(WARNING: This article is an analysis which seeks to compare the lessons learned by the lead character to the needs of popular culture. Therefore, this article contains SPOILERS. PLEASE DO NOT READ if you haven’t seen the movie and do not wish for the ending to be “spoiled” for you.
*************************************
My sons, Jonathan, Matthew, and Stephen had their “Lightening McQueen” and “Tow Mater” t-shirts at least a month before the movie, Cars, hit the theaters. By now, most people are familiar with these characters from Disney/Pixar’s latest animated motion picture.
Because the film is based on a Nascar type racing theme, the movie will no doubt be popular here in the South especially with Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. providing voices for three of the animated characters. Being a Southerner is not why I went to see the movie, and although my dad first took me to the Southern 500 at Darlington back in 1976 and made something of a racing fan out of me, I can assure you that I have outgrown it. I actually went to see the movie because I just enjoy watching my sons enjoy a movie, and like most children their age, they really love the animated films.
As an aside, I need to say something about Nascar. When there are over 40 drivers trying to run over one another to finish first, it’s hard to find anything redemptive in it especially since Christ teaches that those who are first will be last and those last will be first (Matthew 20:16). Let’s not kid ourselves; to be a winning racecar driver, you must have a rather sizable ego. Unfortunately, such egos fail to bring glory to God. Thus, I’m not the racing fan that I once was.
All the things that have fed my growing distaste for automobile racing were actually portrayed in a negative way in the movie which actually made it a delight to watch. The lead character is a racecar named “Lightening McQueen” (Owen Wilson), and just like some of the Nascar stars, he portrays all the egotistical characteristics that are apparently necessary to win.
However, on the way to California to race for the prestigious “Piston Cup”, Lightening McQueen has an accident and becomes lost. Before he can find his way back to the Interstate, he ends up in the forgotten town of “Radiator Springs” along the old “Route 66”. The town had become a bit broken-down as a result of neglect when traffic began to bypass it following the construction of the new Interstate Highway forty years ago. The residents of Radiator Springs are other cars including an old retired racecar named “Doc Hudson” (Paul Newman) which all became neglected as well. Having gotten into trouble with the law, McQueen is forced to stay in the town longer than he expected, but having done so, he learns something about life, humility, and what’s really important (loving and caring for others).
When McQueen finally arrives in California, suddenly winning the “Piston Cup” isn’t all that important anymore. On the last lap of the race, the movie’s villain, “Chick Hicks” (Michael Keaton) wrecks the old veteran known as “The King” (Richard Petty). McQueen has the chance to win the race and the “Piston Cup”, but he stops just inches from the finish line allowing Chick Hicks to win while he, McQueen, backs up to help The King and pushes him across the finish line. When The King asks Lightening McQueen why he allowed Chick Hicks to win, McQueen responded by saying: “The Piston Cup is just an empty cup” (a lesson learned from the old Doc Hudson back in Radiator Springs).
Unlike the Nascar world for which it is based, Cars has a redemptive theme in that it teaches that there are those among us who are neglected, and like McQueen, we should get off the superhighway sometimes, slowdown, and reach out to those who are neglected in our lightening fast culture. And we would do well to learn what McQueen learned: Those who are first will be last, and those who are last will be first. Without such understanding, life is just an empty cup!
Friday, June 09, 2006
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
You Got Any Skills?
In the surprise hit film of 2004, Napoleon Dynamite, the title character speaks on multiple occasions of having “skills.” In one of the film’s more memorable scenes, there is a dialogue that includes this interchange:
Napoleon: "Well, nobody's gonna go out with me."
Pedro: "Have you asked anybody yet?"
Napoleon: "No, but who would?I don't even have any good skills."
Pedro: "What do you mean?"
Napoleon: "You know, like numchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills."
Napoleon Dynamite is an awkward teenage boy, rather homely in appearance and lacking many social graces. His insecurity is masked by a vivid imagination and a sour disposition. Evidence of the vivid imagination are these comments:
Don: "Hey, Napoleon, what'd you do all last summer again?"
Napoleon: "I told you! I spent it with my uncle in
Don: "Did you shoot any?"
Napoleon: "Yes, like 50 of 'em! They kept trying to attack my cousins. what the heck would you do in a situation like that?"
Don: "What kind of gun did you use? "
Napoleon: "A frickin' 12-gauge, what do you think?"
"You know, there's like a butt-load of gangs at this school. This one gang kept wanting me to join 'cause I'm pretty good with a bo-staff."
The sour disposition is evident from the first scene of the film on the school bus:
Kid On Bus: "What are you gonna do today, Napoleon?"
Napoleon Dynamite: "Whatever I feel like I wanna do, Gosh!"
As I watched this film, I was constantly wondering why this boy’s attitude was so sour. It was a very annoying feature of the film. I would speculate that there was some incident in his past involving his parents, for he lives with his brother and grandmother, and the transient Uncle Rico. My speculations are unimportant. Certainly, beneath the heavy layer of fantastic imagination and negative demeanor is a boy who feels as if he has nothing to contribute to the world at large, because he is lacking in skills.
Pedro seeks to encourage Napoleon, saying, “Aren't you pretty good at drawing, like, animals and warriors and stuff?” Napoleon responds, “Yes. Probably the best that I know of.” We the viewers who have peered over Napoleon’s shoulder as he penciled sketches of Ligers and other mystical, mythical creatures, are taken aback by the confident assertion. Soon Napoleon learns that drawing can be added to numchucks, bow hunting, and computer hacking, as yet one more thing which is NOT his skill.
In the end, Napoleon Dynamite, it seems does have a skill. He is a friend. In this day and time, that skill is becoming rarer than numchuck proficiency or cage fighting. And young people who might have this skill are often like Napoleon Dynamite. They hide that skill beneath layers of cynicism, fantasy, and mistaken notions of what it means to be cool. After spending most of the movie resisting nausea because of the lead character, at film’s end I found myself envious of him. Napoleon Dynamite has a skill I covet. He knows how to be a friend to the friendless. And that skill is much like Another Person I know: Jesus Christ who became a friend of sinners for our redemption. If I could be more like Him, that would be flippin’ sweet.
Aslan is on the move!
Perhaps I’ve been thinking too much about denominational matters lately and desire to think about loftier things. When the idea of higher things comes to mind I am reminded of my favorite part of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Beaver: “They say Aslan is on the move – perhaps has already landed.”
And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it has some enormous meaning – either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I think about this excerpt from Lewis’s work, the words of Philippians 4:8 come to mind: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever, is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things (ESV). Knowing that Christ “is on the move”, may our minds be saturated with all these things as the Spirit of God works His will in our lives.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)