You Have to Respect the Writing, Especially from the "Good" Book

I still remember leaving the theater after seeing the Stanley Kubrick version of "The Shining." As a fan of horror in general and Stephen King in particular, I had been looking forward to the movie. I loved the way King had developed the story in the book, all of the power, the nuance. I loved the way that his characters drew you in and helped you experience the madness that was the Overlook Hotel. And for similar reasons, I was thoroughly disgusted after the movie was over.

The cinematography was fine. I thought the performances were okay. A lot of other people have always seemed to have had a much higher opinion of Jack Nicholson than I, and Shelly Duvall had was fine for what they gave her. My problem was that it wasn't the story that I had read, so it wasn't the story that I had come to see. Expectations play a big part in a movie. That one did not meet mine.

Hollywood is roughly a month away from the release of "Noah," a fairly pricey piece of movie-making that they bought into a while ago, and the nerves are starting to get jangly among the money-men. They may have some very good reasons to be nervous.There have been leaks about the storyline and how it doesn't quite follow the expected plot line for some time.

I can still remember when NBC did a made-for-television mini-series about "Noah." I went into that one with high hopes. I don't recall why, but they didn't last very long. I made it until just after Noah and his wife fled the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and event strangely absent from my translation of the Bible, and that was it for me. I don't recall whether I changed to another station or switched off the set entirely, I wasn't watching that.

I am not going to apply any religion-laden tirades to entertainment corporations. I am pretty much a free-market capitalist, and as long as they are risking their own money, and people are not compelled to invest or watch against their will, I believe they should be pretty much free to make what they want. I do believe that the people responsible for that kind of treatment of scripture may very well pay a penalty some day at the hands of Higher Authority, but that isn't up to me.

I will give a bit of a rant against the entertainment corporations for fighting so hard against their audience in some regards. It has been shown time and time again that good family entertainment makes money. Respectful, well-done treatment of the Bible in film makes money. Despite those truths, the corporate studios are willing to spend millions ($125 million in the case of the latest version of Noah, or so the rumor goes), and then sweat as to whether or not audiences will accept it. Of course, if they do, then they have other costs that they have to start worrying about.

Hollywood is not a friendly place to Christian or conservative values. Some people working there deny it. Others don't bother. The ones that do are about as convincing as the official in "The Sound of Music" proclaiming that "nothing has changed in Austria." It's becoming a great deal more common today, but California has long been a state where Christian values were largely mocked and Hollywood excess celebrated, where vice is celebrated and virtue shamed, at least as defined throughout much of history. A studio that appeared to be making too many friendly gestures toward a Christian audience would be at risk of offending a good percentage of the labor pool, and possibly getting cut out of a few key networks.

Either way, it's a risk. And as I said, it's their risk to take. To me, it seems like a foolish one, though. Hollywood, by it's nature, deals in make-believe, and that's fine. But some things, even when faked, have to at least appear genuine. That's because some things are sacred. If it doesn't mean anything to the studios, they should at least respect the customers. And though many there don't believe it, a final review is coming, and The Critic pulls no punches. If He doesn't like it, there'll be hell to pay.