Field of Dreams - MOVIE REVIEW
I generally try to avoid posting movie reviews that would tear down a film, but in this case I'm making an exception. Something bad about Field of Dreams...really?
First of all I want to say that most of this film is about the beauty of small towns in America, the tranquility of baseball, and the film encourages sons to have good relationships with their fathers. I like those messages, and I would agree with those things :)
However there are many worldview and theological elements that I disagree with in the movie, but for the sake of this article I am going to focus on just one. My primary frustration is with the scene at the school where the parents are wanting to ban some books in the school, especially the ones by Terrance Mann which were described as "Godless, filthy, pornographic, and encouraging disrespect to high ranking officers of the United States Army."
The concerned parents don't think that kind of material is appropriate for the school to endorse or have in the library...regardless of the fact that the author of the books is a Pulitzer Prize Winner, and I would agree with the parents. But then we have the heroe's wife get up and she re-describes the author's material as "love, peace, and understanding," and goes on to blatantly call the woman (who is heading up the censorship appeal) a "Fascist," and "A book-burner, you Nazi cow." (just to clarify, I don't agree with either woman's use of hateful name calling...there were faults on both sides in the scene)
She proceeds to bring the issue to a vote and equals throwing out the despicable literature to "spitting on the Constitution of the United States." She proceeds to spout that what the parents are trying to do is equal to "the kind of censorship that they had under Stalin." This is a film made by liberal Hollywood so of course all the parents raise their hands in agreement with the Heroine of Free Speech.
But as you can probably guess, I don't agree. I don't believe those statements to be true and I disagree that Freedom is "allowing anything and everything instead of being careful to discard bad material when selecting what is used to teach and educate children." Now I do understand that as children get older they must learn to think for themselves...I'm not endorsing that parents micro-manage every level of their child's life until they hit 21. ;) But to define freedom the way that she did is anti-American, is harmful to society, is not consistent with what the founding fathers wrote in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and last but definitely not least it doesn't match the Biblical definition of Freedom.
1 Comment
Reader Comments (1)
Interesting review. Media is amazingly powerful, and Hollywood indoctrinates the populace so effectively. What an excellent exposition that you made- and what a sad sermon they preached!
"and last but definitely not least it doesn't match the Biblical definition of Freedom."
That's good stuff.
It sounds like we're again seeing parents who are wrong and the new and exciting and edgy people are overthrowing the oppressive traditions of the town... just a guess. :-D