Jurassic World

A movie review by Father Scott Archer

June 12, 2015

It took twenty-three years to produce a worthy successor to the original Jurassic Park and put those two unfortunate and forgettable sequels behind us. Executive producer Steven Spielberg and director Colin Trevorrow have done it in Jurassic World. The towering wonder and majesty of Jurassic World is certain to thrill audiences that know why they are going to a move like this.

The original Jurassic Park showed us something we had never seen before, and this movie takes us to a place that is familiar in setting and plot. In Jurassic World, however, we are given wonderful characters and captivating cinematography that make the movie more than simply people getting chased and eaten by prehistoric beasts or worse, resorting to preaching an agenda to the audience. This movie is about people involved in a crisis situation, how they react, and how it changes them. It is not so much about dinosaurs as it is about the human capacity to rise above a situation and triumph.

There is something formulaic about this movie, but it is done so well it does not feel so. Owen Grady, played by Chris Pratt, is the likable and tough handler of the Velociraptors. While the hybrid dinosaur, Indominus rex, is a very formidable creature, you have a sense that Owen is even more so. With subtle wit and charm, he gives a sense of security as everything is falling apart. He plays very well off Bryce Dallas Howard’s cold and business-minded Claire Dearing, who rises to the occasion as she is forced to shed her corporate persona. Added to this are Claire's nephews, Zack Mitchell (Nick Robinson) and Gray Mitchell (Ty Simpkins), who are stranded out in the park with a ravenous hybrid on the loose.

This movie was a delight to watch because it successfully brings new life into a familiar story. It transports us to a place familiar to most of the audience, yet without making it seem like we were given the same story. Jurassic World succeeds because it brings us wonder, awe-inspiring cinematography, thrilling danger, a likable hero, and fills us with the child-like joy of being transported to the world where John Hammond, so many years ago, uttered those immortal words, “Welcome to Jurassic Park!”

Taking the Sacred Out of the Sanctuary

By Father Scott Archer

If someone were to ask me how to make man the focus of the Mass, there are several things I would do. I would first remove the true presence of Christ from the church. In its place I would put a potted plant. I would then use as an altar of sacrifice, a small table, but it would be important for it not to be the focus of attention. It would have to be off to one side of the sanctuary, which itself would have to be more akin to a stage than a Catholic sanctuary. Once the tabernacle and altar were removed as the focus, the crucifix, the symbol of the sacrifice of Christ, would also have to be removed. Once the sanctuary had been cleared of religious imagery, I would turn to the people.

I would move the choir from the loft to the stage-sanctuary and include instruments that have never before been appropriate for liturgical use. Because the priest is an alter Christus (another Christ) acting in Persona Christi (in the Person of Christ), he would have to be removed from the sanctuary for any part of the Mass for which he wasn’t necessary. In fact, even parts that are necessarily done by the priest could be usurped by the laity; for example, the Gospel would not be read by the priest but spoken or sung by the laity. With the band moved into the stage-sanctuary, I would entertain the people by bringing in performers to interpret the Mass and readings through dance. Once Christ, his representative, and the altar of sacrifice are removed and replaced by a band, singers, and a dance troop, my goal will have been achieved.

If only this were merely a part of my imagination!

The video below gives a sad glimpse into the reality of how bad it can be in churches where, it seems to me, the focus has been taken from the Creator and replaced by the creature. This particular church is St. Patrick’s in Seattle, Washington, where this is a regular feature of their worship experience, but I am afraid this is all too common. Pope Benedict XVI wrote in The Spirit of the Liturgy, “Dancing is not a form of expression for the Christian liturgy. In about the third century, there was an attempt in certain Gnostic-Docetic circles to introduce it into the liturgy. For these people, the Crucifixion was only an appearance. Before the Passion, Christ had abandoned the body that in any case he had never really assumed. Dancing could take the place of the liturgy of the Cross, because, after all, the Cross was only an appearance. The cultic dances of the different religions have different purposes—incantation, imitative magic, mystical ecstasy—none of which is compatible with the essential purpose of the liturgy of the ‘reasonable sacrifice’.”[i]

The Mass is the sacrifice of Christ made present again on the altar. When we are at Mass, we witness the bloody sacrifice of Calvary made present again on the altar in an unbloody manner. It is the same sacrifice; only in the manner of offering does it differ. This must be the focus of our worship—not the praise band, the cantor, the potted plant, the Star Trek banners, the silly musical numbers with verses repeated ad nauseam, and certainly not the woman playing Jesus and proclaiming the Gospel! We are at Calvary when we are at Mass, and our behavior and focus should indicate that we believe that very thing. One might recall the words of Pope Benedict XVI in regard to “religious entertainment.” He wrote, “Such attraction fades quickly—it cannot compete in the market of leisure pursuits, incorporating as it increasingly does various forms of religious titillation.”[ii]

The strength of the Traditional Latin Mass, and the reason so many are attached to that form of the Roman rite, is because the reverence is built into the rubrics, which have changed only slightly through the centuries through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The words of the Mass, also unchanged through the centuries, convey perfectly the sacrificial nature of the Mass. The four ends of the Mass are adoration, atonement, thanksgiving, and petition, and the focus must always be on God and His eternal glory.

---

[i] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), 198.

[ii] Ratzinger, 198-199.

American Sniper

A movie review by Father Scott Archer

January 30, 2015

I was not certain what to expect when I went see American Sniper, a movie directed by Clint Eastwood about the wartime experiences and family life of Chris Kyle, a Navy Seal and sniper. From a critical perspective, this movie presents two difficulties: it was an immediate box office success yet it seems to have divided theatergoers along ideological lines. My primary concern, here, is to look past both of these extrinsic aspects and determine if it works as a story and a movie. Not all box office successes—and this certainly qualifies as one—are necessarily good movies, and ideologies alone certainly do not make for a good story. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see a well-acted and well-directed movie about how war affects those who fight, specifically Chris Kyle. Had it not been for the acting skills of Bradley Cooper, who brings the emotional strength needed for the lead, this movie could have gone downhill rather quickly into just another war movie. He was made for this part; in fact, Cooper obviously worked very hard to make himself look physically more like Chris Kyle.

The story begins in Iraq, with a flashback to his childhood. The rest of the movie progresses through his time in Iraq as well as his time at home. It is a riveting story and will move most to admire the sacrifices made by so many for the sake of their country. American Sniper effectively illustrates these sacrifices both on and off the battlefield—sacrifices made by soldiers as well as their loved ones. This movie could have fallen into the trap of intentionally manipulating our emotions, but it lets the story unfold in a dignified manner. The end will leave you speechless but also appreciative of the sacrifices he made.

A Measure of the End

In every discipline there must be a measure of the end in how one begins.

With this in mind, shouldn't we all want a little more for our children at Catholic school than this approach to liturgical music? The author  of this article at "Corpus Christi Watershed" places this style firmly in the '60's, and yet, it still exists in many Catholic schools.

I can give simple examples: When I first played football, we didn't start by shooting baskets or by taking batting practice. We started with sound fundamentals that could be readily applied to the game at every level.

When I started playing golf, we learned how to swing the club. We didn't start by celebrating in the club house.

I would expect a good coach to instruct my children along similar paths should they choose to play golf or football.

I would also expect a Catholic school to instruct my children in a similar manner, with a fundamentally sound approach to the faith and practicing the faith.

The underlying principle is this: Success in any discipline demands an act of will.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "If you want to be a saint, will it."

Are our Catholic schools working with the parents who want their children to develop the "will" to worship (at the very, very least to understand what they are doing at Mass), or are our schools working against the parents by leading our children to a concept of worship that checks "will" at the door and presents a precept of relativism which orders all things to Man instead of to God?

I know there are progressive arguments for every novelty, every innovation, for the demonizing of all previous generations, of all pre-Vatican II devotions, and even for a separation of praxis and theory that, according to Card. Muller, is potentially heretical.
I don't need to hear or read any more of these because they are all tripe. They are not ordered to God, but to Man and human ego. They will fall by the wayside, but not soon enough to spare my children from idiotic "liturgical" music and a false approach to worship at Mass.

We might not be able to address the problems in the Roman Catholic Church as a whole, but we can work to purify the streams which water our local pastures.