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A service to His little ones (which includes at-home teens) through you, their parents and grandparents, in His name by His Word MAR23029  (2003), RAnalysis Date: March 21, 2003 CAP Score: 28 CAP Influence Density: 2.59 MinMax: -92 |
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(2003), R -- Maybe he was not of this world? Cast/Crew Details Courtesy Internet Movie Database Production (US): NPV Entertainment, Village Roadshow Productions Distribution (US): Warner Bros Director(s): Lawrence Kasdan Producer(s): Bruce Berman, Stephen P. Dunn, Casey Grant, Jon Hutman, Lawrence Kasdan, Mark Kasdan, Charles Okun Written by/Screenplay: Stephen King (novel), William Goldman (screenplay), Lawrence Kasdan Cinematography/Camera: John Seale Music: James Newton Howard Film Editing: Raúl Dávalos, Carol Littleton Casting: Sean Cossey, Ronna Kress Production Design: Jon Hutman Art Direction: Kendelle Elliott, W. Steven Graham, Helen Jarvis Viewed At:Driftwood Theater 6, Granbury, Texas This analysis report is number 700, folks! Wow! Stepping right out of the analysis of a CAP green light movie (Piglet's BIG Movie) into one of the lowest scoring of the movies we have analyzed is an experience indeed. Dreamcatcher earned a CAP final score of 28! And I was expecting a quality performance from Morgan Freeman, one of the finest performers in Hollywood. Not so in Dreamcatcher. As Mork from Ork would say, disappointment! For 25 years Abraham Kurtz (Morgan Freeman), now Col. Kurtz has been cleansing America of aliens. Extraterrestrial aliens. Keep this in mind as you read the following brief summary/commentary of Dreamcatcher.  First, a dreamcatcher is legend of the Native Americans consisting of a hoop with an intricate webbing patterned inside the hoop. The image on the top front of the boxart for the film and the images to the right are of dreamcatchers. The movie claims that good dreams would fall into the webbing from the night sky and be carried along the webbing to the feathers at the bottom and trickle into your mind while bad dreams would be captured in the webbing and die with the morning light. But sometimes bad dreams might fall through the hole in the center of the dreamcatcher and become your dream. What that has to do with the story I have no idea, but the story is evidently not correct about a dreamcatcher. While the dreamcatcher is legend from the Native Americans, Lakota then Sioux to be precise, it serves a similar purpose but in a different way in accordance with The Gathering Place.As children, history professor Gary "Jonesy" Jones (Damian Lewis), carpenter Joe "Beaver" Clarenson (Jason Lee), psychiatrist Dr. Henry Devin (Thomas Jane) and car salesman Peter "Pete" Moore (Timothy Olyphant) meet Douglas "Duddits" Cavell (Donnie Wahlberg) as he was being tormented by older boys who were expressing hatred and intolerance of boys not like themselves. Duddits was a weak boy without much courage but with a heart of gold who developed leukemia as an adult. Duddits was the unfairly "disposable" character in every mean kid's childhood. The boys named Douglas "Duddits" because that is how Douglas pronounced his name due to a speech impediment. After the older boys stripped Duddits to his underwear, they (one was a quarterback for the local high school football team) tried to force Duddits to eat dog manure. Jonesy, Beaver, Henry and Pete stopped the tormenting and Duddits was very grateful. He seemed to have given each of the boys a special gift ... the power of telepathy and mental connection with each other plus an additional special ability or two such as having precognitions of the future [Eccl. 8:7]. Another talent was the ability to wiggle a finger in the air to get images of unseeable and unseen things [2 Chr. 33:6]. That power was used to find a lost girl [Isa. 5:20]. Maybe Duddits was not so challenged after all? Maybe he was not of this world? Jonesy, Beaver, Henry and Pete had developed such a strong friendship as children. The friendship carried into adulthood and vaulted the social and professional barriers that sometimes develop among adults. Each year, the four guys got together for a weekend in a cabin deep in the woods of Maine to cut loose and lay back, get drunk [Eph. 5:18], have a cussfest [1 Pet. 4:3] and solve the world's problems. But this weekend outing would take a turn for the worse when they met a lost woodsman Rick McCarthy (Eric Keenleyside). Poor Rick was suffering a bad rash on his face and a very bad case of indigestion manifesting as flatulence and burping. But the guys noticed something else about Rick. A protrusion in his abdomen. A protrusion that moved! After leaving the cabin for a while, Beaver and Henry returned to find a trail of blood to their restroom from the bed on which Rick was resting which was covered with blood. Knocking on the bathroom door Rick mumbled something. But after some noises not typical of using the restroom the boys broke into it to find Rick setting on the commode ... dead. And when Rick's body toppled off the stool it was obvious something had exited his body through his anus. No, it couldn't be like all the other alien infestations ripping out of the stomach wall or out the throat. It had to be the anus. And you'll see it if you watch this show. A snake- or worm-like like creature with a mouthful of teeth exited Rick's body and was deposited in the commode. Only Beaver and Henry were in the cabin at the time. Henry decided to go get help while Beaver tried to contain the beast in the commode by sitting on it until help arrived. After several minutes of setting on the commode lid to keep the beast in it, Beave was not successful. He tried to fetch a toothpick he dropped and in doing so reduced the weight on the commode lid enough for the critter to break out. The beast, with a most curiously shaped mouth, proceeded to chomp four fingers off four of Beave's right hand then chomp on his face. One down and three to go. In another subplot, Pete gets left behind with a woman (the woman the guys nearly hit with the truck in the trailers) suffering the same conditions Rick McCarthy suffered. Soon enough a beast exited her (but apparently not through her anus) leaving her dead as it did Rick. Now Pete is left by himself, drunk, to fend off the critter. After a few nips here and there the alien boa chops Pete ... you guessed it ... in the crotch. Filmmakers sure seem to be taking a strong interest in the below-the-belt region of human anatomy in entertainment lately. Two down, two to go. It seems an alien spaceship had crash-landed nearby 25 years ago and the occupants, unable to take off and leave, decided to make the best of a bad situation and take over the Earth by inhabiting people. Now enters Col. Abraham Kurtz and his band of merry soldiers. Including his new second in command, Captain Owen Underhill (Tom Sizemore). This was just another episode in the 25-year hotdog service of Kurtz and his GI Joes in saving the world. But that is enough spoiling of the plot. There is much more to the plot and I have not revealed much more of it than is revealed in the trailers and advertisements. But what are always not revealed in the trailers, advertisements and MPAA ratings are matters of assault on decency and morality. I have shared with you a few of them above. But there's more. Lots more. That which the trailers, advertisement sand the MPAA won't or can't reveal. There are 48 uses of the three.four letter word vocabulary, Thirty uses of the most foul of the foul words [Col. 3:8, Prov. 8:13]. Six uses of God's name in vain with the four letter expletive and nine without [Deut. 5:11]. Samples of all of them except God's name in vain with the four letter expletive are spoken by adolescents including the most foul of the foul words -- more than once [Luke 17:2]. A gun at a character's head for suicide [Ex 20:13]. The movie is a gorefest as well [Phil. 4:8]. There are anatomical references, sex stories, crude humor, a vulgar gesture [Eph. 5:4], and many examples of unholy powers. There is even murder, graphic impalement and mass killings. Maybe the mass killings is of the bad guy aliens,but it is still mass killings [Prov. 3:31-32]. Please refer to the listing in the Findings/Scoring section for a complete annotation of the findings. SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION(S) If needed to focus or fortify, applicable text is underlined or bracketed [ ]. If you wish to have full context available, the Blue Letter Bible is a convenient source. If you use the Blue Letter Bible, a new window will open. Close it to return here or use "Window" in your browser's menu bar to alternate between the CAP page and the Blue Letter Bible page. ***Selected Scriptures of Armour against the influence of the entertainment industry*** As always, it is best to refer to the Findings/Scoring section -- the heart of the CAP analysis model -- for the most complete assessment possible of this movie. |
 Wanton Violence/Crime (W) Impudence/Hate (I) Sex/Homosexuality (S) Drugs/Alcohol (D): Offense to God (O) Murder/Suicide (M) |
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| NOTE: While the Summary/Commentary section of these reports is precisely that -- a summary in commentary format which can be and sometimes is subjective, the actual CAP Analysis Model (the Findings/Scoring section) makes no scoring allowances for trumped-up "messages" to excuse, for manufacture of justification for, or camouflaging of ignominious content or aberrant behavior or imagery with "redeeming" programming. Disguising sinful behavior in a theme/plot does not excuse the sinful behavior of either the one who is drawing pleasure or example of behavior or thought from the sinful display or of the practitioners demonstrating the sinful behavior. We make no attempt to quantify the "artistic" or "entertainment" value of a movie -- whether a movie has any positive value or "entertainment" value is up to mom/dad. The CAP analysis model is the only known set of tools available to parents and grandparents which give *them* the control they need, bypassing the opinion-based assessment of movies by others and defeating the deceit of those who would say anything to convince their parents otherwise. The model is completely objective to His Word. Our investigation standards are founded in the teachings and expectations of Jesus Christ. If a sinful behavior is portrayed, it is called sinful whether Hollywood tries to make it otherwise. That the sinful behavior is "justified" by some manufactured conditions does not soften nor erase the price of sin. Whether there is application of fantasy "justification" or "redemption" is up to mom/dad. |
| "There are some in the entertainment industry who maintain that 1) violent programming is harmless because no studies exist that prove a connection between violent entertainment and aggressive behavior in children, and 2) young people know that television, movies, and video games are simply fantasy. Unfortunately, they are wrong on both accounts." And "Viewing violence may lead to real life violence." I applaud these associations for fortifying 1 Cor. 15:33. Read the rest of the story. From our more than eight years of study, I contend that other aberrant behaviors, attitudes, and expressions can be inserted in place of "violence" in that statement. Our Director - Child Psychology Support, a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist concurs. For example, "Viewing arrogance against fair authority may lead to your kids defying you in real life." Or "Viewing sex may lead to sex in real life." Likewise and especially with impudence, hate and foul language. I further contend that any positive behavior can be inserted in place of "violence" with the same chance or likelihood of being a behavior template for the observer; of being incorporated into the behavior mechanics and/or coping skills of the observer. In choosing your entertainment, please consider carefully the "rest of the story" and our findings. |
