The Seven Deadly Sins Film Fest!
- Anger: Mystic River
- Greed:The Sting
- Sloth:Nine to Five
- Pride:Alien Resurrection
- Lust: Body Heat I've since realised someone beat me to this. On the other hand, I can honestly say I thought of this independently, so I'm going to keep it - especially since the other guy didn't bother to make an official list but just tossed it off as a comment.
- Envy: Amadeus Ditto.
- Gluttony: La Grande Bouffe
Very difficult to find anything approaching a good one for 'sloth'.
Now how about a 'Seven Golden Virtues' Film Fest?
Faith (belief despite absence of evidence or despite evidence to the contrary)
Hope (expectation of good despite uncertainty about the future)
Charity (philanthropy: love of humankind)
Courage (positive action despite fear)
Justice (fairness; giving what is deserved)
Temperance (a moderate response to one's appetites)
Prudence (discretion in practical matters)
What does it reveal about movies (or about our taste in movies, or about human nature) that no representative movies spring immediately to mind for any of these positive qualities? Hell, as far as I know there was no disagreement about the meaning of any of the sins, but several of these virtues probably need defining. So I have added definitions; if you disagree with any, let's discuss.
The following is my preliminary list, and I hereby state my intention of making it an official list when and if I get it finished:
Faith: Contact
Hope: The Shawshank Redemption
Charity: A Tale of Two Cities
Courage: Braveheart
Justice: 12 Angry Men
Temperance: The Age of Innocence
Prudence:
Philosophical note. To my way of classifying concepts, 'sins' is not the correct term. It should be "the seven deadly vices". The term 'sin' is best used to mean an action that breaks a moral rule. For example, an act of murder is a sin, given that "thou shalt not murder" is a moral rule. The seven moral faults listed as the so-called 'deadly sins' are in fact not sins but vices. A vice is a flaw in a person's moral character. It is being predisposed to behave immorally in certain circumstances. According to Aristotle, vice occurs at both extremes of a scale of possible ways of behaving in relation to something. The mean or middle between the two extremes is virtue. For every virtue there are two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency. For example, anger would be the vice of excess to the virtue of appropriate displeasure, and the vice at the extreme of deficiency would be meekness. Sin is acute, vice is chronic.
Here's some choices for the virtues, including a couple perverse ones:
Faith: Breaking the Waves
Hope: George Washington
Charity: Schindler's List
Courage: Saving Private Ryan
Justice: Kill Bill, Vol. 2
Temperance: Ravenous
Prudence: Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
I admire your choice for Charity - wish I'd thought of that one. Ravenous is surely a perverse choice for Temperance. Haven't seen your Faith, Hope and Prudence choices.
Why not do a cloned list? Um, I mean, why not create your own official Seven Golden Virtues Film Fest list?
You should see "Breaking the Waves", bertie. A wonderful film and definitely a great choice for Faith. I'm sure the film raises many philosophical issues that went way over my head. :-)
Of course, the first Faith film that came to my mind was "Signs." Shows how sophisticated my taste is...
I investigated BTW at IMDb and saw it was made by the guy who made Dogville, which means I would approach with caution. Dogville is wonderfully well made, but I have grave doubts about its moral defensibilty.
I haven't seen "Dogville", but I've heard that it's a whole different beast than "Breaking the Waves." But not having seen it, I couldn't really qualify that. Where's AAA? I think he's seen both.
Oh, and if this does anything for you, I do know that Roger Ebert called "Breaking the Waves" one of the top 10 films of the 90's, but hated "Dogville."
I haven't seen Breaking the Waves, but I loved Dogville, so I'm not sure what I would add to bertie's confidence.
As for Dogville's morality...I'm not sure the film has a stance on any of the characters' morality. It seemed open-ended that way.
Ooh, possible "Dogville" debate! Please, do explain your problems with the film's morality.
(And "Waves", "Dogville" and "Dancer in the Dark" are all kind of a piece with one another -- von Trier examining the martyr complex through the suffering of women. Which is one reason why I think "Dogville" is brilliant -- its upending of expectations in its closing minutes is extraordinary.)
Dogville is a fictional story. If it were a true story it would, as a movie, be morally neutral. But since it is fictional and the author/director controls the behaviour of his characters and the outcome of their story, it has an inescapable moral stance. The viewer is entitled to interpret it as being a moral statement. So what happens in Dogville? What moral statement does it make?
A woman on the run from (as we eventually find out) her mob boss father seeks refuge in a small village. She is initially helped by the self-styled village philosopher who, we know from the start, does not have the courage of his convictions much beyond formally lecturing his fellow villagers. Gradually the woman's vulnerability is increasingly taken advantage of by the villagers. The women use as her as laborer and child-minder, and the men use her sexually. Eventually, after an attempt at escape, she becomes an enchained prisoner of the village. The philosopher tells her, and himself, that he loves her, but is complicit in her illegal imprisonment. Her father is told of her whereabouts [I forget who tells him, is it the philosopher?] and arrives with several carloads of gunmen to rescue her. After a discussion in which she and her father accuse each other of 'arrogance', he gives her the choice of ordering the murders of the villagers. She again puts the philosopher's love to the test but it proves hollow. So she orders the massacre of the whole village. She executes the philosopher personally, and orders that a mother who treated her especially harshly be forced to watch her children killed one at a time and be told that the killing will stop if she can keep from crying.
This is a thoroughly misanthropic story; all the characters behave immorally. The mobster's daughter is morally good at first but abandons morality when disappointed in love. The punishent of the villagers is unjust. It is worse than they deserve, and it is carried out by those who have no right to do it.
This is why I find Dogville morally indefensible. Otherwise, however, it is a novel and powerful work of art.
I have to say I'm disappointed that nobody has challenged my position on the immorality of Dogville. Do I take it y'all agree with what I said?
I haven't seen it. AAA? Cosgrove? dayfornight? Anybody?
Any takers for "Stigmata" for the Courage entry?
I'll have to rent Stigmata from Blockbuster and get back to you. Thanks for the suggestion.
Do so at your own risk, bertie.
Seriously.
Guys, thanks for the advice, but Stigmata was recommended to me a couple of years ago now (my!...time...flies...fun) and I haven't seen it yet, so I'm probably in no danger of seeing it.