The Film Society: Culture Made

Well, while I was doing shows, performing musical numbers, and studying for exams, I missed my monthly blog post! Although, it probably didn't help that I was indecisive of what to do for my next post. Honestly, I couldn't decide whether to write a movie review on my new favorite films The Tree of Life and The Shawshank Redemption or to write a review on the stinkbox Daredevil or write this post. Ultimately, I decided to write this post... as you can tell. Don't worry: eventually I'll write reviews on those films, hopefully in the near future, but for tonight, I want to reflect on perhaps the greatest part of these last nine months: The Calvary Film Society.

Calvary Film Society was founded not too long ago, 2011 or 2010, as a unique club where students at this local high school would watch and analyze movies as an art form instead of merely viewing them for entertainment. In 2011, the club was regarded as a Christopher Nolan fan club, mostly because of the overwhelming presence of his films--which is fine, Nolan is perhaps one of the greatest filmmakers of this generation. There, the students gained a heightened perception of meanings behind films and what filmmakers tried to achieve... and what the heck Inception meant at the end. (Was he dreaming or not? Seriously, people, no clues?) So when it was announced that the Film Society was returning this school year, excitement overflowed.

The four sponsors for the society introduced themselves: the English teacher, the History teacher, the AP teacher, and the Art teacher. Soon, they became known by their admirers as the Dream Team. Of course, they announced cardigans and sweater vests for enhanced classiness, but they made sure that everyone knew what the Film Society was about: analyzing movies to discover the filmmakers' messages and traits of God within. And what better way to show these than by showing Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror film... The Birds! A horror film in a Christian school... makes perfect sense, right?

The first night, a massive crowd showed up. The English teacher, Mr Bohlander, gave us a brief history and trademarks of Hitchcock before jumping right into it. The film, which I'll always state as being well-made and frightening, certainly tested the analysis of the lowly students and they succeeded. Among the really in-depth discussions, the group hypothesized why Hitchcock used certain camera angles and what he was trying to convey in that ambiguous ending (because wasn't that a cliffhanger and a half). But at that moment everyone knew that Film Society would not be like last year's Nolanfest, especially with the Dream Team rallied together to celebrate the art form of film.

With excitement, everyone couldn't wait until the next month when the next film was announced. We had nothing to go by, but people guessed and thought, but I don't think anybody expected the Oscar-winning film True Grit.

And I don't think that it turned out being quite the fun Western the majority thought it would be. What started as a study in a new genre turned into a difficult discussion in morality and who the real heroes are in films. Why do we root for the character who may not have the most moral plans? Why do we cheer for Mattie Ross who is literally a young girl on a neverending quest to kill a man (granted, he killed her father,  but she doesn't take the most legal action; rather, she does the opposite, hiring a drunk retired Marshall and tagging along with a Texas Ranger). It was certainly a difficult discussion, and one most try to forget because of its difficulty, but (spoiler alert), it'll return.

The next month, we celebrated Christmas with the classic A Christmas Story, a staple holiday movie and a necessity for any Christmas party. It was the smallest gathering, I think, until We Were Soldiers. Because it was a light-hearted affair, the discussion wasn't as in-depth as True Grit was, but it was a nice little affair on nostalgia and nice little party prizes.

Again, the society eagerly awaited the next installment in this thought-provoking saga of movies. And at last it came. The most obvious thing that could happen to a Film Society: a trip to the cinema! And better yet, to see the film adaptation to one of musical theatre's finest moments: Les Miserables.

Now I had seen Les Miserables before, onstage and onscreen, but this was the Film Society--I could not miss a meeting if I could help it, and considering I loved this movie, I wasn't going to miss this one. Besides, we went out for some Panera and drank some really nice coffee. We were like Oscar films--a tour de force! That's not quite the right term, but we were classy--and how often do you see that in high school students. While at the coffee shop waiting for the showtime, we got to know some more about the sponsors and look around The Oxford Exchange, a really nice place if you ever get the chance to visit it and a fantastic writing spot! Then we went to the cinema. It was a nice cozy theater where we were, and, getting there a bit early, we found our ideal seats; for a while, it seemed like the Society would be the only ones there that night. We were excited, and Mr Seals began to joke about how we would do a discussion in the theater--maybe we could ask the guy to stop the projector at moments to reflect on that one heartbreaking song ("So what was the dream she dreamed?). It seemed magical. That is, until a guy in a baseball cap and his wife walked in and sat in the back. Scratch that idea, I guess. Half the group prepared themselves for all singing all the time (because Les Miserables is a sung-through musical) and commented on the trailers for poor January movies to come. Finally, the overture began, and we began to watch this masterpiece unfold... well, in my opinion it was. By the time Russell Crowe began his first solo, half the theater walked out to do who-knows-what. I guess they were of the popular opinion that Maximus should never sing because we are not entertained. It also seemed that all of his scenes didn't give everyone A Beautiful Mind at rest, because in his final number, a serious situation made one of the sponsors die laughing. I won't go into it, but my row just turned slowly to him, in humor and in awe. He claims it was the "unrealistic" sound effect that finally did it for him and that he had been holding in laughter throughout the entire film.

Good thing he got his pick next.

So after wiping away tears at the deaths of old men and young boys in the movie, we had a quick bite and discussion at Panera Bread, discussing how this film, with many Christian elements, would affect the perception of Christianity in the future and how well it portrays the time period, which made the AP teacher very happy. Then we made our way off and enjoyed the rest of the night.

Unfortunately I did not get to see We Were Soldiers, the only R-rated film shown this year, but I heard that it was a nice crowd and a good discussion, led, of course, by the veteran sponsor.

Over the next month or so, it became known that Mr Seals was not returning the next year, hoping to further his skills and mastery of visual art with a very prestigious program. We were happy for him, but it was bittersweet. So it made absolute perfect sense for him to present the final film for this edition of the Calvary Film Society, one of his favorite films: The Tree of Life by Terrence Malick.

 

This film, an artistic magnum opus, was more confusing than Inception. There are portions in this film that make you wonder who changed the channel, there are portions in here where you're wondering how we got here from there, and there are parts where you just tilt your head like a dog. But let it be said that this film was one of the most beautiful looking films and, if you understood it, one of the most beautiful stories shown in the Film Society. You could tell how much Mr Seals loved this film, and he took us on this fantastic journey with him, and we lost a few along the way. What started with a relatively full house turned into a very small group. The brains were separated from the brawn, the men from the boys. That, and it was getting really late. The most wonderful thing was, we each pulled something different from it: I pulled out a thing from Job, others pulled out a flashback-like story. It was just wonderful knowing that there was no one answer to any of the symbols in the movie. Mr Seals was happy, the other sponsors were happy: this was the best conclusion.

But, you know, this account seems a bit episodic. There needs to be some connecting force between these, right? One of the most wonderful connectors between the beginning and the end of the 2012-2013 Calvary Film Society was that we began with birds and ended with birds. The Birds ended with the survivors driving off to the bridge, surrounded by birds, not knowing if there was any hope of life left; The Tree of Life ended with a shot of a bridge as birds flew past. We began in the AP classroom, and there we end. We began in dust, and we return to dust. A cycle completed.

But while that's interesting and all, I think this is what they were trying to convey to the Society this year. Since the start of the year, Mr Seals was pushing for all fine arts to be culture makers instead of culture followers: be set apart for God instead of conforming to the pattern of the world. In the films we saw, there was a striving for identity. In The Birds, Melanie Daniels is always asked if she was the start of the fowl apocalypse as she struggles to cope with her identity aside from the bird attacks. In True Grit, we see Texas Ranger Labeouf obsessed with his identity as a Texas Ranger and how to prove it. In A Christmas Story, Ralphie sees that Red Ryder BB Gun to him being the ultimate hero, the western crusader, the big kid on the street. In Les Miserables, Valjean copes with his identity as a former convict and how that affects his life from then on even though he is a changed, Christian man. He even sings about it in a song: "Who Am I?" In We Were Soldiers, Col. Hal Moore struggles to differentiate himself from legendary General Custer, who decades before had served in the very same regiment. Lastly, in The Tree of Life, a father tries to make his son like him, to be a musician and to be a tough guy. Throughout all these films we see people struggle with their identity. Who are they? What purpose do they have? How can they make a difference? 

It was a great year of the Calvary Film Society, and even though significant changes are being made with the members, the mission will remain the same. Film must be recognized not only for its entertainment value, but its artistic value and the messages filmmakers convey. As you can see above, these films bring people together and inspire ideas and make differences, especially when you see what they were made for and why they were made.

To end this blog post, I want to share a tribute to the Calvary Film Society. Compiled of various clips from the six films seen and accompanied by the track "Look Around You" from We Were Soldiers, this video exemplifies what the Society was about and the people who made it possible. Keep your eye out for a new film review later this month, and be sure to check out Mr Seals' blog http://jonsealsblog.com/. Enjoy the video and keep your eye out for quality films: in Spielberg, in Coen, in Tarantino. In Clark, in Mallick, in Lee. Who knows the fantastic things you will find in them? Enjoy the clip as we celebrate what God has made with film.