THE SHACK, A FILM, MADE NEXT DOOR.

They are making the movie right here in lower mainland B.C., and I have been just metres away from some of the filming this week. This may be a good film, if it keeps to the script. John Fusco, best known for writing 1988's Young Guns, wrote its screenplay adaptation from the book by the same name by first-time author Paul Young which sold 22 million copies worldwide. Of course many in the evangelical world took issue with the 2007 best-selling book, The Shack, in the first place, castigating it and its Canadian author Paul Young for parodying God and the Trinity, perhaps even depreciating these entities.

SAM WORTHINGTON

I treated the read years ago as the novel that it was. You would throw out much of C.S. Lewis' fiction if you took the same reactionary stance against his material.  Young was not teaching theology, but telling a story, the account of a man's pain at the loss of a daughter as a result of a kidnapping and murder by a serial killer. Sam Worthington plays the lead role of Mackenzie "Mack" Allen Phillips who is plunged into a deep emotional abyss that embraces fury at God. Four years after the horror, he receives a letter from God called Papa. 

And of course this representation in the book set people off, because portrayed Papa as a woman, a black female who will be portrayed by Octavia Spencer, who has already won an Oscar for her role in the "The Help." Radha Mitchell is in the role of Phillips' wife and Amelie Eve is their missing daughter. I saw her in the canoe scene as it was being shot last night. The Shack and Papa's cabin tucked into the woods are all on site and the filming went on for the four days that we were close by holidaying in a cottage. Very fun.

Paul Young himself says that he is excited about the movie because he has been given the rare opportunity to invest his creative input into the filmmaking process. We will see how much his voice is heard.  Young calls the book a metaphor for “the house you build out of your own pain.” 

Will non-believers be confused, led astray from God’s true persona? Might viewers who never think about God, feel compelled to seek to know him outside the context of the novel? I will look forward to the movie. I won't fashion my theology, or my concept of God based upon its expressions for deity. I may however, learn to meditate more keenly on some aspects of the character of God as expressed by the three persons whom readers may discern as the Trinitarian God image. I may  be encouraged about the compassion of God for his human creatures when they suffer. 

Most - The Bridge

A NEW LEARNING
I have found nothing to dispute that it was a true story about John Griffith who in 1937 made the most costly decision of his life. He gave up the life of his ten year old son in order to save a commuter train full of people. I remember using the story as an illustration for a theological statement about the sacrifice the Father made in giving up His Son Jesus Christ. It's a modern parable.

Unknown to me, a movie was made and released in 2003. The producer and director were Czechs and the film is dubbed with English. Nevertheless because of the nature of the story, the impact of the movie is powerful by all reports. The film is entitled ‘Most’ which is the Czech word for ‘bridge.’ The 33 minute film was nominated for an Oscar (best foreign film).

The protagonist is a bridge operator and a father and is based on the story of John Griffith who lived in Oklahoma until the stock market crash of 1929. He moved to Mississippi and took a job as bridge operator on a railroad trestle. In 1937 his eight year old son was with him at the bridge first in the office with dad and then outside. John lifted the drawbridge to permit a ship to pass under it. As a fast approaching commuter steam train, the Memphis Express, carrying 400 passengers bore down on the bridge, John saw his son below playing around the bridge gears. Without time to rescue his son, and unable to get his attention, he realized the horrific decision he needed to make - to sacrifice his son. He must lower the bridge to prevent the death or injury of hundreds of people.


The website for the movie is www.MostTheMovie.com

Watch a 3 minute clip Most - The Bridge (3:56)

BUT this YouTube 6 minute clip is better by far, with a clearer concept of the movie version and with profound script to add a spiritual lesson.