Open Letter to the Air

Now nobody knew quite what to make of him or quite what to think, but there he was and in he walked.

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Location: Scottsdale, Arizona, United States

Thursday, November 30, 2006

De-Emphasizing Mary

Back in July, I said that I was hopeful that "The Nativity Story" would be as great a work of art as "The Passion of the Christ". But I also said that I was a little paranoid. Later in August, I put "The Nativity Story" in the "jury is still out" category saying that the film, being made by Protestants, may not present a fully Catholic vision of Mary and Joseph. Now that the film has been released, I think my paranoia is proving to be true in some respects.

The reviews are coming in, and most have been quite positive of the film. One reviewer I look to frequently for a Catholic perspective on movies is Steven Greydanus. His website DecentFilms.com does not cover as many titles as I would wish, but he usually hits the big ones - especially those like "The Nativity Story" that touch on themes of faith or religion.

Overall, Greydanus liked "Nativity", giving it 3 out of 4 stars. He finishes his review calling it a "most welcome addition" to the list of traditional family films watched at Christmas time, grouping it with "It's A Wonderful Life" and Easter season's "The Miracle Maker". That's fairly high praise. So, why not a 4-star rating? Greydanus doesn't say specifically why, but if a four-star film is one without faults, he is willing to admit that this film is not without a few:

The film's faults, such as they are, tend to be of omission rather than commission. At the Annunciation, we have Mary's words "“Let it be done to me according to your word"”,— but not "“I am the Lord's handmaid."” (Alas, Gabriel (Alexander Siddig) greets Mary with the rather limp "“Favored one" rather than the traditional "Full of grace.")
Likewise at the appearance to Zechariah, Zechariah raises the issue of Elizabeth'’s advanced years, but doesn'’t ask the doubting question "“How shall I know this?"” (the counterpoint to Mary'’s believing but wondering question "How shall this be?"). Nor does he receive the stern angelic reply, "“I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Lord."”
These omissions are all the more curious precisely because the whole challenge with these scenes is the paucity of source material. One can understand the filmmakers'’ reluctance to add dialogue to the immortal words of the Annunciation,— but why not at least use all the words that are there? And why underplay Zechariah'’s doubts, or the sternness of the angel'’s reply? It would only make his muteness more intelligible.
Mary's Magnificat, at one point omitted altogether, is treated only briefly and in part, in a voiceover at the end of the film. The shift itself actually makes sense,— yet why omit the magnificent opening line from which the prayer takes its name ("“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit exults in God my savior"”)? Why include "“The Lord has done great things"” but omit "“for me"”?
Greydanus doesn't offer an answer to these questions, but I'll take a stab at it. The reason why the movie omits these things is because the filmmakers wanted to avoid being too Catholic. I think the filmmakers omit Zechariah's question to Gabriel because of the sharp contrast between Gabriel's responses to Mary's and Zechariah's questions. There is a justifiable difference, but the filmmakers didn't want to go there.

To Protestants, Mary is just plain-old-Mary who happened to win the heavenly lottery and got the chance of a lifetime to bear the Messiah. She is merely "favored", not "full of grace". In a telling moment Mary asks Elizabeth, "why is it me God has asked? I am nothing." In a June article for Catholic News Service, one of the filmmakers made a very revealing comment:

Co-producer Marty Bowen, a Catholic raised in Texas, said that growing up he always put Mary "up on a pedestal."

"The Nativity Story" is trying to make Mary real, Bowen said, adding that he hoped that the movie would help people see "Mary was a girl before she became a woman and a woman before she became the mother of God."
Protestants (and some Catholics apparently) are squeamish about Mary because in their view only Christ should be on a pedestal (as long as that pedestal isn't shaped like a cross.) However, an authentic Catholic view of Mary includes the understanding that she was blessed from her immaculate conception to be full of grace (i.e. without sin), whose soul would magnify the Lord specifically because God has done great things for her in making her this way. You see, God himself put Mary on the pedestal.

To live one's entire life without sin is nearly impossible for us to imagine. To live without sin is to live a life of perfect holiness without selfishness or vice. To write a script for such a person, to understand how she would view the world, her personal experiences and hardships, to comprend the depth of her prayer life and her degree of trust and dependence on God would be an extremely difficult thing for any sinful screenwriter to do. The lack of sufficient source material doesn't help. Especially if you throw out all the other things Mary has said at Lourdes, Fatima and other recognized apparitions.

It would be difficult to imagine how Mary would have responded to a perilous situation such as those she experiences in this film. Would she have been frightened and panicked, or would she have had an inner peace fueled by her absolute trust and faith in God to deliver her from evil? Would she have been troubled to marry Joseph complaining that she did not love him, or would she have accepted it humbly as God's will? Would she have lived with the knowledge that she was blessed among women (albeit with a humility far surpassing our own), or would she have thought herself to be "nothing"?

Maybe this is why there have been virtually no films before now that attempt to put so many words in Mary's mouth. Zeffirelli and Gibson both give Mary non-scriptural dialog, but do so very sparingly and in a way that I think honors the Catholic vision of Mary's unique status of the new Eve.

As an aside, I think Jim Caviezel worked very hard and with much prayer to portray Jesus in "The Passion of the Christ". During the film's release I think he worked hard to maintain a demeanor that preserved the dignity of his role. We did not, for example, read any headlines of the actor publicly behaving in a way that would have been a direct contradiction of the character he had portrayed. Sure he's a sinner same as me, but I think Caviezel deserves some credit for being as good a man in the public eye as he could while publicizing the film.

Conversely, the lead actress in "The Nativity Story" Keisha Castle-Hughes is doing the exact opposite. The girl who played the Virgin Mother in the film was not herself a virgin but indeed a mother (at the young age of 16) by the time of the film's release. It is paradoxical that she is simultaneously showing the world how young Mary may have been when she conceived Christ in her womb while demonstrating the moral depravity that is gripping our young and leading them to fornication and childbirth out of wedlock. She has become an anti-Mary in the public eye. While this should have no bearing on the success of the film, it makes it more difficult for me to watch her on the big screen bear the likeness of the Perpetual Virgin.

At a time when movies with religious themes (especially Christian ones) are so rare, I should be grateful for "The Nativity Story", and so I am. It's good that the studios are able to recognize that there is a very strong market for religious movies and movies with religious content. It's good to be reminded that there are more important things to think about during Christmas (and Advent). But the Mary I saw in "The Passion" who stared out at me with such intensity in the moment of her Pieta is so much greater than the Mary I hear described in this new film. I think our Mother deserves more than to have the pedestal kicked out from under her the way this movie does. For these reasons rather than being compelled to see the movie on the big screen I am instead satisfied to wait for the DVD and maybe watch it next Christmas.

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