Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Coen Brothers and Evil - Christmas Release of True Grit

The Coen brothers with Jeff Bridges

It is telling that True Grit came out around Christmas time. And not surprisingly, No Country for Old Men [another Coen film] was released near the end of November in 2007, anticipating the holiday (Thanksgiving and Christmas) crowd. The films are a raw contrast to what we would expect from these peaceful and joyous seasons, especially Christmas. Aggressive deconstructionists/reconstructionists don't want peace, joy, and least of all truth.

As Jesus' imminent death even at his birth (through Herod's decree) anticipated his later death, we should be wary of this violence that presents itself during this holiday season. We may be in for an even bigger battle, a war between Good and Evil, in which everyone of us will have to participate. We better chose our side early, and prepare ourselves by fighting the many small battles along the way in anticipation of our imminent, eminent war.

One simple way would be to boycott and renounce films like True Grit. We are, after all, the audience, and voluntarily (so far) either go or not go to such films. Word of mouth, letters to the editor, blog posts, also do go the extra mile. The worst we can do is allow filmmakers like the Coen brothers to think that they can produce these kinds of films with impunity.

Needless to say, I skipped True Grit.