31 August 2023

“Not only will I not watch beauty and the beast, I will not step into a cinema,“ I said to my friends when they asked if I wanted to join them to watch it when it premiered way back then when we were teens. I was very careful to watch my “eyegate“ and “eargate“ to ensure nothing ungodly entered my spirit. I guess I hadn’t understood Jesus’s admonishment that it’s not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him (That is, his words and behaviours.)

Well, from where I stand today, I judge that I was pretty defiled in my speech and actions that robbed me and my friends. Robbed me of a fun time with my friends. Robbed me of a classic “tale as old as time” told with beautiful animation and sublime music. Robbed my friends of my presence. But more seriously, did I rob my friends of a rich relationship with God by offending them with my extremism? Dear God, I pray it isn’t so.

But why am I going down memory lane? I just came home from bringing my son to watch “Barbie.” And it was with a bit of trepidation too, because of what I had heard from various reviews. Because I always watch the reviews before I watch any movie. Sure, some reviewers said to just “switch off your mind and enjoy it for the entertainment”. But that’s just not how I roll. Before I watch the movie, I want to know what it’s about, and I would usually turn to Stuckmann, Grace from Beyond the Trailer and the Critical Drinkers for their takes when I want to consider watching a movie. Then I watch it. Then I reflect on the move, if possible, with the ones I watched it with. and if I watch it with Seth, then I’m in luck, because he always also reflects and analyses the movies he watches.

So I’d heard that the barbie movie is variously man-hating, motherhood-hating, subversive for the Left, subversive for the Right, and more, from various reviewers, including a 60-year-old woman who posted on Quora about how she who wrote her neighbour a letter, asking his permission to bring his 14-year-old daughter to watch it. In that letter, she explained why she thought it was a good movie for the girl to watch. That was one of the opinions that nudged me to the Watch side.

So I decided to watch it for myself, and let the movie speak for itself. Because what kind of person judges another person without first hearing him speak for himself? The kind of person who would crucify Jesus, that’s who.

So really, I watched Barbie for Jesus. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. I sit down with Jesus and ask him what he thinks of the movies I watch, (but only internally of course), because I dislike people who talk in the cinema.

So how did I like it? I was pleasantly surprised actually.

instead of being anti-motherhood, the relationship arc between the mother daughter primary characters was healing, redemptive and touching.

And the opening sequence that showed little girls smashing baby dolls was actually a take on the classic opening sequence of “2001”, Kubrick‘s classic movie. If you don’t view it in that light, the image of baby dolls being smashed, decapitated and dismembered would be disconcerting. And now that I wrote about babies being decapitated and dismembered, I’m thinking that it might be a fitting metaphor for late-term abortion.

Instead of man-hating, I felt a sense of vicarious Joy as Ken discovered himself. first, as a man, then as an individual.
(he went from “I am only Ken” to “Ken is me.”) I also thought it was funny how Ken could turn the whole female-dominated society of Barbie land into a patriarchy practically overnight. And how the Barbies’s strategy for regaining control was to play up their feminine wiles and seduce their respective Kens. Oh Moho f, I think Michael Knowles‘s take that the Barbie movie is subversive for traditional values is spot-on. As for Barbie herself, this movie made me feel sympathy for her as she discovered her self-worth and humanity. I never thought I’d care about what happened to a Barbie doll, but I guess that’s the skill of Greta Gerwig.

Hmm, I wonder what other films she’s made?

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