Background and discussion questions on the film A Man for All Seasons
1.The historical Thomas More (St. Thomas More, Martyr, 1478-1535)
(from Robert Ellsberg, All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for our Time)
“Thomas More was one of the most highly respected men of his time. A successful barrister, judge known for his scrupulous integrity, a scholar, famous for his wit and learning, he rose by sheer merit to the highest status of any commoner in England. After a series of important public offices he was in 1529 appointed by King Henry VIII to the post of Lord Chancellor of England. To this his friend Erasmus, the Continental humanist remarked, ‘Happy the commonwealth where kings appoint such officials.’
“Despite his achievements, More had little ambition for worldly success. As he later wrote, ‘Reputation, honor, fame, what is all that but a breath of air from another person’s mouth, no sooner spoken but gone? Thus whoever finds his delight in them is feeding on wind.’ More was a man of deep and demanding faith. In his youth he had considered a monastic vocation before deciding instead that he was called to serve God in the world. While outwardly he enjoyed a life of comfort, in the privacy of his spiritual life he wore a hair shirt, attended daily mass, and practiced a strict discipline of prayer.
“More maintained a large household and took special delight in his children. His role in overseeing the education of his daughters, especially Margaret, his eldest and favorite, was considered remarkable for the time. After the death of his beloved first wife, he quickly married an older widow, Alice. She proved a loyal wife and a good stepmother, though she was prone to exasperation with her husband’s scholarly friends, his sense of humor, and his costly scruples.
“King Henry reckoned wisely on his chancellor’s brilliance and honesty. In all matters of his office More served with loyalty and distinction. But circumstances were to evolve to the point that Henry required a more absolute loyalty than More could offer. For some years, the court of Henry had been moving toward a fateful collision with the authority of the Catholic Church. ”
How More was compelled to become a martyr:
1. The Pope would not annul the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon (Spain), so when the King married, More gave up his office rather than publicly opposing the King’s position. More did not attend the coronation of Queen Anne.
2. In 1534, the Act of Succession was proclaimed. All the subjects were required to take the Oath of Succession, stating that the offspring of Henry and Anne were true successors to the throne. This was acceptable to More, but the other part of the Act was to declare that Henry’s marriage to Catherine had not been a true marriage and repudiated the authority of the Pope. Because this part of the Oath signaled a break with the authority of the Pope, More could not take the oath. Therefore he was arrested on April 13, and taken to the Tower of London.
3. On February 1, 1535, Parliament passed the Acts of Supremacy, stating that the King was the “only supreme head of the Church of England.” More continued to be silent, and was convicted (through perjured evidence) of having spoken against the Acts and sentenced to death.
Some discussion questions:
1. Does More seek martyrdom?
2. What is the relationship between religion and politics in this film?
3. Why does the King want More to agree with him about the divorce and the marriage?
4. What is the significance of the silver goblet that More gives to Richard Rich? How is Rich corrupted? Would most people have taken the goblet? (Consider what Rich does with the money. Note the gorgeous gowns that Rich gets to wear as he achieves more wealth and status.)
5. Does More do the right thing when he makes his own family suffer when he follows his conscience? Does he not have a moral obligation to care for his family, instead of indulging in his own moral purity?
6. Contrast the religious qualities of Will Roper and the religious qualities of Thomas More. More changes from Lutheran to Catholic, while More supports a corrupted papacy. What is the difference between religious dogma and true faith?
7. Defend the King’s point of view in divorcing Catherine and in marrying Anne. Where does the King begin to err in terms of his ethical decisions?
8. How does More’s relationship with his wife, his daughter, Norfolk, and Roper help us to understand his character? How does each one of them tempt him from being true to himself and God?
9. If the bottom line in life is to be alive, to take care of one’s self and one’s family as well as one can, then how can Thomas More be considered a good person?
10. What is More’s point in proclaiming to Roper that the law is a good thing and that Roper would be wrong to cut down all the laws in England? More says that he will hide his family in the “thickets of the law.” Coming from a lawyer, what does this mean? Coming from a man of faith, what does this mean?
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The Mission
Directed by Roland Joffe
Screenplay, Robert Bolt
Cinematography, Chris Menges
Music, Ennio Morricone
Actors:
Rodrigo Mendoza—Robert DeNiro Altamirano—Ray McAnally Don Cabeza—Chuck Low
Father Gabriel—Jeremy Irons Fr. John Fielding—Liam Neeson
The Guarani Indians—The Waunana people
Film Review
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
The MissionDirected by Roland JoffeWarner Home Video 01/86 DVD/VHS Feature FilmPG
This is a powerful, compelling, and spiritually stirring film directed by Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields) and written by Robert Bolt (A Man for All Seasons). Filmed entirely on location in Colombia, South America, The Mission won the Golden Palm (Best Film) Award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.
In 1750 in the rain forest of central South America, Guarani Indians tie a Jesuit priest to a tree, push this crucifix into the river rapids, and watch it plunge over the majestic Iguazu waterfalls. Soon Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons), another Jesuit, arrives to carry on the work of the martyred priest. After scaling the cliffs beside the falls, he takes out an oboe and begins to play. Indians emerge from the dense jungle and surround him. Through the music, however, they recognize him as a man of peace and take him into their midst.
Meanwhile, in the town of Asuncion below the falls, European settlers have built a plantation economy on slaves supplied by mercenaries like Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro). During a raid for Indians above the falls, Mendoza encounters Gabriel and learns that the Jesuits are building a mission there.Months later, Mendoza and Gabriel meet again. In a fit of jealous anger over losing his mistress, Mendoza has killed his brother, and he has sunk into a deep depression. Gabriel challenges him to have the courage to live and to choose a penance for his crime. When the priest, Fielding (Liam Neeson), and other Jesuits next climb the cliffs by Iguazu Falls, Mendoza is with them, dragging behind him a sack filled with his armor and sword. At the mission, the Guarani people, whom he had once persecuted, welcome him into their community.
Eventually, Mendoza takes vows to become a member of the Jesuit order.
The work of the mission, however, is threatened by political developments. The Spanish and Portuguese crowns have signed a treaty that transfers the territory where the missions are located from Spanish to Portuguese jurisdiction. Altamirano (Ray McAnally), an emissary from the Pope in Rome, arrives to decide whether the missions will remain under the protection of the Church.
At a public hearing, Altamirano listens as Gabriel asserts that the Guarani Indians are naturally spiritual people. Without the missions, they will have no protection from slavery, which is legal in Portuguese territory. The colonists, including Don Cabeza (Chuck Low), representing Spanish interests, and Hontar (Ronald Pickup), representing the Portuguese, protest that the Church must submit to political realities.
Altamirano postpones his decision until he can visit the Jesuit settlements. At the large mission of San Miguel, he is impressed by the economic prosperity and the equal distribution of the wealth to all members of the community. In the workshops and the large adobe church, he marvels at the craftsmanship of the artisans and the musical genius evident in the Indians' orchestras and choirs. But he also recognizes that the missions pose an economic threat to the European plantations. Traveling to Gabriel's remote mission of San Carlos, Altamirano is deeply moved by the simple lifestyle and remarkable faith of the Guarani.
Nevertheless, Altamirano tells the Indians that they must leave San Carlos. He orders the priests to accept the transfer of the mission territories. In private, he explains to Gabriel that the future of the Jesuit order in Europe depends upon their not resisting the political authorities in South America.
The Guarani, unmoved by political arguments and unable to understand what Altamirano says is the will of God, decide to defend their home. Mendoza, encouraged by an Indian boy (Bercelio Moya) who has become his closest friend, renounces his vow of obedience as a Jesuit and chooses to fight alongside them.
Gabriel will not abandon his congregation but cannot take up arms. As European troops close in on the mission, he assembles the women and children as a choir in front of the church. When their singing does not stop the attack, Gabriel leads a procession into a hail of bullets armed only with the sacraments and the cross.
The Mission depicts the challenge of conscience that confronts us all in a world convulsed by power, greed, and violence. Its power lies in the way it convinces us that the fierce conflict-ridden world we see on the screen is similar to the one in which we live today. At the same time, The Mission is a deeply moving film that reminds us of the vitality of love, the miracle of grace, and the transforming power of acts of conscience.
Questions:
1.Altamirano states when he visits the missions that he felt that the Guarani Indians would have been happier if no one had crossed the Atlantic to intrude into their lifestyle at all. What do you think?
2. What is a mercenary? (dictionary definition: a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army; any hireling [a person who works only for pay, especially in a menial or boring job, with little or no concern for the value of the work])
Who are the mercenaries in this film? Consider the Indians in “whiteface” who help the Portuguese attack San Carlos at the end of the movie. Do you think that Altamirano is a mercenary?
3. Rodrigo takes offense when he thinks that one of the citizens of the town laughs at him. How does his sensitivity to being laughed at affect him in this scene and throughout the rest of the narrative?
4. Consider the scene in which Rodrigo and Father Gabriel double-dare one another. Fr. Gabriel tells Rodrigo that he is a mercenary, a slave trader, and that he killed his brother. He also calls him a coward because he is running away from life. Rodrigo’s reply is that there is no life for him. Fr. Gabriel challenges Rodrigo to choose his penance; Rodrigo dares him to see the penance fail.
Why do you think that Rodrigo’s penance worked?
5. Why can’t Rodrigo kill the boar?
6. Describe Rodrigo’s relationship with the Indian boy and how it affects his choices in this narrative.
7. What do the Jesuit vows represent in this movie? What are vows of obedience? How is it that Fr. Gabriel maintains his vows and Rodrigo and the other priests renounce theirs?
8. What is the role of music in this film? What does it represent?
9. Why does Altamirano decide to close the missions? Do you think that he was justified?
10.Why do the Indians not want to leave the Mission at San Carlos?
11. We see two missions destroyed: San Miguel, which is prosperous, with beautiful architecture, and San Carlos, an Edenic setting. Both missions respond differently to the attacks of the Portuguese. Compare and discuss these two responses. How do these responses reflect upon the Europeans’ code of ethics?
12. Father Gabriel states that “If might is right, love has no place in this world.” Does he make the right choice, to refuse to fight? What do you think about Rodrigo’s choice to fight (also the other priests)? Who has made the greater sacrifice?
13. How does Altamirano judge his own actions at the end? Do you agree that the ends sometimes justify the means? What is a just war? What would you want to do if a foreign enemy attacked your native soil?
14. Discuss the role of conversions in this narrative. Is Rodrigo truly converted to a life of non-violence and love? Are the Indians converted? Is Altamirano changed in the course of the narrative? What new perspectives has the film given to you as a viewer?
15. Explore the following topics: the fact that the Indians killed their children if they had more than two. The practice of trafficking in human beings. The fact that the Mission is at the top of the waterfalls. The role of the Church in political matters. The just war, the justification of using violence.
16. Consider and evaluate the many conversion stories in this film.
17. What is the role of slavery, colonization, and the appropriation of other human beings for self or national aggrandizement? How do powerful countries rationalize subordinating other nations both then and today?
18. Consider the symbolic setting of the waterfall missions—a high place, a mountain, the abode of the gods.
19. What is the distinction between God’s work and the Church’s work?
Directed by Roland Joffe
Screenplay, Robert Bolt
Cinematography, Chris Menges
Music, Ennio Morricone
Actors:
Rodrigo Mendoza—Robert DeNiro Altamirano—Ray McAnally Don Cabeza—Chuck Low
Father Gabriel—Jeremy Irons Fr. John Fielding—Liam Neeson
The Guarani Indians—The Waunana people
Film Review
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
The MissionDirected by Roland JoffeWarner Home Video 01/86 DVD/VHS Feature FilmPG
This is a powerful, compelling, and spiritually stirring film directed by Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields) and written by Robert Bolt (A Man for All Seasons). Filmed entirely on location in Colombia, South America, The Mission won the Golden Palm (Best Film) Award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.
In 1750 in the rain forest of central South America, Guarani Indians tie a Jesuit priest to a tree, push this crucifix into the river rapids, and watch it plunge over the majestic Iguazu waterfalls. Soon Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons), another Jesuit, arrives to carry on the work of the martyred priest. After scaling the cliffs beside the falls, he takes out an oboe and begins to play. Indians emerge from the dense jungle and surround him. Through the music, however, they recognize him as a man of peace and take him into their midst.
Meanwhile, in the town of Asuncion below the falls, European settlers have built a plantation economy on slaves supplied by mercenaries like Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro). During a raid for Indians above the falls, Mendoza encounters Gabriel and learns that the Jesuits are building a mission there.Months later, Mendoza and Gabriel meet again. In a fit of jealous anger over losing his mistress, Mendoza has killed his brother, and he has sunk into a deep depression. Gabriel challenges him to have the courage to live and to choose a penance for his crime. When the priest, Fielding (Liam Neeson), and other Jesuits next climb the cliffs by Iguazu Falls, Mendoza is with them, dragging behind him a sack filled with his armor and sword. At the mission, the Guarani people, whom he had once persecuted, welcome him into their community.
Eventually, Mendoza takes vows to become a member of the Jesuit order.
The work of the mission, however, is threatened by political developments. The Spanish and Portuguese crowns have signed a treaty that transfers the territory where the missions are located from Spanish to Portuguese jurisdiction. Altamirano (Ray McAnally), an emissary from the Pope in Rome, arrives to decide whether the missions will remain under the protection of the Church.
At a public hearing, Altamirano listens as Gabriel asserts that the Guarani Indians are naturally spiritual people. Without the missions, they will have no protection from slavery, which is legal in Portuguese territory. The colonists, including Don Cabeza (Chuck Low), representing Spanish interests, and Hontar (Ronald Pickup), representing the Portuguese, protest that the Church must submit to political realities.
Altamirano postpones his decision until he can visit the Jesuit settlements. At the large mission of San Miguel, he is impressed by the economic prosperity and the equal distribution of the wealth to all members of the community. In the workshops and the large adobe church, he marvels at the craftsmanship of the artisans and the musical genius evident in the Indians' orchestras and choirs. But he also recognizes that the missions pose an economic threat to the European plantations. Traveling to Gabriel's remote mission of San Carlos, Altamirano is deeply moved by the simple lifestyle and remarkable faith of the Guarani.
Nevertheless, Altamirano tells the Indians that they must leave San Carlos. He orders the priests to accept the transfer of the mission territories. In private, he explains to Gabriel that the future of the Jesuit order in Europe depends upon their not resisting the political authorities in South America.
The Guarani, unmoved by political arguments and unable to understand what Altamirano says is the will of God, decide to defend their home. Mendoza, encouraged by an Indian boy (Bercelio Moya) who has become his closest friend, renounces his vow of obedience as a Jesuit and chooses to fight alongside them.
Gabriel will not abandon his congregation but cannot take up arms. As European troops close in on the mission, he assembles the women and children as a choir in front of the church. When their singing does not stop the attack, Gabriel leads a procession into a hail of bullets armed only with the sacraments and the cross.
The Mission depicts the challenge of conscience that confronts us all in a world convulsed by power, greed, and violence. Its power lies in the way it convinces us that the fierce conflict-ridden world we see on the screen is similar to the one in which we live today. At the same time, The Mission is a deeply moving film that reminds us of the vitality of love, the miracle of grace, and the transforming power of acts of conscience.
Questions:
1.Altamirano states when he visits the missions that he felt that the Guarani Indians would have been happier if no one had crossed the Atlantic to intrude into their lifestyle at all. What do you think?
2. What is a mercenary? (dictionary definition: a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army; any hireling [a person who works only for pay, especially in a menial or boring job, with little or no concern for the value of the work])
Who are the mercenaries in this film? Consider the Indians in “whiteface” who help the Portuguese attack San Carlos at the end of the movie. Do you think that Altamirano is a mercenary?
3. Rodrigo takes offense when he thinks that one of the citizens of the town laughs at him. How does his sensitivity to being laughed at affect him in this scene and throughout the rest of the narrative?
4. Consider the scene in which Rodrigo and Father Gabriel double-dare one another. Fr. Gabriel tells Rodrigo that he is a mercenary, a slave trader, and that he killed his brother. He also calls him a coward because he is running away from life. Rodrigo’s reply is that there is no life for him. Fr. Gabriel challenges Rodrigo to choose his penance; Rodrigo dares him to see the penance fail.
Why do you think that Rodrigo’s penance worked?
5. Why can’t Rodrigo kill the boar?
6. Describe Rodrigo’s relationship with the Indian boy and how it affects his choices in this narrative.
7. What do the Jesuit vows represent in this movie? What are vows of obedience? How is it that Fr. Gabriel maintains his vows and Rodrigo and the other priests renounce theirs?
8. What is the role of music in this film? What does it represent?
9. Why does Altamirano decide to close the missions? Do you think that he was justified?
10.Why do the Indians not want to leave the Mission at San Carlos?
11. We see two missions destroyed: San Miguel, which is prosperous, with beautiful architecture, and San Carlos, an Edenic setting. Both missions respond differently to the attacks of the Portuguese. Compare and discuss these two responses. How do these responses reflect upon the Europeans’ code of ethics?
12. Father Gabriel states that “If might is right, love has no place in this world.” Does he make the right choice, to refuse to fight? What do you think about Rodrigo’s choice to fight (also the other priests)? Who has made the greater sacrifice?
13. How does Altamirano judge his own actions at the end? Do you agree that the ends sometimes justify the means? What is a just war? What would you want to do if a foreign enemy attacked your native soil?
14. Discuss the role of conversions in this narrative. Is Rodrigo truly converted to a life of non-violence and love? Are the Indians converted? Is Altamirano changed in the course of the narrative? What new perspectives has the film given to you as a viewer?
15. Explore the following topics: the fact that the Indians killed their children if they had more than two. The practice of trafficking in human beings. The fact that the Mission is at the top of the waterfalls. The role of the Church in political matters. The just war, the justification of using violence.
16. Consider and evaluate the many conversion stories in this film.
17. What is the role of slavery, colonization, and the appropriation of other human beings for self or national aggrandizement? How do powerful countries rationalize subordinating other nations both then and today?
18. Consider the symbolic setting of the waterfall missions—a high place, a mountain, the abode of the gods.
19. What is the distinction between God’s work and the Church’s work?
Post on After the Wedding, by LM
After the Wedding Discussion February 4, 2009
A. Living Honorably
1. What are the rules that people in this film seem to live by? What do they consider is good and worth saving? What motivates their behavior?
Jorgen
Jacob
Helene
Anna
2. Is there a distinction between the moral code of the young and the moral code of those who are middle-aged? Do people’s ideals change in regard to total honesty, openness, secrecy, and duty?
3. Consider the Ten Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, avarice [insatiable greed for riches; inordinate, miserly desire to gain and hoard wealth], lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. [1] How could following these commandments and avoiding these sins have made a difference in the lives of these characters?
4. In Matthew 19:16-21, Jesus tells the rich young man who asks him how he can obtain eternal life that he must recognize God as the supreme Good, and keep the commandments, which in turn demonstrate love for his neighbor. Ultimately, one must love one’s neighbor as oneself.
--How do you think that loving one’s neighbor as one’s self emerges as a good in the lives of these characters and in the film itself?
--Jesus also tells the questioner, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Jacob does embrace poverty and serve the poor. Does that make him a good person?
(Consider Jorgen’s question to Jacob: “Do I have to live on the other side of the world to get your help?”)
5. In what ways are these characters honorable?
B. Making choices
1. Is it sometimes better to hide the truth? (consider not only the lie about Anna’s biological father, but Jorgen’s desire to hide from his family the truth of his terminal illness)
2. Jorgen wants to protect his family. Is his program for Jacob altogether a bad one? Explain. How is his plan morally deficient?
3. Do you think that Jacob has used his social mission to avoid living his own life?
4. What prompts Jacob to “sell” himself to Jorgen and to fit himself into Jorgen’s role as a benefactor and father/husband? Does he do the right thing?
5. In what ways are people compelled to choose between working for the good of society as a whole and attending to the responsibilities incurred by having families?
C. How are family relationships characterized in this film?
1. Mother-daughter
2. Father-daughter/son
3. How are children depicted in this film, and how do adults relate to them?
4. Jorgen may be considered both a good father and husband and a bad father and husband. Discuss.
5. What do you think the new family configuration will be like?
D. Roles
1. How are women portrayed in this film?
2. What male role models do we see in this film? Consider Jorgen’s hunting and fishing trip with sons (“so they won’t be gay”) and his hoard of deer heads mounted on the walls of his study.
3. Examine the ways that Jorgen exerts power of Jacob (through money, rhetoric, and physical force). In what ways does Jacob counteract his efforts to control him? How do these men arbitrate power in their encounters?
E. Wealth and Poverty
1. How do wealth and status compromise and even harm the people in this film?
2. What kinds of problems do the wealthy face in life in their search for happiness and the desire to act justly?
3. Is Jacob justified in his hatred of the rich?
[1] There is no foundation in the Bible for this classification, but the above list has been found in the works of several spiritual writers and theologians, including Saint Thomas Aquinas, a leading Roman Catholic theologian during the 13th century. Aquinas slightly modified the earlier lists of Saint John Climacus and Saint Gregory the Great. These seven sins are not singled out because they are all grievous sins or because of their severity, but because they are the inevitable source of other sins.
After the Wedding Discussion February 4, 2009
A. Living Honorably
1. What are the rules that people in this film seem to live by? What do they consider is good and worth saving? What motivates their behavior?
Jorgen
Jacob
Helene
Anna
2. Is there a distinction between the moral code of the young and the moral code of those who are middle-aged? Do people’s ideals change in regard to total honesty, openness, secrecy, and duty?
3. Consider the Ten Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, avarice [insatiable greed for riches; inordinate, miserly desire to gain and hoard wealth], lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. [1] How could following these commandments and avoiding these sins have made a difference in the lives of these characters?
4. In Matthew 19:16-21, Jesus tells the rich young man who asks him how he can obtain eternal life that he must recognize God as the supreme Good, and keep the commandments, which in turn demonstrate love for his neighbor. Ultimately, one must love one’s neighbor as oneself.
--How do you think that loving one’s neighbor as one’s self emerges as a good in the lives of these characters and in the film itself?
--Jesus also tells the questioner, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Jacob does embrace poverty and serve the poor. Does that make him a good person?
(Consider Jorgen’s question to Jacob: “Do I have to live on the other side of the world to get your help?”)
5. In what ways are these characters honorable?
B. Making choices
1. Is it sometimes better to hide the truth? (consider not only the lie about Anna’s biological father, but Jorgen’s desire to hide from his family the truth of his terminal illness)
2. Jorgen wants to protect his family. Is his program for Jacob altogether a bad one? Explain. How is his plan morally deficient?
3. Do you think that Jacob has used his social mission to avoid living his own life?
4. What prompts Jacob to “sell” himself to Jorgen and to fit himself into Jorgen’s role as a benefactor and father/husband? Does he do the right thing?
5. In what ways are people compelled to choose between working for the good of society as a whole and attending to the responsibilities incurred by having families?
C. How are family relationships characterized in this film?
1. Mother-daughter
2. Father-daughter/son
3. How are children depicted in this film, and how do adults relate to them?
4. Jorgen may be considered both a good father and husband and a bad father and husband. Discuss.
5. What do you think the new family configuration will be like?
D. Roles
1. How are women portrayed in this film?
2. What male role models do we see in this film? Consider Jorgen’s hunting and fishing trip with sons (“so they won’t be gay”) and his hoard of deer heads mounted on the walls of his study.
3. Examine the ways that Jorgen exerts power of Jacob (through money, rhetoric, and physical force). In what ways does Jacob counteract his efforts to control him? How do these men arbitrate power in their encounters?
E. Wealth and Poverty
1. How do wealth and status compromise and even harm the people in this film?
2. What kinds of problems do the wealthy face in life in their search for happiness and the desire to act justly?
3. Is Jacob justified in his hatred of the rich?
[1] There is no foundation in the Bible for this classification, but the above list has been found in the works of several spiritual writers and theologians, including Saint Thomas Aquinas, a leading Roman Catholic theologian during the 13th century. Aquinas slightly modified the earlier lists of Saint John Climacus and Saint Gregory the Great. These seven sins are not singled out because they are all grievous sins or because of their severity, but because they are the inevitable source of other sins.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Invitation to contribute your views
The goal of "Moral Dilemmas in Film" blog is to stimulate discussion after viewing quality films showing situations of characters, real and fictional, who must make and live with ethical decisions. For example, in the first film, After the Wedding, one character with status, money, and power, thinks that he has the right and duty to "buy" another man to replace him after his death from terminal cancer. Does anyone have the right to manipulate another person's life decisions and goals? The man who is to be "bought" must decide whether he will allow another man to plan out his future, even though the offer made is one that he feels he cannot refuse because of its benefits to all the people he loves.
The first film discussed is After the Wedding, with the pre-discussion notes and discussion summary posted here. The second film viewed is The Mission, with Jeremy Irons and Robert DeNiro, a film narrating the difficult political situation of a Jesuit mission in eighteenth-century South America that must be closed down due to the Treaty of Madrid of 1850. Should the Jesuit priests abandon the Indians who have come to trust and rely on them, so that these Indians will be subject to enslavement by the conquering European powers? These questions are posed in the discussion and within the blog itself.
If you have seen these films, either at the film viewing session in the Garden Room of the Chapel, or in another setting, please feel free to post your responses to the comments made by me, Lynn Myrick, the chaplaincy intern who is coordinating this program, or to the remarks of others.
The first film discussed is After the Wedding, with the pre-discussion notes and discussion summary posted here. The second film viewed is The Mission, with Jeremy Irons and Robert DeNiro, a film narrating the difficult political situation of a Jesuit mission in eighteenth-century South America that must be closed down due to the Treaty of Madrid of 1850. Should the Jesuit priests abandon the Indians who have come to trust and rely on them, so that these Indians will be subject to enslavement by the conquering European powers? These questions are posed in the discussion and within the blog itself.
If you have seen these films, either at the film viewing session in the Garden Room of the Chapel, or in another setting, please feel free to post your responses to the comments made by me, Lynn Myrick, the chaplaincy intern who is coordinating this program, or to the remarks of others.
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