Saturday, February 7, 2009

Bridge to Terabithia: Family-friendly or Satan-friendly?

Last night my family watched "Bridge to Terabithia." I must say that before watching the movie, I had fairly high hopes for it. I remember reading it in elementary school and enjoying it, though I did not remember much about it. As the opening of the film began, I started to have some doubts, as I generally have about things that I enjoyed long ago, and later realize are based on evil principles and messages. The movie began in a decent fashion. Two lonely children meet and become friends through an extreme form of imagination. Now, I do not want to judge the film to much for its presentation of the kids' imagination, but throughout the film you wonder exactly what the difference is for the children (and for the viewer, because of the cinematography) between imagination and delusion.
Toward the end of the movie, the boy invites (in a sense) the girl to his church. It is clear that the girl does not go to church, and the boy presents church as boring, but the girl decides to come. I began to have high hopes here that the film would have a Christian basis, since the church service including singing "The Old Rugged Cross," which is a fairly good hymn. Then the boy and girl start imagining, and the girl catches some sunbeams cast through the stain-glass window in her bag. You can tell that they are really interested in what is important. After the service, the boy, his sister, and the girl are riding home, and they have a conversation about hell. The gospel is not clearly presented, but the boy and his sister basically say that a person must trust in Christ to be saved from hell. The girl completely rejects this, and says that God would be too busy governing this amazing world to care about one person's beliefs. The boy does not respond to this.
Later, the boy is invited by his teacher to a museum, and he deliberately does not ask the girl if she wants to come, presumably because he is being selfish. The girl then dies. When the boy finds out the girl's death, he goes a little crazy, and he dad finds him and speaks to him about the death. It is clear at this point that the girl never repented of her sins and trusted in Christ. The boy tells his dad that her death is his fault. The father says that is not true, though he certainly could have helped her if he had been there. Then the boy says that the girl is going to hell. So far, the movie could have been handled well. At this point, the father, who is supposed to be a Christian, says that God would not send her to hell. Note that the entire film does not mention the concept of sin in a personal way at all, nor the word "repent" or "forgive" (as far as I can remember). Then, apparently the girl gets to go to heaven, without any though of sin or of Jesus.
Perhaps ironically, the boy appears to accept this and then goes on to become even more imaginative. At this point, it really appears to be delusional to me. This is ironic since many people have a delusional view of life which is particularly reenforced by an unbiblical response to tradgedy. On the whole, the film addresses some good issues, but the answers are completely wrong. They are the answers that Satan wants people to believe. Here are some in the film:
1. Life is boring and bad, and people must escape to fantasy to give life meaning.
2. Religion is nice if it is understood as a fantasy that does not address reality.
3. People are not primarily sinners, but some people are not nice if they have problems.
4. Faith in Christ is not necessary to be saved.
This film is not family-friendly, since it is not truth-friendly.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank you for this review. I was considering this story after a long time having heard or partially read it a while ago. Sharing what GOD says is true is so desparately vital.