[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”1938633172″ locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T1IPBBPgL._SL160_.jpg” width=”106″]Page 2: Gareth Higgins – Cinematic States
As Higgins repeatedly points out, the movies are about what makes us human.
The films he has chosen represent the American human experience, but in a way that resonates with all our stories. Some of the best selections are Connecticut (The Ice Storm), the District of Columbia (which weaves together Peter Sellars’ Being There and The Exorcist), Kentucky (Coal Miner’s Daughter) and Georgia (the powerful trifecta of Deliverance, Gone With the Wind, and the film version of Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood). Honourable mention also goes to Arkansas (Thelma and Louise and Sling Blade) and Virginia (Malick’s The New World). There are some innovative stylistic choices, which sometimes skirt the boundaries of the theological: the chapter on Massachusetts narrates Jaws from the point of view of the shark, critiquing in Girardian fashion the myth of redemptive violence (184). Cinematic States is dedicated to Walter Wink, another thinker unafraid to confront and unmask the powers of oppression and violence.
The book is not without its peculiarities; one may quabble over films left out of the list, or mourn the relative lack of documentary films (Michael Moore’s Roger and Me is an exception). The film choices for Colorado (The Shining and Citizen Kane) consist of two of the best films ever made, but the imaginary dialogue the author presents between Charles Foster Kane and Jack Torrance seemed to me a bit unwieldy. However, the book is full enough of rich and thoughtful prose, as well as Higgins’ winsome personality, that any rough patches are smoothed over. There is spiritual depth here too: one cannot help but agree, particularly if you have seen Kubrick’s visionary film, that “2001 suggests that we are asleep until God speaks to us, and that being in God’s presence is an enveloping experience – like going to the movies.” (318) There is a familiarity in both Higgins’ style and his story; we can relate to his childhood love of sci-fi films like The Black Hole as well as his romance with baseball, the quintessentially American sport, through Kevin Costner films like Bull Durham and Field of Dreams.
Writing convincingly about film is difficult, particularly when it comes to issues of “ultimate concern.” I say this as both a filmmaker and a writer. Many a sermon or article on the theological aspects of a certain film would do better by adopting a strictly apophatic approach: simply showing the film rather than trying (and failing) to “explain” or “unpack” it. Yet, there is still a need to talk and write about what we are dreaming on screen, particularly when the films in question are profound, troubling, and wondrous. What Higgins gives us is writing that simply and poetically “speaks out” (ekphrasis) of the film itself, moving prose inspired by the moving image. Higgins’ filmic journey was in fact originally conceived of as a documentary film, but evolved into a writing project, and so another way to experience it would be to simply watch (state by state) the well over 100 films Gareth Higgins discusses along the course of his pilgrimage through “the American Dreamlife.” However, even without seeing the films, in reading the book they become present. “Cinema is a kind of memory, because what we see when we’re watching is the sculpted detritus of someone else’s dream.” (367) Writing about film helps us make sense of those memories even as they come back to us with startling clarity, spurring us on to dream freely about a better world and our place in it.
C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
 Reading for the Common Good From ERB Editor Christopher Smith "This book will inspire, motivate and challenge anyone who cares a whit about the written word, the world of ideas, the shape of our communities and the life of the church." -Karen Swallow Prior Enter your email below to sign up for our weekly newsletter & download your FREE copy of this ebook! |
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