I was at a retreat recently. The theme was finding “God in the Dark” and we watched three films, the first of which was the award-winning Czech-language film, Most trans. The Bridge (2003). The other two were As it Is in Heaven and Billy Elliot both of which and especially As It Is in Heaven, I really enjoyed. In each film the mother is absent, but that is probably a tale for a different day.
In any event, Most, annoyed me immensely. In this reaction, I was in a very distinct minority! And I am still trying to figure out why it got under my skin instead of into my heart. But that latter phrase, dripping with schmaltzy religiosity, is probably a clue.
While you are at it, watch an older version, The Bridge, aka The Sacrifice (1978) on which it was likely based: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-JZ6Nc5UsY
The 1978 film short was produced and directed by Robert Hatch with screenplay by Skip Clark; both are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this film, the allegorical meaning predominates and the ending is significantly different from Most. So I didn’t find it quite so reprehensible… not quite… although all that soft-spoken father-talk about a five-year old (!) needing to be responsible for Mum is a bit creepy.
Similarly in Most, the son is depicted in a role of greater responsibility than an eight-year-old should have to bear: his concern over his father’s sadness is touching, but his father doesn’t exercise the parental judgment he should. The characters in this short (33-minte) film were both poignantly realistic and often amusing in all their faults and failings. The little boy seemed especially attuned to them. What I saw was a loving father and son enjoying silly jokes and being together.
I am a clueless concrete thinker, so the immediate reaction of my fellow retreat participants that the film was an allegory of God the Father sacrificing his son surprised me.
Nevertheless, in an interview in Encompass (October 2005), a newsletter published by the conservative American Anglican Council, Most Director Bobby Garabedian was quoted as saying he wanted to make Hollywood films and “ in the art, to let the voice of God speak.” He added he wanted to “provoke debate and questions.”
I had a lot of questions: why did the father take his son to a workplace which could be dangerous and then leave him by himself fishing? He indulged the son, but also indulged his own loneliness and sadness by allowing him to come to the bridge.
How could the heroin addict possibly know what had happened?
How many eight year old boys have to die before addicts give up their addictions? Or put another way, would a heroin addict really have the empathy needed to care about the anguish she saw on the father’s face?
The father let his son die so the trainload of people we had gotten to know remarkably well and therefore cared about, might live. But is this, despite John 3:16, what is meant by sacrifice?
How often do we put our children in a position where we sacrifice them for the greater good – a sacrifice that we might have avoided or accepted ourselves?
But the thing which rankles most (no pun intended) is the ending of the film. The father talks about creating a new life for himself with a new job in a new city with new people. Then he sees the former addict, now amazingly a happy cured mother. The toddler smiles beatifically at him whereupon he throws back his head and his arms to the sky in joy. Sorry, anyone who has lost a child would not feel that way. The sense of the film suggests they should and does those labouring under both grief and guilt a huge disservice. It was sentimental goo.
Also it says nothing about the idea of willing sacrifice. I’m not a big fan of the idea that God or anyone should sacrifice someone else than themselves. Of course, you could argue that God being three in one could in fact do this, but I’m not about to wade into those doctrinal waters. The only willing sacrifice I saw in the film was the little boy trying to move the lever to set the bridge in motion. Not the father who seemed to dither in the station house not knowing what to do, but the son who rapidly and instinctively did the right thing and died as a result. His was the willing sacrifice!
There I’ve unburdened myself! Whew, feels much better.
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