RE: The Last Movie You Watched
August 19, 2019 at 8:20 pm
(This post was last modified: August 19, 2019 at 8:25 pm by Rev. Rye.)
This week in the Deep Hurting Project is Last Ounce of Courage, the very first film I ever added to the List (because I decided to start semi-regularly checking the Horrible Films page on TVTropes and somehow, it only just ended up on the list near the beginning of January.)
What's weird is this film actually starts off fairly decent (by the admittedly ludicrously low standards of Christian Propaganda films), with an opening voiceover from St. Ronald Reagan, and a semi-passably acted sequence of Bob Revere talking about how his son sacrificed his life in Iraq/Afghanistan/wherever and showing his funeral and blah blah blah. I don't know why that bear guy from True Grit who is not LeBoeuf showed up at the funeral, but whatever.
It's kinda "show don't tell"-y, but whatever, I suppose there's a few people who can relate to what Bob Revere (yes, that's his name; and his grandson, who urges on his actions in the film, is called Christian) is going through. That said, I don't know why the mayor for this small town is moonlighting as a pharmacologist who also patches up gunshot wounds for biker gangs. And I get the feeling that draping an American flag across his bike's seat has to violate some flag etiquette. But then, 13 1/2 minutes into the film, we get into the crux of the film: the War on Christmas. And how do they introduce this? Apparently, a cross with the words "Jesus Saves" on it has been removed from a local church because "someone got offended."
I don't have to explain what's wrong with this picture, right? That people who worry about the separation of church and state aren't going to object to a cross that's ATTACHED TO A CHURCH? When shit like this happens, it's because it's on public property on municipal grounds and the government explicitly favouring a religion is kind of in violation of the First Amendment (and as a result, especially since Engel v. Vitale, governments are supposed to be religion-neutral.) You know, Roy Moore's religious virtue-signalling Ten Commandments statue was/is still popular among Evangelicals, your target audience, and it still fits. Maybe do something like that so it looks less like a strawman. And, of course, since apparently the Bible itself has been banned from school (and not in the "teachers shouldn't use it as the basis for their curriculum" sense, but in the "we'll treat you keeping a Bible in your locker like possession of illegal drugs" sense) Except that it actually hasn't. And of course, they're getting their news from Bill O'Reilly. Of course.
And apparently, people don't celebrate Christmas anymore. At least not the religious way. I should point out that this has been part of a Christmas tradition for about half a century:
And, of course, there's a buttload of Christmas specials which are still regularly re-aired, many of which at the very least, mention the birth of Jesus as the reason for the Season. Christ, even the Pee-Wee's Playhouse christmas special did that. Sure, it didn't explain what the Christ Child had to do with anything or why we should celebrate its birthday, but at least they acknowledged it. You know, I'd highly recommend anyone with the slightest interest in this piece of shit watch the Cinema Snob review of this movie. He lives in Springfield, Illinois, two blocks away from the Illinois State Capitol. Halfway through it, he steps out of his house to show that it's (the State Capitol, I mean) festooned in Christmas lights.
At one point, Christian asks Bob why his son died in the war and what it was all for. I want so badly to be able to show that scene from Reds where Warren Beatty is asked to give a speech on what WW1 is all about, and, while everyone there expects him to give some patriotic drivel, he just stands up and says one word: "Profit." Then he sits down. Alas, not only have I already reached my three-video-per-post limit, but that scene's not on YouTube anyway.
Well, once again, I have to leave for dinner. Fortunately, I hope to return with more talk about the remaining 68 1/2 minutes of the film.
What's weird is this film actually starts off fairly decent (by the admittedly ludicrously low standards of Christian Propaganda films), with an opening voiceover from St. Ronald Reagan, and a semi-passably acted sequence of Bob Revere talking about how his son sacrificed his life in Iraq/Afghanistan/wherever and showing his funeral and blah blah blah. I don't know why that bear guy from True Grit who is not LeBoeuf showed up at the funeral, but whatever.
It's kinda "show don't tell"-y, but whatever, I suppose there's a few people who can relate to what Bob Revere (yes, that's his name; and his grandson, who urges on his actions in the film, is called Christian) is going through. That said, I don't know why the mayor for this small town is moonlighting as a pharmacologist who also patches up gunshot wounds for biker gangs. And I get the feeling that draping an American flag across his bike's seat has to violate some flag etiquette. But then, 13 1/2 minutes into the film, we get into the crux of the film: the War on Christmas. And how do they introduce this? Apparently, a cross with the words "Jesus Saves" on it has been removed from a local church because "someone got offended."
I don't have to explain what's wrong with this picture, right? That people who worry about the separation of church and state aren't going to object to a cross that's ATTACHED TO A CHURCH? When shit like this happens, it's because it's on public property on municipal grounds and the government explicitly favouring a religion is kind of in violation of the First Amendment (and as a result, especially since Engel v. Vitale, governments are supposed to be religion-neutral.) You know, Roy Moore's religious virtue-signalling Ten Commandments statue was/is still popular among Evangelicals, your target audience, and it still fits. Maybe do something like that so it looks less like a strawman. And, of course, since apparently the Bible itself has been banned from school (and not in the "teachers shouldn't use it as the basis for their curriculum" sense, but in the "we'll treat you keeping a Bible in your locker like possession of illegal drugs" sense) Except that it actually hasn't. And of course, they're getting their news from Bill O'Reilly. Of course.
And apparently, people don't celebrate Christmas anymore. At least not the religious way. I should point out that this has been part of a Christmas tradition for about half a century:
And, of course, there's a buttload of Christmas specials which are still regularly re-aired, many of which at the very least, mention the birth of Jesus as the reason for the Season. Christ, even the Pee-Wee's Playhouse christmas special did that. Sure, it didn't explain what the Christ Child had to do with anything or why we should celebrate its birthday, but at least they acknowledged it. You know, I'd highly recommend anyone with the slightest interest in this piece of shit watch the Cinema Snob review of this movie. He lives in Springfield, Illinois, two blocks away from the Illinois State Capitol. Halfway through it, he steps out of his house to show that it's (the State Capitol, I mean) festooned in Christmas lights.
At one point, Christian asks Bob why his son died in the war and what it was all for. I want so badly to be able to show that scene from Reds where Warren Beatty is asked to give a speech on what WW1 is all about, and, while everyone there expects him to give some patriotic drivel, he just stands up and says one word: "Profit." Then he sits down. Alas, not only have I already reached my three-video-per-post limit, but that scene's not on YouTube anyway.
Well, once again, I have to leave for dinner. Fortunately, I hope to return with more talk about the remaining 68 1/2 minutes of the film.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.