I decided to write on this topic because of a movie I saw last night. "Black Swan" was an award winning movie, so I wanted to see it with my knowledge of cinematography and film. But this movie was dark. In that movie theatre, I felt so horrified and terrified that I wanted to run out (and I wish I would have). The movie was about a young girl in a ballet company and she ended up getting the lead in their version of Swan Lake. Their version had the white swan and, her evil twin, the black swan. The director told her she was perfect for the white swan, but didn't think she could pull off the black swan. So the majority of the movie is her trying to get herself into the character of the black swan.
Most of the movie is showing the things that she sees, but aren't actually happening in reality. Even when the movie ended there was a sketchy line on what was reality and what wasn't. But in her quest to become the black swan, the director tells her to "touch herself". There ended up being many scenes in the movie of her masturbating. At one point there was a scene of lesbian sex, but that was only in her mind. The sexual point of this movie basically disgusted me. I was told that it was necessary for her shift from a good little girl, to something fierce and wild. So apparently sex tapes are super artistic and creative now. Basically it looked like a porn video with awesome actors.
She also began to think that her fellow dancer was always after her. She saw her all over the place, in her mind, trying to take her place. She also would sometimes look in the mirror and it would not match up to what she was doing. Her alter ego would show up time and time again with a smug and creepy look on her face. At the end she is so caught up in her madness that she stabs who she thinks is the other dancer, but it ends up being herself.
I could go on about the dark themes of the movie, but I have neither the time or the energy to do so. She ends up dying in the end, but with a smile on her face, because she played both characters perfectly. The movie was way darker than I like. Last night I could barely sleep, my dreams were dark and frightening. It is not a place I like to be.
Well that was a long thing about one movie, while I am trying to talk about media in general. But I just think that this movie somewhat portrayed where the movie industry is at. The idea that artistic movies have to be dark, and sensual is a common thought for people in our culture. The more they are freaked out, and the more they have to bend their mind and get in a dark place, the more enticing it is for them to watch.
It just makes me sad, because what is next? Twenty years ago, they would not show a man and a woman who were unmarried in the same bed together. Now we are comfortable watching unmarried people have sex, even if it is gay sex. So where is the line going to be pushed now? Because the line has to be pushed for an edgy movie. Is the cycle ever going to stop or rewind? Because if I watch another movie with a sex scene I am going to bust a cap. Why can't people just see that sex is something to wait for until marriage? It is not something to go and throw around to random people. Ugh, I am just so sick of it.
So how to Christians fit in to this dark, sexual culture? Obviously, we are the children of the light and we are to abstain from sinful ways. We are supposed to be in this world, but not of it. What does that mean for us? It would be pretty hard to completely avoid the negative media, but I think it is a matter of the heart. You have to always take in what is coming at you through the filter of the Bible. you need to always have a clear distinction of what is of God and what isn't. And there are things that you should just stay away from all together. Because I saw this movie, I am going to tell my brothers and sisters in Christ not to see it, because it will not bring any glory to God if they do. But the way I can bring God glory through watching it, is to study it and through that study the entice of it and why it is affecting the people of this culture the way it does, or by explaining to Christians who do love the movie, why it is ungodly.
When we become Christians we must "renew our minds" (Romans 12:2). This means that we are no longer a part of this sinful world, we are now citizen's of God's kingdom. So even though we have become conditioned not to be affected by the sin that goes on in movies, we need to work against that. We need to make ourselves be affected. The only way things have a chance of changing are if people are willing to step up and make it happen. As Christians in this world, we are responsible for showing Jesus to the people around us. It is time to step up not only in the media world, but in every aspect of the world and fight off the enemy.
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