Movies/Scenes
Representing Grace
- Amelie (2001)
- Amelie spends her time doing good things for those around her. The good things she does are never rewards, merely a gift of grace that are brought into someone's life. (Darrel Manson, Artesia, CA)
- Hearts
in Atlantis (2001)
- The scene where Bobby "O" carries Carol up the hill is a beautiful portrayal of courage, fortitude, mercy and compassion. The scene comes about 3/4's of the way through the film. (Bil Shappell)
- X Men (2000)
- Wolverine risks his own life (shedding blood and receiving stripes in the process) bestowing his own healing power, to heal the deadly wounds of a friend (a "Rogue" no less, now that is grace). (Benjy Oliver)
- Traffic (2000)
- Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), a prominent federal judge, is appointed to serve as the national Drug Czar to combat drug trafficking. He is both angered and politically embarrassed when he realizes that his prep school daughter, Caroline (Erika Christensen), has fallen into the drug culture with the encouragement of her wealthy classmates. Father and daughter become alienated after repeated confrontations. She leaves home and becomes so overwhelmed by drugs that she becomes a ghetto prostitute. And then, the father realizes that his love for his daughter is greater than his anger. He descends into hell/the ghetto to seek and save his daughter even though she is so wasted that she can no longer call for help. He finds her room, throws out her latest customer and then, with a broken heart, embraces his glassy eyed daughter and weeps over her. At the end of the movie, we see father and daughter reconciled and attending a narcotics anonymous meeting together. This is a wonderful depiction of the truths of Ephesians 2:1-6 "and as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins...gratifying the cravings of [your] sinful nature...But, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions..." The key point here is grace is most clearly appreciated when the initiative is seen as coming from the savior. (Duncan Maysilles)
- Chocolat (2000)
- This movie takes place in a small town in France in 1959. The town has always expressed their community life using the word ?tranquilite? (tranquility). You knew what was expected of you, you knew what your place was. And if you happened to forget, someone would remind you. They trusted the wisdom of ages past, lived with the values of tradition, family, and morality. Into this town comes Vianne, played by Juliette Binoche. She does not go to church, has a daughter without a father present, and has the gall to open a chocolaterie right in the middle of Lent! As she opens and conducts her business, it becomes clear that she is anything but traditional. Vianne does nothing by the book. She does nothing out of obligation, but everything out of love. It is her encouragement that brings Josephine out of her abusive marriage. It is her encouragement that brings Armande together with her grandson. It is her encouragement that brings a widow of 30-some-years out of mourning and into a new relationship. The town is transformed by her chocolaterie and her grace. (Carla Thompson Powell, Livonia, MI)
- Pere Henri's (the young priest) Easter Sermon: ?I want to talk about Christ?s humanity, I mean how he lived his life on earth: his kindness, his tolerance. We must measure our goodness, not by what we don?t do, what we deny ourselves, what we resist, or who we exclude. Instead, we should measure ourselves by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.? (Carla Thompson Powell, Livonia, MI)
- Where the Heart Is
(2000)
- The Movie "Where the Heart Is' has a very strong theme of grace (look at the main character receiving what is undeserved). There are wonderful pictures of Christ's love throughout. (Dale/Carrie Miller)
- The Sixth Sense (1999)
- Malcolm is given another chance to help "Vincent" and another chance to let his wife know what she meant to him.
- Angela's Ashes (1999)
- Frank throws the moneylender's ledger into the Shannon. The debts are gone, washed away by the river. (DVD ch 28)
- Deep End of the Ocean
(1999)
- The scene where the mother realizes her toddler is gone and begins a frantic, all-out search is a great clip to connect with Luke 15 type things... The all out search is emotional, gripping, and one people easily identify with. (Martha Johannides, Quest Community Church, Lexington KY)
- Saving
Private Ryan (1998)
- The regret of the now-elderly Ryan as he remembers the story. Has he "earned it"? Can anyone?
- Clip - at the end of the movie as Tom Hanks is dying, he tells Private Ryan to make it worth it. As the old Ryan stands before the grave of Hanks, he asks his wife if he was a good man. His wife told him he was. The point - this man lived his entire life wondering if what Hanks had done for him was repaid by his good life, always wondering if how he had lived was enough to repay Hanks for saving him. (Rev. Paul W. Mueller, DMiss)
- Thank God Jesus did not say "Earn This" from the cross. In fact, "Forgive Them" is literally the opposite of "Earn This." (Doug Lowe)
- Boogie Nights (1998)
- Dirk/Eddie decides that he is being exploited by Jack who has befriended him and along with his wife has become surrogate family for Dirk. Dirk 'tells off' Jack in front of their colleagues and there is a fight. Dirk leaves the "family". He is unable to find another career. He is almost killed when he and friends decide to attempt to peddle fake drugs. He returns to Jack and begs to be taken back into his surrogate family. Jack hugs him and welcomes him back.
- The Game (1997)
- Nicholas apologizes to Elizabeth. She says, "there's nothing to forgive." Powerful reconciliation scene.
- Red Corner (1997)
- Jack Moore is an American attorney having talks in Bejing about founding the first satellite TV joint venture. Suddenly he is arrested, accused of murder and has to prove it was a frame-up together with his court-appointed attorney Shen Yuelin. Her advice, as his attorney, is to plead guilty to a crime he knows--and she believes--he didn't commit. An interesting take on the denial of guilt we have in our own lives, but the inescapable truth that we are all guilty of sin. The positive side is that the attorney's advice is correct: we're better off if we plead guilty, even if we believe we're innocent. Jesus' grace will cover us; but in the words of the movie's tag line, there is "Severity for those who resist." (Brian Rafferty, MI)
- Good Will Hunting
(1997)
- "It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault." (Sean to Will as he hold the file of Will's abuse and his responses to it.)
- The Fifth Element (1997)
- Leeloo saves the world from human self-destruction.
- Enchanted April (1996)
- San Salvatore as an enchanted villa which restores the women's lives.
- Breaking the Waves
(1996)
- Father Andrew M Greeley's "Homily" for the Fourth Sunday in Lent (March 9, 1997) draws from Lars Von Triers Cannes prize winning film "Breaking the Waves" in connection with John 3:14-21. He quotes Roger Ebert's comment on the film: "God not only knows everything, but he understands a lot better than we give him credit for." (R.J. Stohler)
- Spitfire
Grill (1996)
- The townspeople feel 'bentover/crippled' and see only a dry future. They are awakened to a living spirit--set free from their ailment by the outsider-renewer-forgiver. They learn to live in a new way--a new 'sabbath' spirit of excitement. It is planted among them before they realize it and may only recognize what they have been given as they look back--many with joy for who came to their town. (Dennis Sytle)
- Bed of Roses (1996)
- "Bed of Roses" was a movie I saw while on a women's retreat. A romance, and yet a story of grace. A florist delivers flowers to a young woman he sees at night crying at her window. From there, a romance buds and grows to the point of his asking her to marry him. However, the young woman in the film has not just a "shady" background, but a "shadowy" background, as she never knew who her parents were. she eventually learns to accept the florist's "unconditional love". A movie full of wonderful imagery of new life and rebirth using "nature in the city" (a florist shop full of flowers), and especially in a scene of the florist's own private roof-top garden, we get a picture of the "new heavens and the new Earth" with garden (of Eden?) in the foreground, and the city (of Revelation?) in the background. (Mary Organ, Kent Presbyterian Church)
- Leaving Las Vegas
(1995)
- "The movie works as a love story, but really romance is not the point here, any more than sex is. The story is about two wounded, desperate, marginal people, and how they create for each other a measure of grace." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
- Dead Man Walking (1995)
- Grace only becomes real for Poncelet after he confesses and admits his responsibility for his actions and understands himself as a child of God even in the midst of that reality. Merely giving verbal assent to the blood of Jesus is not sufficient.
- The War (1994)
- The scene where the Dad gives the two children (from the family who beat up his son) some fairy floss he had intended to take home because "they looked like they had never been given anything". (The Scull Family)
- Classic scenes of loving your enemies & forgiveness. Kevin Costner plays a Viet Nam-vet father who tries to instill non-violence in his kids and struggles to practice it himself. His poor children and their friends are harassed and beat up by the even-poorer Lipnickeys. In scene full of foolish hopes seemingly ripe to be crushed, Costner and a son (Elijah Wood) go to the fair. Somehow the son gets separated, surrounded by Lipnickeys and beaten badly. His father rescues him and takes him to their car, but stops along the way when he sees a couple of Lipnickey children (early elementary age). We expect, as do the children, an angry or violent confrontation. Instead, he presents them each with a cotton candy cone. His son is outraged, but Costner explains, "They looked like nobody had given 'em anything for a long time." (Scott Hill)
- City Slickers (1991)
- Another scene I used just this past week in conjunction with the Lectionary passage was when "Phil" goes into the tent after confronting the drunk cowhands. While in the tent he brakes down saying that he is almost 40 years old and his life is a waste. The Billy Crystal character reminds him about that when they were children and they were playing ball that if it got stuck in a tree they would call, "do over." Billy Crystal tells Phil that his life is a clean slate, a do over. The scene ends with Phil questioning the ability to have a do over, Yet the Genesis 9:8-17 (New Covenant/Rainbow), Mark 1:9-15 (Repentance), and 1 Peter 3:18-22 all talk about a "Do Over" with God. Lent is a time we seek to live more fully in the great Do Over of God as we head to it's celebration at Easter. (Vern Gauthier, Summit Hill, PA)
- Overboard (1987)
- Rich woman treats workers like dirt, falls overboard and loses her memory, worker rescues her and tells her she is his wife and mother of his kids. She gets attached to them all, gets her memory back. (Ann K. Fontaine)
- Babbette's Feast
(1987)
- Babbette's banquet as a metaphor for the grace of God to each of us.
- Forrest Gump
(1987)
- The first schoolbus scene with Forrest trying to find a seat is a great lesson in mercy and compassion. While no one else would offer Forrest a seat, Jenny invites him to sit with her. (Bil Shappell/St. Paul's Ev. Lutheran Church, Lutherville, MD)
- Les Miserables
- The opening scene is a wonderful picture of redemption and grace as the priest gives Jean Valjean both his freedom and the silver candlesticks; even after Valjean has stolen from him and beaten him. (Jim Branch)
- The Music Man (1962)
- Harold Hill undergoes a conversion. He's got "The Power" to really do what he thinks he's only hyping; what he's lacking is the confidence that he can really do it and of course an ounce or two of ethical formation. And then the town starts to love him not because of the quality of his product but because it's their own kids playing the instruments. So the town undergoes some sort of conversion too. They both experience some sort of Grace. (Sterling Bjorndahl)
- The
Enchanted Cottage
(1945)
- "Stars Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young. She is tragically plain in appearance, downright ugly-looking to some. He is a once-handsome fighter pilot whose face is disfigured when his plane crashes. They meet when he is convalescing at the cottage where she works as a maid. They marry because (if I remember correctly) they each think the other is the best they will ever be able to do. Shortly after their marriage, they fall in love. This discovery causes them to consummate the union. The next morning, she is radiantly movie-star beautiful, and he is restored to his handsome self. The catch is, that this is the way they see each other, but outsiders still see them as their ugly selves, and treat them accordingly. The only friend they have with whom they can be themselves is a blind neighbor, who treats them according to their new self-confidence, which is itself based upon their new self-image created by love. I have preached this as an illustration of God's great love for us in bringing about salvation -- seeing us only through the eyes of love, and not through the eyes of the world, that stands ready to see only our faults and ugliness." (Adrienne Brewington, Hollis NY)
