Pride and Prejudice

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First impressions are often wrong. True character is measured by our ability to swallow our pride and own up to our initial prejudices.

That challenge is at the heart of Pride and Prejudice, a new film version of Jane Austen’s classic novel set in 17th-century England. This film by director Joe Wright marks this year’s second outstanding adaptation of Austen’s most popular novel. (I also would recommend Bride and Prejudice, a contemporary Indian Bollywood musical adaptation of the same text).

The story centers on the five daughters of the middle-class Bennet family, a family whose livelihood is threatened because their home would be inherited by a distant cousin if Mr. Bennet (Donald Sutherland) were to die. Perhaps this is what has caused Mrs. Bennet (Brenda Blethyn) to become ruthless in her efforts to marry off her daughters quickly and well. “The business of her life was to get her daughters married,” Austen wrote. The problem, of course, is that Mrs. Bennet obnoxiously blunders about her matchmaking attempts in a manner that shames her family and nearly alienates her two oldest daughters.

We see this world through the eyes of the film’s protagonist, 20-year-old Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley). The second-oldest Bennet daughter is intelligent and quick- witted. When she spurns the loveless marriage proposal of a pompous rector, Mrs. Bennet vows never to speak to her daughter again. Yet Elizabeth’s father, respecting his daughter’s wisdom, tells her, “From this day onward, you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins. And I will never see you again if you do.”

When Elizabeth first meets the vain and aristocratic Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen), she forms quick prejudices, as does Mr. Darcy. He describes her looks as “tolerable, but not handsome enough” for him. “I could more easily forgive his vanity had he not wounded mine,” Elizabeth tells her oldest sister, the beautiful Jane (Rosamund Pike). Later, she tells Darcy “from the first moment I met you, your arrogance made me realize that you were the last man in the world I could ever marry.”

Yet this love story ultimately raises the question of whether its characters will love their view of the world more than they love the truth. By the midpoint, Mr. Darcy has completely rejected his first assessment of Elizabeth. He proposes to her, although in a manner so awkward that it does his cause more harm than good. Meanwhile, Elizabeth, who “swore to loathe him for all eternity” based on what she has heard about Darcy from others, has a revelation that calls into question the truth of her perceptions about him.

At its core, Pride and Prejudice portrays what is meant by repentance. Both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy need to overcome their pride and their initial prejudices in their respective journeys over the course of the film. The Greek word for repentance, metanoia, literally means to turn about face, to change one’s mind or to undergo a radical conversion. The principal characters need to see their world with new eyes.

Darcy proves his love for Elizabeth – not only with words but with actions. His deeds demonstrate that he is a completely different person than the one Elizabeth thought he was. Darcy actually needs to undo some of the events his previous actions have brought about. The tasks illustrate the cost required for repentance, particularly as he must humble himself beyond what might be possible for contemporary Darcys. Elizabeth, who had pride in her ability to perceive others, has to acknowledge that she has been completely blind. “He’s been a fool, and so have I,” she says.

Elizabeth’s confession calls to mind the words of Jesus: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.” When the truth is revealed to Elizabeth, she quickly casts aside the false view of the world she had constructed. She is able to see Darcy in a new light, as though scales have fallen from her eyes. For it is not Pride and Prejudice, but humility and charity which give birth to love.

From intimate conversations to beautiful landscapes, this Pride and Prejudice captures the wonderful spirit of Jane Austen’s novel in a manner that’s authentic to its source and well-suited to the medium of film.

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

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Harry Potter has grown.

Not only has Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) aged another year. Not only does he have his first serious crush. Not only does he compete for even greater renown as a contestant among the three wizarding schools participating in a Triwizard Tournament. But because the spirit infused within Harry Potter by his creator is beginning to come to the fore.

As the only one ever to survive the killing curse of the dark Lord Voldemort, the Boy Who Lived begins in this film, through the ordeals Harry experiences because of the Goblet of Fire, to make his mark as The Boy Who Loved.

On the surface, that moniker could seem to result from Harry’s crush on Cho Chang (Katie Leung), the Ravenclaw seeker who first caught Harry’s eye in a school Quidditch tournament. Or from the romance that seems to be blossoming everywhere. The film could almost be subtitled “Young Wizards in Love.” Even Hagrid the gamekeeper gets into the act.

But a deeper kind of love – “an old magic more powerful” than anything in Harry’s world – is beginning to shine. And the timing couldn’t be better.

In his fourth year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry finds himself caught up in his darkest challenge yet. For the first time in generations, Hogwarts is hosting two other wizarding schools in a competition known as the Triwizard Tournament – a contest that has been fatal for some and whose participants must be at least 17 to face the trials. The name of one contestant from each school is revealed from the Goblet of Fire. But no one is more surprised than 14-year-old Harry when the Goblet spits out his name as a fourth contestant.

Initially, Harry is widely viewed as having rigged his own entry – an allegation even believed by his best friend Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint). “I didn’t ask for this to happen,” Harry says. “I don't want eternal glory.” But, eventually, the pair finds more troublesome things to ponder: finding a date for the Yule Ball.

The Triwizard competitors face dragons, underwater challenges and a deadly maze. Ron battles his own dragons of jealousy as he learns that Hermione (Emma Watson) has already been asked to the Ball by someone else. And both Harry and Ron find themselves less than successful in navigating the maze of adolescent relationships.

But in the events surrounding the Triwizard tasks, Harry’s mettle is revealed. He demonstrates fairness, sportsmanship and “moral fiber,” sacrificing his own best interests out of concern for others. Before the film is over, we learn the depth and breadth of what can be achieved through sacrificial love.

The dark Lord Voldemort is back, too. His Death Eaters, the cruel henchmen who spread havoc and fear with his Dark Mark, reveal themselves. They rampage like Ku Klux Klansman at an international competition known as the Quidditch World Cup. Meanwhile, Harry is having dark nightmares and his scar burns with the memory of an ancient pain.

The fourth film in the series is adapted pretty closely from the best of the six Harry Potter books published so far by British author J.K. Rowling. (The seventh and final book is due out sometime in 2006 or 2007.) The action is relentless. Those who haven’t read the books may need to observe closely, turn to multiple viewings or simply be content in allowing themselves to drown in the wave of special effects that are purely magical. It’s the best in the Potter film series, yet still not to surpass the text itself.

As the first film in the series to go beyond the PG rating, Goblet of Fire is definitely too scary for pre-teens. There are several deaths, an aggressive dragon and suddenly hostile mermaids. There’s a different feel to the films as well. After three previous films, we see less of the magical feats to which we’ve grown accustomed, such as swinging staircases and talking portraits. Still, this film introduces us to the Magic Eye of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody (Brendan Gleeson). We learn of “turn keys” – enchanted objects that have the capacity to instantly transport anyone who touches them to another place. And we follow Harry into the memories of Professor Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) by means of a pensive – a bowl-shaped memory-retention device. These memories provide clues about the one whose trying to orchestrate Harry’s life.

“Dark and difficult times lie ahead, Harry. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right... and what is easy,” Dumbledore says. And Harry often seems swept up in a fast-moving current of events beyond his control. But the film shows that – even in the most difficult of situations – we still have a choice about how we will respond. Harry’s consistent choice of sacrificial love and on behalf of life models a biblical tradition that provides its own moral fiber for this series. As in the Triwizard Tournament, Harry is never the most powerful wizard. He’s simply the wizard who chooses to tap into the source of the power of Love.

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Good Night, and Good Luck

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Imagine a time when those who voiced public dissent about U.S. policies were criticized as being disloyal. Or when others who had remote ties to suspicious foreign groups were viewed as guilty by association.

The parallels to the contemporary debate about responses to possible terrorist threats are immediately evident in viewing one of the best films so far this year. Good Night, and Good Luck, which draws its name from the signature signoff of CBS-TV journalist Edward R. Murrow, focuses on another time of fear.

About two-thirds of Americans living today (this reviewer included) weren’t alive when Murrow on March 9, 1954, presented his 30-minute See It Now special, “A Report on Sen. Joseph McCarthy.” While Murrow was not the first to criticize McCarthy nor did his report bring about the Senator’s political downfall, the See It Now broadcast was significant because press freedoms were more limited for the embryonic broadcast media than for their print counterparts. And the broadcast became viewed as a turning point regarding public perception on what was later termed the Red Scare.

More than 50 years ago at the height of the Cold War, communism was perceived as the nation’s primary threat. The fear was so great that McCarthy and others conducted aggressive Congressional investigations into prominent individuals accused of being Soviet spies or Communist sympathizers. Many people’s lives were destroyed, while many who knew better stood by silently in fear.

Murrow had become a kind of patron saint of early broadcast journalists, first in radio and later on television. He came to fame at the outbreak of World War II, in which he was noted for his live radio reports from the rooftops of London during the Nazi bombing blitz and later for providing one of the first eyewitness news reports of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Rather than chronicle Murrow’s professional career, Good Night, and Good Luck wisely focuses on the conflict between the rising television journalist and the waning political leader. What we get is a fast-paced and exciting film that gives us a glimpse into the tension and apprehension of the era.

Actor George Clooney, who directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay, made another excellent decision in using archival footage of McCarthy. Any attempt to have an actor portray McCarthy would have come across as an unbelievable caricature. That black-and-white video is woven in with portrayals of CBS journalists, including Clooney included as producer Fred Friendly and a sensational David Strathairn as Murrow. (Although appearing as black and white, the film technically was shot on a grayscale set with color film that was later converted to black-and-white.)

Although we may think of matters as black and white, that technical nuance (provided by Internet Movie Database) illustrates the point that the world really has a lot more gray than is evident at first glimpse. McCarthy never obtained any convictions in his witch hunts, but recently declassified information from the former Soviet Union indicates that some of his targets were actually guilty. Some have raised questions about Murrow’s reporting methods, which did not hold to standards of objectivity. Yet the search for complete objectivity is a fantasy. (McCarthy’s tactics did a great deal to highlight the problems of reporting claims attributed to official sources.) Everyone has biases. What’s important is reporting that demonstrates values of fairness, accuracy, even-handedness and responsibility to seek out the truth that may be known.

Set almost entirely in the CBS studios and a bar frequented by Murrow’s crew (in which we hear much of the fine jazz soundtrack), the atmosphere of Good Night, and Good Luck feels like another world. And it was. No Surgeon General’s warning on the dangers of the ever-present tobacco smoke. Far less equality for women. Only three television networks.

But some things don’t change. Watching Good Night, and Good Luck, the viewer quickly realizes that Murrow’s broadcast was not so much an indictment of McCarthy, but of Americans. Of We the People. “We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home,” Murrow said. “The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it.”

As Murrow said in a speech to his staff on the day of the broadcast, “No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.”

Perhaps we have a lot more personal responsibility for what goes on in our world than we’d like to admit. May it take something less than standing face to face with God for us to realize our culpability.

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Chicken Little

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Early in Chicken Little, Walt Disney Pictures’ first attempt at computer-generated animation apart from Pixar, a mother rabbit hears a warning from the title character and turns to flee. She grabs the hand of her infant bunny from the baby buggy, and pulls out an infinite chain of CG-created babies.

That comic scene illustrates the wonders of what can be done with technology. But it also points to a filmmaking approach that is behind Chicken Little and many other films these days. If an audience enjoys something, the false logic concludes, why don’t we repeat it again for them?

And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

You get the idea. There are many great gags spread throughout this 77-minute film. But, as a whole, the movie lacks an acorn of compelling story. It reminds me of a sermon that strings together some of the hearers’ favorite Scripture verses without drawing out a larger theme and message.

If you have a yen for pop songs of the 1970s (“Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart”), and you enjoy seeing pop-culture references and classic moments from other films made into clichés, then this movie was Designed with You in Mind.

To be fair, the writers of Chicken Little do try to beef up the underlying themes behind the classic fable about the chick that is struck on the head by an acorn and mistakenly believes the sky is falling. This Chicken Little (voiced by Zack Braff) is actually hit by an octagonal object that turns out to be an early warning of an alien invasion. Nobody in the town of Oakey Oaks believes his story. Not even Chicken Little’s father Buck “Ace” Cluck (Garry Marshall), an aging baseball star, who seems embarrassed by his son. And Chicken Little’s reputation is forever tarred as he is defamed in multiple media – movies, billboards, bumper stickers – as “that crazy chicken.”

Chicken Little finds solace in his friends -- Abby Mallard, aka Ugly Duckling (Joan Cusack), an over-stuffed pig called Runt of the Litter (Steve Zahn) and Fish Out of Water (the most entertaining character in the film). In a school where the gym teacher divides students into the dodgeball teams of cool and not cool, Chicken Little and his mates will not set any trends. Still, they find themselves in a situation where the world’s fate is in their hands. (By now, this may seem to sound like one of Disney’s recent releases Sky High or other films where the future of humanity depends on youth who are misunderstood by their parents and cast aside by their peers. Keep in mind, Sky High was for the teen market, while this film won’t reach beyond tweens in age.)

The writers do attempt to address themes of unconditional love and acceptance, which Chicken Little seeks from his father. Eventually Buck Cluck gets the message that his son wants to be understood. But between an overlong subplot about Chicken Little trying to win his father’s love through success in baseball and an all-out alien invasion that may scare younger viewers, these themes are overshadowed. In an era when many TV and movie dads just never get it, at least Buck Cluck comes around in the end.

Inevitable comparisons are suggested with Disney’s first CG animated film, Toy Story, produced in collaboration with Pixar. In that case, there was more to the movie than cute gags and clever CG effects. Toy Story gave us memorable characters and addressed important themes related to friendship and the realization that love isn’t a limited commodity. Chicken Little never has such high points, yet the sky doesn’t come crashing down either. You could save yourself the price of admission by visiting the movie’s official web site < http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/chickenlittle/>, where you can see its best gags and make Chicken Little dance or the sky fall on his head. Once those are complete, there’s little left to enjoy.

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