11/4/03
MOVIE REVIEW : CHARIOTS OF FIRE
By J.Parnell McCarter
American evangelical Christians have praised movies like Chariots of
Fire and Gods and Generals. As Doug Philips representatively testifies:
“In every generation, one film emerges from
the dust heap which is Hollywood and reminds even the most hardened of us
skeptics that God can turn ashes into beauty, that He often works outside our
tidy little mental boxes, and that there yet remains a witness for Jesus Christ
in our culture -- though that witness may take the form of a hero speaking from
the grave. When I was a young man en
route to college, that film was Chariots of Fire, the epic tale of
Christian Olympian Eric Liddell. For our children's generation, that film is Gods
and Generals, the stunning prequel to the Civil War masterpiece Gettysburg.”
(see http://visionforum.com/corner/newsletter/2003_02_20/
)
There is certainly much to respect and admire about Eric Liddell. But the question is this: should we educate ourselves about him and honor him by watching a movie that involves him?
We should first note about the movie that it is titled Chariots of Fire, not Chariot of Fire. That is because there is more than one heroic “chariot” portrayed in the movie. The other notable “chariot” there is a Judaist. And that serves as the first major objection to this movie. It is wrong to portray a Judaist as a role model, for Judaists have wickedly rejected the reformed Christian gospel. So Christians should not allow themselves to be entertained by that which is immoral. They should rather be grieved by immorality.
We should also note the obvious fact that Chariots of Fire is a drama involving actors who portray other people. The word of God uniformly treats stage acting as immoral, just as it treats harlotry as immoral. The very term rendered in our English Bibles as “hypocrite” in the Greek is the word “stage actor”. Stage acting is pejoratively treated in scripture because it necessarily involves immoral conduct. In order to be realistic, stage acting must include imitating the sins of others. But it is wrong to imitate the sins of others. For instance, someone had to play the part of the Judaist in the movie Chariots of Fire. That is as wrong as allowing our children to play “cops and robbers”, wherein some children must necessarily play the robbers. It is not wholesome or good to play the wicked. But even if all the characters in a movie were Christian, to be realistic it would involve the actors in imitating sin. Thus, if an actor were to portray King David, he would have to re-enact adultery with some actress in order realistically to convey what happened in the life of David. But this would certainly be wrong. So unless a movie or stage-play is untruthful (which would also be wrong), it necessarily entails actors imitating the sinful deeds of others. And even acts which are not sinful in real life, as a husband kissing his wife, are wrong when done by two actors who are not married. (Chariots of Fire has such scenes.) So we should reject stage-plays, for if stage acting is wrong, then we should not allow ourselves to be entertained by it either. As Romans 1:32 affirms, we should not enjoy or be entertained by an evil act, just as we should not commit evil acts. And therefore Chariots of Fire , simply as a movie, is immoral.
I am by no means alone in my condemnation of stage acting and drama. As the noted Presbyterian minister Samuel Miller testified two centuries ago: “In the primitive Church, both the players, and those who attend the theatre, were debarred from the Christian sacraments. All the Fathers, who speak on the subject, with one voice attest that this was the case. A number of the early Synods or Councils, passed formal canons, condemning the theatre, and excluding actors, and those who intermarried with them, or openly encouraged them, from the privileges of the Church... Almost all the reformed Churches have, at different times, spoken the same language, and enacted regulations of a similar kind. The Churches of France, Holland, and Scotland, have declared it to be ‘unlawful to go to comedies, tragedies, interludes, farces, or other stage plays, acted in public or private; because, in all ages, these have been forbidden among Christians, as bringing in a corruption of good manners.’" For those who would like to peruse more reformed commentary on the subject, I would commend the website http://www.covenanter.org/Practical/Theatre/theatre.htm .
Finally, we should be troubled by the fact that somebody is playing the
part of a minister of the gospel delivering a sermon and other holy acts, as
happens in Chariots of Fire. The
Rev. Increase Mather- puritan minister and professor at Harvard College in the
17’th century - in his Testimony against several Profane and Superstitious
Customs , noted the following:
A worthy Person [Mr. Morton against the
Gaming humour, p. 14.] speaks well to this purpose, when he saith, What
an Abomination would it be to any Christian to see a Pulpit, a Communion-Table,
a Font exposed on a Stage, or the Gestures of Worship aped by Players?
Playing with such a holy thing as an ordained element of worship is a violation
of the Third Commandment, which forbids taking the Lord’s Name in vain. To so trifle with his holy ordinance is to
lightly handle the Lord Himself. Adding
to this outrage, Eric Liddell in the movie Chariots of Fire is played by
a self-professed sodomite.
These are sufficient reasons to reject the
movie version of Eric Liddell, and to opt instead to read a book or watch a
documentary not involving drama and actors about his biography. That is the more edifying manner to learn
about this Christian man.