Cinema as Scripture

Have you ever been in a situation or in a conversation with someone and can't quite find words to express what you feel or mean and are reminded from a scene from a movie that nails the scenario? That is what Scripture does for People of the Book. It is foundational, a continual frame of reference. The setting may not be "up to date" but the settings are, to a very large degree, timeless. As such they serve as perpetual reference points.

For those who don't relate to Scripture in this fashion, film, or books, or music, often serve this very purpose. They are, in effect, Scripture, a common language. For those who follow, for example, the Bible, there are times when a story from the Bible can be shared amongst a group from many different backgrounds and yet that story speaks a common language among them all. It is the "base" language.

A movie can provide the same, though perhaps to a narrower audience. But to that audience, it is a common language. There are feelings and emotions and ideas tied up in a movie that can be conveyed just be telling a story from the film.

At my job I had a position in "the office" which meant I had moved "up" from working on the floor. I don't care so much about position and title; I care about learning and experience. So it was an opportunity for growth. When the economy shifted, I was moved back "down" to the floor running presses again. I don't mind the work but it's hard to go backwards. But, as with all things, I looked at it as an opportunity to learn, to see how all the theories and ideas from "up" in the office actually worked "down" on the floor. It has been an eye opener, revealing the occasional dichotomy between ideal and reality.

But, there are days, long days, when it seems like eternity, like a door has been closed for good and fate is sealed. One of the jobs I was put on was running a drill press to ream a larger hole in a part (which ends up on a Harley...kind of cool, I suppose, that one of our parts ends up on such a high profile location). Part after part after part. Put part in fixture, pull down drill bit, bore hole, raise bit, put part in fixture, etc. After several hours of that, well, you get the picture...

So I was reminded of a particular "scripture" from the film Drugstore Cowboy when the character played by Matt Dillon, now in recovery, is working. His prospects, post-recovery, are slim and, after the thrill ride of addiction, he finds himself working a drill press.



Cinema as Scripture?

Or by making such a comparison do we render The Book just another form of human expression of common experience, not a revelation or opening up of the divine but merely an expression from within our shared humanity? Perhaps "film" bears similarity to the way in which we experience The Book in a faith community. After all, look at Star Wars and Star Trek conventions. People live the mythology of these films and frame a particular worldview around it.

Or is it a shortcut to communication? I mean, Animal House as Scripture?



Think about it. Haven't we all felt like this at some point? Trying to fit in, a social outcast, shoved aside because you don't have the pedigree?

Perhaps it is a substitute Scripture but it can function in a similar fashion, a frame of reference, a story which provides inspiration, strength and hope within which we can function in the world.