Still Puzzling over Slumdog Millionaire

This film has received rave reviews, but my thoughts on it remain mixed. Part of the difficulty I face in approaching this movie is my own idealism, which constantly gets smacked in the face by the real world. However, I think it's helpful to think critically about the movie and since i've teed up a discussion previously, I'd like to continue it by posting my initial reactions to the film and then throwing in a few things to consider.

1/5/09
I went to see the film Slumdog Millionaire tonight, and while I want to give the film a well-rounded review, I must also confess that I wasn't the biggest fan. I left the movie with my head spinning, after spending nearly two hours in semi-shock, slight excitement, then intense shock, followed by another burst of slight excitement... While the movie certainly highlights some injustices in the world, I wonder at how we might constructively craft a film that combats such injustices. In some ways it is easy to make a documentary-type movie and highlight the hardship, suffering, and brutality which we can find so easily in this world. What may be harder is to help people see why they should or do care about such injustice in the first place. What makes our hearts pained by images of death, abuse, and separation?

Admittedly, when I walked out of the film, a friend asked my thoughts and I immediately said I appreciated some of the more subtle commentaries of the film (which is true). Additionally, the cinematography was spectacular. However, the difficulty came in feeling like i'd been slapped in the face a million times to get to the commentaries and left so jarred in the midst of them that I didn't really know what to do with myself. I know this is the reality that many in our world face, don't get me wrong. I'd do well not to forget this truth. The more i've let the film soak in, though, the less i've liked it. It's good for us to realize that terrible things are going on and that we don't live in a pure, joy-filled, always beautiful world, and this movie certainly exposes bad things and reasons for sadness, even providing quick, flickering glimpses of hope and truth. I wonder, though, how such a film moves us as people in our day to day lives. Does it help us live differently? If so, how? (I know many readers of this post will probably disagree with my prior claims, but i'm going to make my point nonetheless.)

A quote I wrote on the back of my journal a few weeks ago continues to strike me: "Pain is not always creative; received wrongly, it can lead to alcoholism and madness and suicide. Nevertheless, without it we do not grow." (Madeline L'Engle) Here, L'Engle is uncovering something i'd like to explore at greater length in the future: pain is real, how do we deal with it constructively-as artists, as friends, as enemies (yes, enemies)? Sometimes, our best friends are killed in car accidents and nothing can ever change it. Sometimes women are raped and there's no way to explain what they did wrong to deserve such a thing. Sometimes people hurt us and we never get an apology. Meanwhile, sometimes the murderers change their ways, sell all their possessions and start loving and caring for the same people they once killed. Is justice really what love looks like in public? I'm not so sure anymore (or maybe I never was). What happens when i'm the murderer, or when the murderer is my brother, or when the murderer runs my country's government. The answers aren't that easy and they never were. A broader discussion may involve pondering such questions as why does love matter or why should I pray for my enemies?!? The answers to such questions are rarely easy and neatly packaged. But, learning how to live them makes life worth living. And, we can never forget as musician Derek Webb has said "my enemies are men like me." How true that is. It's not that murderer or villian over there; it's the enemy, right here, standing in front of the mirror looking back at me. We must learn to face that enemy first.

Some questions I have:

• Who goes to a film like this?
• What are their initial reactions?
• What is their response a week later? A month later?
• How does this film change the way the viewer sees the world? Does it?
• What do we learn from watching films like this?

I appreciate the intentions of moviemakers like Slumdog Millionaire's creator, and yet, at the same time feel like a film is one of the last efforts that's going to reach the people committing atrocious acts in India, Africa, and around the world. Maybe i'm wrong. But if we actually get to the point where we're willing to stab our brother in the back for a quick buck and sell the love of his life into sexual slavery, are we really going to care when images of hurt, pain, and hardship flicker across a movie screen? What kinds of things most affect the man sharpening his blade and rousing himself up for another round of killings? Doubtful that it's a film on injustice. But, then again, who am I to say what will speak to him the most? Perhaps its a fly perched on the edge of his cup, a cloud gracing a late afternoon sky of violets and oranges in the polluted city air, or a rosebud in the midst of thorns...

While i'm not calling for more didactic material, goodness knows we have plenty, I am challenging us to consider what changes people. It seems to me that a person who hardens himself to pain and suffering, to the point where he can betray friends and family, needs glimpses of compassion and sacrifice. Perhaps in this aspect, I have not given the film enough credit, because it certainly does a wonderful job of juxtaposing two characters, brothers who are foils for one another. The first brother is out for his own interest, seeking money at any and all costs. The second is out for the interests of others and wants to love and serve them, pursuing truth at all costs. This area of the film soars. Thus, I begin to see that maybe the rub in this film is more that it shows the world as it is and ought not to be, rather than as it might and should be. Does it matter? Personally, I think its important to have a grasp of both. If we go into a work of art expecting the whole truth, we're not going to find it. Art provides us merely with glimpses, and glimpses and shadows is all we'll have until things not yet revealed unfold in all their glory.

In analyzing this film, I'm finding the article "Beauty Will Save the World" by Gregory Wolfe extremely helpful and recommend it as a guide for others reading this post or considering how we address the injustices presented in this film and others: http://www.mmisi.org/ir/27_01/wolfe2.pdf.

While I've started unpacking quite a few topics here, i'd like to continue the discussion, either online, or offline. I'm steering clear of revealing the plotline of Slumdog Millionaire for those who have yet to see it, but meanwhile think the film raises some very interesting questions.