"If a movie…presents a different side of reality, this is an important thing." – Amir Harel after his movie Paradise Now received
the 2005 Golden Globe award for best foreign film.
Brokeback Mountain (Focus Features) tells us "love is a force of nature" as two cowboys, in the name of love, engage in a homosexual relationship. That which is good, love, is degraded to a merely natural force and used as a wrapper to present the evil of homosexuality as positively and attractively as the talent involved can pull it off.
"Transamerica (IFC Films) is a funny, touching, completely modern look at the modern American family" according to the synopsis provided on the film's official website. The protagonist is a man in the process of have a sex change to become "the woman [he] always wanted to be" whose life is about to change as he meets, for the first time, a son he fathered 18 years ago.
Truman Capote, the real-life protagonist (played by Philip Hoffman) in the film, Capote (United Artists/Sony Pictures Classics), proclaims: "If I leave here without understanding you, the world will see you as a monster. Always. And I don’t want that." The "you" to whom Capote refers is one of two men who murdered an entire farming family in Kansas "in cold blood" as Capote would name his non-fiction book on the subject.
Out of Palestine (I could not find the place on a map) – in the film Paradise Now (Warner Independent Pictures) – from this "most unexpected place comes a bold new call for peace" as two sensitive "childhood friends" are sent on a double suicide bombing mission in Israel. The two hesitate in their mission, faced with a "moral dilemma" that, as far as at least some of their real-life peers are concerned, is purely the fantastical concoction of a Hollywood-sponsored film.*
These four films hold several important characteristics in common:
1. They attempt to convert that which is patently evil into good; to present that which is satanic in origin as merely human.
2. They are slick, feature productions: the cinematography, the music, the acting and other elements all seek to win adherents to their message through a convincing appeal to the emotions.
3. They were all released in 2005.
4. They have each received critical acclaim among Hollywood insiders. For example, each of these films received at least one Golden Globe award (Brokeback Mountain received four awards) from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in January.
Together, with other such films (the existence of which I assume, taking these to be a sampling), these productions represent a quantum "advance" in the blasphemy – that is the name of something that calls evil "good" and darkness "light" – being produced by Hollywood and disseminated
around the world. While there is nothing new about such subjects in literature – at least two of the films (Brokeback Mountain and Capote) have their origins in literary works – the appearance of such subjects in feature films represents a breakthrough in their acceptance or, at least, the push for
their acceptance, in society.
An Associated Press article the day after the Golden Globes reports Amir Harel, the producer of Paradise Now, as saying that "he supported [the film's] presentation of a different, more human face for Palestinian suicide bombers" (emphasis mine). Is it that which is human that leads a person to
become a bomb and murder or maim as many innocent men, women and children – and inflict as much terror – as possible in the process? It is not human but satanic inspiration that leads a person to do so. What is at work in Paradise Now and the other films so warmly received in the filmmaking
industry, is a fulfillment of the prophecy: "he will intend to make alterations in times and laws" (Daniel 7:25, NAS) in which suicide bombers are rendered more human, homosexuality is a legitimate expression of love etc., etc., etc. In summary, that which is evil and unrighteous is presented and accepted as good and righteous. Last year is an indicator that we can expect much more of such propaganda in 2006 and the year's ahead as Satan continues
in his battle to "speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One" (Daniel 7:25, NAS)
*Ironically, but not surprisingly, Paradise Now’s depiction of the two suicide bombers was not well received among those who may be considered subject matter experts on the nature of such murderous individuals. According to the AP article "Palestinian Film Gets Thumbs Down at Home", residents of
Nablus (the film’s location) relegated the film’s notion of sensitive suicide bombers struggling with a "moral dilemma" to a Hollywood fiction. " 'This movie doesn't help the Palestinian cause,' said an armed Palestinian militant who would not give his name because he's on the run. 'People who go to carry out bombings do not hesitate so much.' "
The saying goes, "only in the movies." While it is unfortunately not the only place one will find terrorists portrayed as sensitive men instead of the satanically inspired murderers that they are, it may be one of the most effective in turning people from righteousness and truth to evil and lies: all under the hypnosis of the local theater's sound and light show.
