Last week I watched the movie, “The Blindside” with my wife at the new downtown theatre.  I’m a sucker for sports movie. I can watch the most mediocre sports film and think it should be an Oscar winner. On the other hand I can watch the best romantic comedy and get angry. So it’s no surprise that I was really taken with the story of “The Blindside.” It’s about an abandoned child in the inner city that is adopted by an upper-class white family who eventually turns his life around and makes it to the NFL. I was so taken with the story that I just finished reading the book it was based on by Michael Lewis. The film is relatively faithful to the book except for the nuances of football that it leaves out.

I really loved how the movie and book explores the idea of race and culture in America. It wasn”t overly heavy handed in coming to conclusions. But it’s a fascinating journey to see how an African American kid coming from the poorest side of town tries to transition into a white Christian world. So often in our society we live on the “blindside.” We don’t want to see how glaringly unequal the opportunities we have are based upon what side of the town we grew up. We don’t realize that we often live in our own socially-economic and often racial bubble. The Tuohy family woke up to this reality by adopting Michael Oher and raising him like a son.

One of the under developed themes in the movie and book is the role of Christianity. The Tuohy’s were Christian and at the end of his High School years Michael also became a believer (something the movie omits). In interviews they said their faith played an important role in desiring to take in Michael into their home. It’s a wonderful testimony of a life that connects faith with practical and powerful acts of mercy.

I recent watched two critically acclaimed movies that I’ve anticipated for the last couple months. They both revolve around similar themes and end in unconventional ways (Don’t worry I won’t spoil them). For this entry I’ll just be looking at There Will Be Blood.

There Will Be Blood was written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. I’ve loved his earlier works Boogie Nights and Punch Drunk Love. There Will Be Blood follows a similar vein from his previous work. His movies generally explore the various disillusionments of life. P.T. Anderson loves to subvert conventional narrative themes; There Will Be Blood is much of the same. It’s from one perspective about the classic American tale of religion and capitalism. It’s a sticky story about how they often clash, intermingle and ultimately reflect each other. The young “pastor” Elie is fittingly named as he’s all lies. He masquerades his greed by posing as a spirit-inspired prophet. Anderson is unabashedly critiquing the hypocrisy of spirituality that is often more carnal than spiritual.

Daniel Day Lewis plays a character named “Daniel Planeview.” He’s also fittingly named as his greed can be plainly seen. He reflects and contrasts Elie. He shares with Elie a greed and egocentric spirit. But where Elie masks his greed, Daniel wears it on his sleeve. In one sense Daniel is the more ethical of the two as he never seeks to portray himself as someone else. But the two are inextricably bound throughout the movie and will find similary destinies. Together they give us an ugly revised history of the great American pursuit.

There Will Be Blood is the kind of movie that critics love and audiences find disappointing. As with many of P.T. Anderson’s movies, there isn’t any redemption or satisfying resolution. Anderson’s movies portray the postmodern mindset that is uncomfortable with any neat endings. It revises history to include the dark underbelly of the greed within capitlaism and the hypocrisy of spirituality.

One of the problems with the movie is that it is without nuances. Both protagonists have no good qualities. Rarely will you find real people without any glimpse of sincerity. Surely there is some grace within evil and some semblance of evil within those found in grace. Anderson does understand the postmodern dilemma of seeing through the hypocrisy of spirituality and the evil of capitalism but he ultimately has no answer for it. We are left with sin exposed but not with sin redeemed.

Although the movie does disappoint on some levels it comes with some wonderful performances and some thoughtful analysis of the role of the dark sides of religion and capitalism in America.