks only to be left stranded are begging to be allowed onto the remaining three arks. The US government's chief scientific advisor then becomes a voice of conscience, appealing to the captains of each ark to allow these desperate individuals on board.
It is an abrupt intrusion of the concept of grace into a film that had up until tha point shown no apparent interest in such matters. All of a sudden, our thoughts are drawn to questions of entitlement, merit and salvation. Do these late additions deserve to be saved? No. Have they done anything to merit it? No. Are they going to be crucial to the successful functioning of the arks and the rebuilding of civilisation? No. But it is within the power of those captaining the arks to save them and they are moved by compassion to rescue the undeserving and give them a place among the elect.
I have no call on my Father's grace either. I cannot point to riches or any "deserving" attributes, nothing about me that grants me a seat on the rescue boat. But my Father saw I was in need, in trouble, in need of rescue, helpless and doomed and he opened the doors for me. Of course the story is more complicated than that and the cost to God in order for that door to be opened was almost incalculably high, but the principle runs true. I didn't deserve to be saved but I was and I am forever grateful.

I'll never get those two hours back

Very few films constitute a total waste of my time, but I genuinely grieve over the time I have lost watching:-
1. Blade Trinity
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
3. Rancid Aluminium
4. Hitman
5. Charlie's Angels
6. Grease 2

Top Twenty Films

This always changes, but for the moment:-
1. Casablanca
2. Schindlers List
3. The Godfather
4. Raging Bull
5. The Lord of the Rings (all three)
6. Chinatown
7. The Big Sleep
8. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
9. Die Hard
10. Seven
11. The Usual Suspects
12. Fight Club
13. Aliens
14. The Terminator
15. The Godfather Part II
16. His Girl Friday
17. Memento
18. The Dark Knight
19. Platoon
20. The Incredibles

Also rans/Honourable mentions - Heat, Taxi Driver, Spider-man 2, Superman, Minority Report, Airplane!, Some Like it Hot, The Empire Strikes Back, The Exorcist, Dawn of the Dead, The Silence of the Lambs, JFK, To Kill a Mockingbird, Night of the Hunter, Jaws, A Better Tomorrow, Terminator 2, Predator, On the Waterfront, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Gladiator, Spartacus, The Insider, Goodfellas, Vertigo, Rear Window, Psycho, North by Northwest, Black Hawk Down (yes, really), The Maltese Falcon, Twelve Angry Men.

The Wire

I know that it is often bleak, hard-breaking stuff, but honestly, is there any better a programme on television? It is chilling how casually lives are snuffed out, how savagely people are beaten, how cheap life is considered to be. Yet for so many characters, their lives have been so vividly portrayed, so well written and acted that it brings a tear to the eye when they finally reach their end. It has been described as a grand epic, a film told across five seasons and that must be right. A programme like 24 has, obviously, plenty of through storyline and momentum, even from one season to the next, but it never engages you like the Wire does. 24 adrenalises and thrills like no other show, but you do not care about as many of the characters as you do with The Wire. The West Wing is as well written as any show you could name, but sometimes it revels in how clever it is. The Wire just feels like a window on a world you would not wish on your worst enemy and yet you cannot take your eyes off it. We are coming to the end of season 4 on BBC2 and season 5 kicks off on Thursday. When that has run its course I will grieve.

Big Brother

I get so frustrated with BB. Everyone seems so determined to be unkind to each other. I recognise that "why can't we all just get along" is hackneyed and life teaches us that we can't if it teaches us anything, but crikey. Everyone keeps winding each other up, making fun, criticising, bitching, back-biting and bullying. It gets to be so tiresome. I am sure that alcohol-fuelled tiredness and boredom is relished by the producers as a recipe for fireworks, but why do we encourage it by watching. We frown on bear-baiting, cock-fighting and fox-hunting - why do we see this any differently?
Get this nonsense off our televisions, the sooner the better.

Fatherhood

It is hard to be a good father. In all fairness, no-one ever said it would be easy, but it is more difficult than I would say is commonly appreciated. I think that for me, the constant challenge is balance. I will tend to focus on, for example, providing for my children by making sure that I work hard, try to progress in my career and bring in enough money to meet their needs. Then, I start to feel concerned (quite rightly) that my children have a need for my physical and emotional presence, rather than just my financial provision. This leads me to try to make more time for quality time, time one on one with them, time playing over the park, walks in the woods. This is great and when I do it, it feels right. It feels like the way it is meant to be and my children clearly benefit from it. But then, as always, life begins to feel very busy and congested and other elements creep in and start to suck up my time. There are household chores that need doing - washing, ironing, washing up, hoovering, cleaning the car, fixing meals, decorating - all very necessary and important and as tedious as they generally are, essential to make time for.
I tell myself that these things need to be done and I am right, they do. However they wind up becoming too much of a focus and I essentially become a house keeper and handyman to my children instead of a father.
Lest we forget, there is also my wife to consider. She is more important, more precious to me than all of my children put together (much as I love them and would never be without them) and I want to ensure that when, as they inevitably will, my children grow up, move out and make their own lives, my wife and I have a life together, a relationship, that is founded upon our marriage, founded on us, rather than simply being founded on the need to properly raise our children. So many marriages have struggled in later life because all that existed was a focus on raising the children and then once they were raised, there was nothing left between the husband and wife beside the memory of a wedding day decades in the past and the shared experience since then of setting everything else aside to take care of the children.
Do not misunderstand me, children are important and precious and if I fail to make proper time and energy for them my failure is something that will prove hugely damaging all round. But they are not all I am as a man. I am not a father to the exclusion of all else. I am not even a father first and foremost. I am a child of God, then a husband, then a father, then (hopefully) an active and useful member of my church, then everything else.
I know that, rather prosaically, central to all of this is time management. There is time to do and be all of these things, but it will not happen by itself. I have to say "no" to so much in order to be able to say "yes" to my wife and my children. I cannot go to the gym three times a week for two hours each time and still be all that I wish to be as a husband, father and Christian. I cannot spend quality time with my children at the weekend if I lock myself away painting a bedroom, despite how pressingly urgent that job seems. I cannot make my wife feel special, precious, beautiful and loved if I come home late from work, stick a DVD on and ignore her. I might be able to justify such actions to myself by saying that I am tired, drained and stressed and need to unwind, but ultimately that is a cop-out. I need not be a martyr, I just need to choose. What will I do today? What will I choose to make time for on Saturday? How will I plan my evenings? How will I organise myself at work so that I can honour my employers with an honest, hard day's work for an honest day's pay and still ensure that I am home in time to play with my children and put them to bed?
Fatherhood. Potentially so rewarding, fraught with potholes, joyous when you get it right, very easy to get wrong, exhausting even at the best of times and pretty thankless until your children have children of their own and realise what they put you through. I wouldn't change it for the world.