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A ministry of the ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP Ministry) A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Christian Ministry. www.capalert.com/ Entertainment Media Analysis Report A service to His little ones through you in His name by His Word MAR29015  (2009), PG-13 [Hardcore R-13*] (1hr 55min) The #1 Christian entertainment media analysis service on the Internet. We give you OBJECTIVE tools NO ONE ELSE CAN to help YOU make an informed decision for yourself whether a film is fit for your family. Over 1200 analyses for parents, grandparents, pastors, youth leaders and more. |
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(While the Scriptural references are certainly not subjective, my commentary may be and sometimes is somewhat subjective.)
 Cast/Crew Details Courtesy Internet Movie Database Production (US): Summit Entertainment (presents), Escape Artists, Mystery Clock Cinema (in association with), Goldcrest Pictures, Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment, Wintergreen Productions Distribution (US): Summit Entertainment Director(s): Alex Proyas Producer(s): David Alper, Todd Black, David J. Bloomfield, Jason Blumenthal, Topher Dow, Norman Golightly, Stephen Jones, Aaron Kaplan, Ryne Douglas Pearson, Sean Perrone, Alex Proyas, Steve Tisch Screenplay: Ryne Douglas Pearson, Juliet Snowden, Stiles White Story: Ryne Douglas Pearson Cinematography/Camera: Simon Duggan Music: Marco Beltrami Film Editing: Richard Learoyd Casting: Gregory Apps Production Design: Steven Jones-Evans Art Direction: Sam Lennox Viewed on Summit Entertainment DVD.  This analysis is sponsored by the generosity of C&EZ and E&HP. Little Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson) is gifted. Or maybe she is visited? Either way, she becomes the "true prophet" of the millennium. And her predictions come true. Always. The Bible tells us that only a prophet of God can be 100% correct every time: that any prophet who is not 100% correct is not of God. Lucinda's track record would say she is a prophet of God ... but she is not. On October 13, 1959 at the William Dawes Elementary School in Lexington, Massachusetts Miss Priscilla Taylor (Danielle Carter - 1959) made an announcement to her class. In September Principal Clarke (David Lennie) ran a competition to find the best idea to celebrate the October 14, 1959 official opening day: that yesterday, October 12, the staff selected the winner with the best idea. The winner was setting in Miss Taylor's class that moment. It was little Lucinda Embry whose idea was to bury a time capsule to be opened 50 years later on October 13, 2009. Sidebar Note: The film writers did an excellent job portraying the level of respect, personal discipline of the students and classroom conduct of 1959. Kudos to the writers for at least that. Miss Taylor instructed the class to draw pictures of what they think the future might hold. Their pictures would be placed in the time capsule to be opened by the same-age Dawes students of 2009. Everyone was excited as they drew their pictures ... except silent little Lucinda. Lucinda did not draw a picture but instead wrote a long series of numbers, enough to fill the entire page, single spaced. Note that Miss Taylor took up Lucinda's paper before Lucinda finished it. That Lucinda did not finish her paper will build on a point I hope to make below. For those of you who have seen the film or those who intend to watch it in spite of it earning a hardcore R-13 equivalence (see R-13 for more information), since Lucinda was not allowed by Miss Taylor to finish the paper it could not have had the two backward "Es" as the last characters on the page as did her paper later in the film. This is one of a couple such minor holes in the story and its flow. Another hole was how, after being decided the day before, did a time capsule, its metal label, its concrete grave, the engraved grave cover and a plethora of other preparations get done in one day? At the celebration ceremony as the time capsule grave cover is placed, Miss Taylor noticed Lucinda has disappeared. Shortly after a search by police and Miss Taylor, Lucinda is found in a closet under the gym ... scratching with her fingernails onto the inside of the closet door the numbers she was not able to include at the end of her paper in Miss Taylor's class (the final two "Es" may or may not have been in blood on the inside of the closet door). Lucinda was now vocal but all she would say is "Make them stop!" She was speaking of the voices ... in her head. Lucinda was a sad child. Always having to listen to whispers, Lucinda became always preoccupied and withdrawn. Even when Miss Taylor called the class in from the schoolyard to make her announcement, Lucinda was alone and off to the side, staring at the sun. This scene was an intelligent and creative device by the writers to make an early point about the importance of the sun to the story. Keep that in mind if you decide to watch this film. Just to plant a quick point, note now that the Bible warns the Earth will be destroyed in the end by fire [2 Pet. 3:10] Whether the writers intended to do so or even knew, there are a couple fortifications of God's Word found in this film. But, as to be expected of a film for teens, in places it also challenges that which God tells us in the Bible. After Lucinda is found in the closet under the gym the film moves through a few high altitude scenes of America as credits float around, then to the home of Dr. John Koestler (Nicholas cage), professor of astrophysics at the regal Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With Dr. Koestler is his son, Caleb (Joshua Long and Chandler Canterbury). John's wife, Allison (Adrienne Pickering) died earlier (before the film) in a hotel fire. John and Caleb are getting along fine if a few snippets of arrogance at dad from adolescent Caleb are "fine." God does not think so. Together John and Caleb mentally calculate the number of possible worlds bearing life while dad prepares Dad's Famous Sunday Night Hot Dogs on the Run for his son who declared himself vegetarian to get out of eating them so he could watch a Discovery(tm) program. Caleb is a bright boy who suffers a bit of a hearing problem. Sounds "just get jumbled" sometimes. But he has no trouble hearing the voices, the whispering voices just like Lucinda heard 50 years ago. Soon we are treated to a view of MIT from the Charles River across Memorial Drive that would do well on a picture postcard. The filmmakers were even attentive to the season of the film with the trees turning due to autumn changes. The leaf color change appeared to be computer coloration rather than true autumn colors as evidence by another scene of the MIT Observatory -- all the trees were the same shade and hue -- but it is attention to seasonal detail nonetheless. At MIT Koestler teaches randomness and determinism and how they may be contributory to the development of the universe. After a rather lengthy period of classroom instruction ending in "There is no meaning. There is no purpose" with a few uses of profanity and after a leisurely stroll between Koestler and the professor of Cosmology, Dr. Phil Beckman (Ben Mendelsohn), also with few uses of profanity, the story moves to the present day William Dawes Elementary School where they prepare to unearth the time capsule buried 50 years ago to the day. (Note that the class sings the children's gospel and civil rights movement song, "This Little Light of Mine.") Miss Priscilla Taylor (Alethea McGrath - 2009) is still alive so the school has her do the honors of opening the ceremony. As Miss Taylor hands out the envelopes containing the drawings from 50 years ago, Caleb gets Lucinda's string if numbers ... which invokes the whispering voices. Soon, John and Caleb are at home where John first sees the list of numbers written 50 years ago. After becoming a little inebriated John chooses one set of numbers, "911012996" and plays around with them until he notices the fist numbers are 9-11-01 ... the date of the September 2001 Memorial Day '911' attack on America. After the "91101" numbers on Lucinda's list were the numbers "2996" -- the number of people killed in that attack. But this list of numbers from Lucinda is 50 years old -- long before disasters such as the 911 attack! Further, there are additional numbers after the date and number of deaths number strings on Lucinda's list. One example is "42417120." John could not imagine what those numbers meant. And neither could Dr. Phil who did not even yet buy into the date/deaths prediction number concept. But as Dr. Koestler sets in a traffic jam and uses GPS to find an alternate route to Dawes Elementary School he notices the latitude and longitude on the GPS for where he sets are 42 degrees 41 minutes latitude and 71 degrees 20 minutes longitude. He immediately recalled one of the sets of date/deaths numbers were followed by 42417120! He was setting right atop the location for the next disaster that, by Lucinda's predictions, was to happen that day and kill 81 people! Note that here is where the content of the film starts to get extreme. The disaster was of a commuter jet crashing into the ground after dragging its left wing along the ground and across the highway on which Koestler set. There are scenes in that sequence which are truly horrific. One in particular is of five or six people walking away from the wreckage as a fiery explosion engulfs them in flame, the fireball then subsiding a little, then watching the people take a step or two and fall ... on fire! "Realistic" is a stingy term to describe the film artistry. There were none of the typical bulky fire suits on the performers. All were wearing business attire. One even appeared to be wearing a white flight shirt. All faces and hands were bare. Yes, it is a film with actors and actresses doing their jobs. But at times, under the expert skills of master filmmakers and performers conjuring emotion, realism and objectivity and pragmatism of the observers fail to do their jobs. Especially for the young, even teens, who typically do not have the experiential maturity to contain such larger-than-life sensory assaults and invasions. I am a licensed Emergency Medical Technician. I deal with real physical trauma on a routine basis but I could feel my realism and objectivity threatening to wane during this fantasy sequence. One more example of such intensely grabbing cinematography is in a subway train wreck. Due to outstanding talents of the filmmakers the viewer sees what appears to be bodies bouncing off the front of a runaway train mowing through crowds of people and sees bodies being rolled under the train. This is a film with intensely influencing imagery amplified by masterfully mixed sound effects that make each and every frame effectively seem to include the viewer in the portrayed disaster. Another sequence of potentially damaging imagery is of what could be termed the world on fire with forest animals aflame as they bound out of the flames. There is additional similarly invasive imagery but enough is enough. Knowing is a complex story with intricate connectivity and flow -- is not a check-your-brain-at-the-door film. It is a top-notch sci-fi speculation film with outstanding choreography and performances intensely amplified by the power of modern technology. There is, of course, much more to the story but I've spoiled enough of it should you decide to watch it in spite of its hardcore R-13 equivalence. That Lucinda and others "hear" voices that predict the dates of disasters is the concept on which the rest of the story is based. Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - Zero out of 100 Violence is the most intense property of this film. Enough so to cause it to lose all of the 100 starting points in this investigation area. Disaster violence is intense and thick as described above and more completely in the listing in the Findings/Scoring section (the heart of the CAP analysis model). In spite of so many vain claims to the contrary, all exposure of they who are of limited experiential maturity (such as at-home teens and younger) to violence, however light or intense and extreme it might be, will be influenced to some degree if only in becoming yet more desensitized to the natural and innate contempt of violence of any kind. God tells us in many ways that He abhors violence whether for good or evil and that its effect on us is undesirable. He warns us of its copycat property in 1 Cor. 15:33 and in Prov. 16:29 and many other equal or more severe verses of warning and admonition. Impudence/Hate (I) - 33 out of 100 Matters of impudence are limited basically to an adolescent boy's disrespect of his father and to profanity. Eight times someone, mostly Cage, utters some form of the three/four letter word vocabulary [Col. 3:8, Prov. 22:11]. But fortunately not once was the most foul of the foul words noted. Strange danger is noted a couple times as a matter of impudence/hate. The kidnapping of the two children is also included in Impudence/Hate [Luke 17:2]. Sexual Immorality (S) - 83 out of 100 The scoring of the content in this investigation area is the second highest score. Content of sexual orientation is limited to sexual innuendo about the size of a woman's breasts, to a "gay" reference, actions of one performer (standing out from all other performers) to draw attention to her breasts, adults in underwear and one scene of a man in a shower. All these matters fall within the scope of God's admonition against coarse joking and bordering on obscenity in Ephesians 5:4. Drugs/Alcohol (D) - 30 out of 100 Here is where another serious warning is warranted. the film is freckled with numerous instances of drinking and drunkenness. The American College of Physicians published their findings regarding underage exposure to alcohol/drinking in and as entertainment in a 2002 report. The report revealed that adolescent exposure to drinking in and as entertainment undeniably leads to abuse of alcohol among underage viewers. The finding entitled Relation Between Parental Restrictions on Movies and Adolescent Use of Tobacco and Alcohol reports that of 4544 youths from grades 5 through 8 of fifteen Vermont and New Hampshire middle schools (90% of the youths were under fourteen years old) only 16% were completely restricted from viewing R-rated movies. Within the ACP study population, the prevalence of having tried alcohol without parental knowledge was The researchers selected R-rated movies because they assumed R-rated movies typically present more drinking than movies of other classifications. This assumption is no longer true. The researchers were not aware of the matter of R-13 proven by this ministry in 2000 with which Harvard University researchers agreed four years later. The bottom line? The focus is that the influence of adolescent exposure to drinking (and smoking) in and as entertainment is undeniable regardless of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) classification. [Eph. 5:18] Even the University of Connecticut corroborates our claim though their article is no longer online. It used to be "http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2006/01/03/hscout529995.html." Rather revealing of the influences of the entertainment industry wouldn't you say? And emboldening children to sin with drink in and as entertainment screams of violating Luke 17:2. Offense to God (O) - 42 out of 100 The content of this film found by this investigation area earned a R-equivalent score, too (less than or equal to 54 out of 100). [SPOILER] Though later in the film the "voices" were revealed to be the thoughts of aliens, the voices were implied as unholy and were treated as such. Even if the voices were the thoughts of aliens, telepathy is not a holy power unless it is from God. No where in the 115 minutes of the film was God given any credit for any power or event. In addition and more directly, God's name was used in vain five times though each time was without the four letter expletive. [Deut 5:11] Murder/Suicide (M) - 100 out of 100 No murders or suicides were noted. Lucinda was claimed to have committed suicide but nothing of it was seen. SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION(S) If needed to focus or fortify, applicable text is underlined or bracketed [ ] or bold. 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. CHAPTER/VERSE ***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. |
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 Wanton Violence/Crime (W) - Zero out of 100 Impudence/Hate (I) - 33 out of 100 Sexual Immorality (S) - 83 out of 100 Drugs/Alcohol (D) - 30 out of 100 Offense to God (O) - 42 out of 100 Murder/Suicide (M) - 100 out of 100 |
| 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 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. |
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