Author: SDG

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SDG here.

Yesterday I gave a commencement address for my parish school’s eighth-grade graduation.

I don’t remember the commencement address from my own eighth-grade graduation, but I remember my high-school commencement address. It was lame. The speaker got up there and basically admitted that she had no idea what to say, but then luckily she saw Dead Poet’s Society, so she wanted to tell us carpe diem, “Seize the day.” Good thing for that movie.

Anyway, I tried to come up with something I thought might be meaningful and relevant to students of that age, based on my experiences teaching CCD to seventh and eighth graders. I have no idea what they thought of it or whether they’ll remember it any better than I remember mine (darn, that would have been a good lead-in), but for what it’s worth, here’s what I said.

Class of 2008:

I’d like to tell you about a dream.

In this dream, you find yourself in a room with two adults. One is early 20s, a recent college graduate, living on his own (or her own), an apartment, a car. Maybe more or less where you might see yourself in ten years. Maybe your parents hope so too.

The other is older, a manager or director. It’s a job interview. And the older person is saying something to the younger one like, “This is a very responsible position. You need to be able to work on your own, without a lot of direction.”

And then a strange thing happens. The job applicant turns to you and says uncertainly, “How well do I work on my own?”

And you think, “Why ask me? I’m graduating 8th grade, going into high school. I’m not applying for the job.”

Or suppose the interviewer says, “This position requires excellent oral and written communication skills, or a good head for numbers,” or whatever it is. And then he turns to you and asks, “How well do you do in those subjects?” And again you wonder what’s going on.

Maybe you’ve played simulation computer games like Sim City or Theme Park where the lives of the characters depend on decisions you make. What if you were playing a game like that and you found out the decisions you were making were actually affecting real people, real families with children, even?

You might think, I’m not ready for that kind of responsibility. And yet the fact is that the decisions you make right now, that you will make tomorrow and next month and next year, really do have that kind of influence. Job interviews in the real world really do depend on your decisions. That twentysomething’s fate really is in your hands right now.

Some of you have probably figured out who it is. It’s you, ten years from now.

Continue reading “Pomp and Circumstance”

SDG here.

The last couple of years haven’t produced a lot of good family films.

Take last year. The best bets from 2007 were Ratatouille, In the Shadow of the Moon and Mr. Bean’s Holiday. After that it went downhill pretty quick.

Walden Media released a couple of okay films, Bridge to Terabithia and The Water Horse. National Treasure: Book of Secrets was diverting, and lots of people liked Enchanted, although Mrs. Decent Films’ minority report on that one has gotten a lot of positive feedback).

Then what? A string of utterly forgettable fare: Shrek the Third, Happily N’Ever Ever, Bee Movie, etc.

2006 wasn’t much better. The year’s best films, Akeelah and the Bee and Lassie, hardly made a ripple. Cars was the closest thing to a disappointment from Pixar since, like, A Bug’s Life. A few others were worth catching once: Monster House, Over the Hedge, Flushed Away and even Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (mostly for Scrat’s brilliant slapstick). After that, though, forget it.

2008, though, looks like it could be shaping up to be a better year for family films than either of the last two years, at least for quality.

It started with The Spiderwick Chronicles, a strong family thriller with goblins attacking a troubled family, which dealt with a number of daunting themes — divorce, parental abandonment, death — in surprisingly effective ways. (I’ll be reviewing it soon for the DVD release.)

Then Blue Sky Studios produced their best film to date, the delightful and gratifyingly pro-life Horton Hears a Who.

This weekend, DreamWorks Animation releases the charming, entertaining Kung Fu Panda. I seem to be in the critical mainstream in enjoying the film, though I may be among a comparative minority who, not having been bowled over by the Shrek films (1 2 3), thinks this may be DreamWorks Animation’s best CGI cartoon to date (beating out Over the Hedge, Shark Tale and Madagascar as well as the Shrek flicks).

(Note: This is not to say Kung Fu Panda is DreamWorks Animation’s best animated film — only that it is possibly (IMO) their best computer-animated film. The Prince of Egypt remains their masterpiece, and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is the best animated swashbuckler of all time.)

The year’s most anticipated release, of course, is Pixar’s WALL*E, coming out later this month. I’ve seen advance footage from this one, and, well, let’s just say my anticipation is through the roof. If it meets my expectations, this film could power 2008 to the best family-film year since, like, 2004 and 2005 combined.

Prince Caspian, not a great film, is still a good ride. And Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is Indy’s most family-friendly outing since, like, 1981 (this being the first Indy film since the original without some sort of bedroom scene).

What else? A little off the beaten path, Son of Rambow is a flawed but endearing film that might be okay for families with older kids (the story is about two young British schoolboys in the 1980s who set out to create a homemade sequel to First Blood).

And the year’s not over.

Looking further ahead, I’m getting no vibes on 20th Century’s Space Chimps, but I’m more intrigued by Fly Me to the Moon, a Belgian English-language cartoon about houseflies stowing aboard the Apollo 11. (Neil Armstrong voices himself?! He couldn’t be bothered to participate in In the Shadow of the Moon, but he turns out for this?)

Then there’s City of Ember, a Walden Media adaptation from the director of Monster House — and the first Walden film to set off my spider-sense in a good way since, like, Holes. (I liked Because of Winn-Dixie, but I didn’t get the same vibe from it… and I’ve been ambivalent about the Narnia films.) One of Walden’s problems in recent years has always been not having the right creative team. Could this break the pattern?

What else? Could The Clone Wars possibly be worth catching? The PG-rated Brandon Fraser Journey to the Center of the Earth could be fun (I missed an early screening due to a conflict). Disney tries another home-grown CGI cartoon, yawn (Bolt). For Harry fans, December will bring The Half-Blood Prince.

Of course, not all the news has been good. Speed Racer anyone? We saw another tepid VeggieTales movie (The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything). And, yikes, DreamWorks is releasing a Madagascar sequel.

On the other hand, there are no fantasy films this year selling atheism to children, and that’s a good thing.

One way to stack up the year against other recent years is to compare this year’s films with recent counterparts.

Horton Hears a Who easily beats Blue Sky’s most recent efforts, Ice Age 2 and Robots. Kung Fu Panda stands taller than DreamWorks’ previous Shrek the Third and Over the Hedge.

Spiderwick beats out Bridge to Terabithia (or Monster House, whichever you prefer). And I probably liked Prince Caspian better than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I’m looking forward to comparing City of Ember to The Golden Compass. And how will WALL*E stack up to Ratatouille and Cars? I have a hunch it may compare favorably indeed.

GET MY KUNG FU PANDA REVIEW. EDIT: Link fixed!

I just know I’ve heard that somewhere before…

Narnian eye candy. That’s what The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian amounts to, for the most part.

That’s not a bad thing. It’s a lot less than Lewis fans might have wanted, but in some ways it’s actually better than we might have expected.

Judged on its own merits, the filmmakers have made a better movie than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They’ve also departed more from the source material — in some ways to the betterment of the film. Structurally, the book has issues, both as drama and as source material for a film. Some of the best bits in the film, especially the central set piece at Miraz’s castle, aren’t in the book, but are basically compatible with the book and help make for a better movie. Plotwise, character-wise, strategy-wise, it works — and it’s great eye candy too.

My biggest complaints are twofold. First, Prince Caspian introduces two of Lewis’s best characters — and the film gets them both wrong.

Peter Dinklage, a strong actor, is effective as Trumpkin, except he’s not playing Trumpkin. He’s playing some other, more soulful, less hearty dwarf. And Reepicheep — well. Let’s just say I remember him as more dashing and less sarcastic.

Secondly, I don’t mind a somewhat revisionistic approach to the story, as long as it honors the spirit of the book, as long as it honors the themes. Caspian gets the spirit of Lewis’s plot, but eviscerates his themes. I’ve said in the past that LW&W got maybe two-thirds of Lewis’s intended meaning; if so, Caspian might get a quarter — if it’s lucky.

Here’s the thesis of my review in this regard:

Thematically, Prince Caspian the book may be said to be about the triumph of mythic imagination over Enlightenment rationalism and skepticism. The movie almost entirely omits the skepticism, and greatly diminishes the triumph of mythic imagination.

Basically, to enjoy Prince Caspian, you have to put C. S. Lewis out of your head and enjoy an action-packed movie with gorgeous vistas and special effects, a dazzling central set piece, and a bizarrely annoying pop song in the last five minutes.

Even though it’s more revisionistic, Caspian is less annoying to me than LW&W, in large part because LW&W is a more important story. I mean, the triumph of mythic imagination over Enlightenment rationalism and skepticism is all well and good, but it isn’t exactly the passion and redemption, you know what I mean?

Still and all, I was hoping that Caspian might put the franchise on firmer footing for the third film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Now that is a story they must get right, especially if the franchise is to continue.

In that regard, I’m glad to see that a new creative team is coming on board: Andrew Adamson and his two-time screenwriting team are moving on, and director Michael Apted will be taking the helm for Dawn Treader with screenwriter Steven Knight, who previously collaborated with Apted on Amazing Grace (also for Walden).

I have no idea whether Apted and Knight are the right team for Dawn Treader. I just know for sure Adamson and company aren’t. Let us just hope and pray that they rise to the occasion and sail the Dawn Treader straight and true.

Incidentally, wondering why, even with Lewis’s stepson Doug Gresham producing, these films are so far from the mark? I’ve interviewed Gresham, and I haven’t been particularly impressed with the perspicacity of his take on his stepfather’s work.

Get that story.

Prince Caspian review

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe review

SDG here with a belated guest blog post from a 15-year-old who saw B16 at the youth rally. His excitement is palpable. The Church belongs to the young!

This weekend I was blessed to be able to visit the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, on his first Pastoral Visit to the United States. People flocked from the far corners of the Americas to see the Vicar of Christ. They came by the thousands hoping to catch a glimpse of the Pope. They stood on street corners in expectation of a momentary view as he drove by. Those who saw him will tell you that it is a meeting, even if for only a second, that they will treasure for all their lives.

But why did they come to see him? What did they see in the Vicar of Christ that inspired them to come from all around the globe to just to hear him?

The Pope made a visit to America, but those who watched on TV, or listened on the radio, or actually saw him, would say that they came to see him; that America came to see the Pope. People throughout the Western Hemisphere flocked to the Holy Father; it was not the other way around. The Pope came to bring the Truth to us; instead the Americas came to find the Truth in him. People have always been in search of happiness and many times they look in all the wrong places. They search for happiness and truth, for they are one, happiness is found only in the discovery of the Truth, and the discovery of the Truth begets happiness or more correctly joy and peace. Many, however, look for these two things in the world and fail to delve into the unknown glory of the realm of the Spiritual. People came to see the Holy Father because they saw in him both happiness and Truth.

In turn, the Holy Father was eager to share the Truth with us. He came with a message that called all Christians throughout the world to Holiness, a message that called us to Christ. He brought Hope to many who had lost Hope. At the Youth Rally he called the future Church of America to truly live their freedom. For freedom is not the right to choose between good and evil, but the ability to do good. He called the young people to silence, to meditation. He called them to find their vocation, to discover what God has planned for them to do in their life on Earth. He asked them to seriously consider the religious life.

And the young people of the Western Hemisphere responded with cheers of “We Love You Benedict”. They became so loud, that the Pope in his eagerness to get his message out, had to raise his hand and calm the crowd. Every time he stood up, or sat down, or spoke, he was greeted with cheers. The Pope showed how much he loved the children on the steps of Saint Patrick’s in his embrace of a small baby, and the youth showed their love for their Leader in their cheers and in their presence.

Benedict returned to Rome, the capitol of Christianity, on Sunday night, April 17th. However, his message and his image will be engraved upon the hearts and minds of all those who saw him forever. He now is thousands of miles away in Italy, but for those who saw him on TV, heard him on the radio, or were there with him, he will never leave.

Viva Le Papa!

SDG here with a numbingly depressing note about how representatives of two ancient Christian communities spent yesterday, Palm Sunday of Holy Week on the Julian calendar used by many Eastern Churches. Here’s the lede:

JERUSALEM —  Dozens of Greek and Armenian priests and worshippers exchanged blows in Christianity’s holiest shrine on Palm Sunday, and pummeled police with palm fronds when they tried to break up the brawl.

The "holiest shrine" in question would be the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. So, yeah, in honor of the beginning of Holy Week, on the day of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, dozens of Christian priests and worshipers brawled at the site of Our Lord’s victory over death and evil — and pummeled police with palm fronds.

With palm fronds. Christopher Hitchens couldn’t have scripted it better. Or James Carroll, for that matter (talk about Constantine’s sword). Here’s ashes in your eye, brother! I’ve got an olive branch and I’m not afraid to use it! Think of Charlton Heston’s John the Baptist in The Greatest Story Ever Told, combat-baptizing the Herodian soldiers trying to arrest him, thundering "Repent! Repent!" while forcibly ducking them in the Jordan — and weep, for the accidental parody is hardly more absurd than the reality.

Yesterday was also, incidentally, the last day of Pope Benedict XIV’s visit to the United States. I can imagine someone supposing that I as a Romanist might derive some sort of satisfaction from the spectacle of two separated Eastern communities brawling on the other side of the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. It depresses the snot out of me. Partisan churchmanship has no place here of all places. The shame is all of ours. I would almost rather let Hitchens have his way and demolish the site altogether, denying it to us all rather than seeing Jesus’ will for unity mocked and defied at the very site of His victory.

Almost. The Sepulchre belongs to all future generations of Christians, and our failure to follow Christ now is no license to deny them their patrimony. But dang, it’s galling.

Added: A further twist of the knife: Although Catholic, Greek and Armenian communities uneasily coexist at the Holy Sepulchre, none of them controls the main entrance. Instead, two local Muslim families retain the keys, and come twice a day to open and close the doors. This has apparently been the situation for centuries. I’ve heard it said that the Muslims retain custody of the entrance to keep peace among the Christian communities; and while that might be an excuse, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were truth in it too. God help us.

Ut unum sint, Lord. That they may be one.

Get the (depressing) story.

While Pope Benedict rocks New York in his own comparatively low-key fashion, a documentary adaptation of ex-priest James P. Carroll’s Constantine’s Sword, which takes a few jabs at B16, opens even more quietly in the Big Apple.

Your Decent Films guy is on the case. GET THE STORY.

P.S. YHT to Heart, Mind & Strength host Greg Popcak for the sound bite in the post title.

By, like, two days. Exactly two days, actually. Also, the greater danger would seem to have been from trampling rather than flying lead. But still.

Apparently, a Sunday afternoon of disorderly teen behavior at non–Mouse affiliated Orlando water park Wet ’n Wild ended in a shooting yesterday.

The gun used may or may not have been a .22 recovered at the scene; a leg wound, not serious, was sustained by a teen. (Writing this sentence, I’m reminded that Amanda Shaw at the First Things recently blogged excerpts from a style catalogue once given to Ernest Hemingway, recommendations from which include commending “He suffered a broken leg in a fall” over “he broke his leg in a fall,” in part on the grounds that “presumably the man has two legs” and so “a leg” is preferable to “his leg.” I tried to apply this logic here, with rather unsatisfactory results, since my sentence now fails to specify that the teen was shot, rather than, say, skinning his — er, a — knee in a fall. Suggestions for improvements are welcome.)

One or two shots were fired, and the shooting victim’s brother was also struck in the lip by something, but it could have been a rock. Also, “[e]veryone was running and people were trampled.”

Not ordinarily the sort of thing I would note at JA.o, except for one thing: My family and I were at Wet ’n Wild exactly 48 hours earlier — all Friday afternoon, in fact — on the last day of our week-long Orlando vacation (about which more later).

FWIW, I didn’t notice any rowdy teen behavior on Friday. As far as I know, the only noteworthy visitor phenomena that day was an Assemblies of God convention that had the park rented for private use after hours, but although I was actually in the park as much as 30 minutes after the official closing, I didn’t personally witness any rowdy charismatic phenomena such as slaying in the Spirit or anything.

In other brushes with amusement-park mayhem, my sister was at Six Flags Great Adventure on the very same day in 1984 as the fatal Haunted Castle fire that killed eight teenagers. (My father at work heard the news about the fatal fire on television and called home to make sure my sister was safe.)

On an earlier Six Flags outing, in the same Haunted Castle, I was mugged, but a friend was carrying my money and so I didn’t lose anything. Coincidentally, there was also an Assemblies of God youth group at Six Flags on that day — I remember because I was one of them. (Those A/G folks sure do like their amusement parks.)

Anyway, the Wet ’n Wild thing being a rather trivial incident, I didn’t feel as weird as I did having taken my (then smaller) family to the top of the Empire State Building and looking at the World Trade Center the week before 9/11.

Well, that’s all I have to say about that.

Get the story (or not).

P.S. Oh, incidentally, for those who may have missed it the first time around, here’s the (rather more exciting) excitement from our last family vacation: The Great Elevator Escape.