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Gun control

Miss Sloane – Politics behind the curtain

November 25, 2016 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“You cross the line when you don’t treat people with respect. You’re smart enough to know that. You just don’t care.”

What an amazing political year this has been! One of the things that have led to the strangeness of this election cycle is a mistrust in the very institutions that make up the political landscape. We suspect that legislation gets passed more because of money and lobbying than because of the will of the people or even because of ideology. Miss Sloane takes us into that world of lobbying, persuasion, and corruption. Does that make this sound like a cynical film? You may need to withhold judgment until it all plays out.

Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain) is a one of the most successful lobbyist at a high-power firm in Washington, DC. She is known not only for her success rate, but for her thoroughness and scrupulousness. She does not just present information, she manipulates people and issues. She knows all the ways to bend the rules—even how to break them without getting caught. When she is approached by the gun lobby to help get women to oppose a bill that would add restrictions to gun sales, she not only refuses, she quits the firm she works at and hires on to a boutique firm with various young idealists to fight for the passage of the bill. This is a game of moves and countermoves that Elizabeth orchestrates. She only cares about winning. She doesn’t care who she steps on in the process—even those she works with may only be pawns for her to sacrifice.

But the opposition at her old firm knows her well. They can anticipate her moves. Worse, they know where all the skeletons are hidden. They are not above throwing her to the wolves to neutralize her. When the film opens, she is taking the Fifth in front of a Senate committee investigating her corrupt practices. Her reputation for good or ill becomes the key to whether this bill will pass or not. But she always saves her “trump card” until after the opponent has played their trump. Will she have what it takes to pull off a win this time?

While the film deals with the always present issue of guns in America, that is really only the setting for the personal story of this ethically-challenged woman and the industry she is a part of. It does present arguments about the gun issue, but that really isn’t the point of the film. It is really about what lengths Elizabeth will go to in order to achieve her goal. In fact, we don’t really know what motives her. Is it the issue, or just the chance to prove she can beat the most powerful lobby in the country?

Jessica Chastain is the real power that drives this film. The supporting cast (including Sam Waterston, Alison Pill, John Lithgow, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Mark Strong) all add depth to the story, but this really is Chastain’s film, and she carries it extremely well. The intensity of her character, and at times her vulnerability, are what really draw us into the story.

German statesman Otto von Bismark told us, “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.” That reflects the messiness inherent in the political process—a messiness that can easily lead to a cynicism that makes us doubt the whole process, and those who are part of the process. Elizabeth Sloane has a ready answer that she can quickly recite when someone accuses her of cynicism. She doesn’t so much deny the charge as dismiss it as irrelevant. But do we think cynicism is the way we should look at the political process? Have we assumed that approach, even though in a less obvious intensity? What about idealism? Should it have a role in the way politics plays out? Amazingly, for all the cynicism that seems to permeate the story, in the end we discover this really is an idealistic film in disguise.

Photos courtesy EuropaCorp – France 2 Cinema

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: AFIFest, Alison Pill, Fifth Amendment, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Gun control, Jessica Chastain, John Madden, lobbyist, Mark Strong, political thriller, Sam Waterson

Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?

September 23, 2016 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

gunpocket2

In Is That a Gun in Your Pocket, a war between the sexes breaks out in little Rockford, Texas (population 6,969, “Live Free. Shoot Straight”). This is a town with a strong gun culture. We see the theater marquee for the Rockford Film Festival which is screening Naked Gun, Naked Gun 2.5, Top Gun, Young Guns, and The Guns of Navarone. It seems that everyone has guns in this town. But an accidental school shooting prompts Jenna Keely (Andrea Anders) to ask her husband Glenn (Matt Passmore) to give up his guns. When he refuses, she starts a campaign with the other women in town to withhold sex until the men get rid of all the guns in town. Soon the town is divided along gender lines with no one finding much satisfaction.

The film seeks to be a satirical look at the gun control debate. Some of the film gives some of the arguments in support of fewer guns, but no real effort to reflect the thinking of Second Amendment advocates. The organization that serves as a stand in for The National Rifle Association is willing to bring in a truckload of prostitutes to keep the men happy and later to straight out bribe the city to keep guns.

gunpocket3

The film is mostly lots of uninspired sexual humor that relies on tired gender stereotypes. There is no real light shined on either the issue of guns in society or on the sexual mores or behaviors that seem so ubiquitous in our society.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Andrea Anders, comedy, Gun control, Matt Cooper, Matt Passmore, satire, sexual humor

Rev. Rob Schenck: Being Pro-Life Is More Than Abortion

October 28, 2015 by Jacob Sahms Leave a Comment

Reverend Rob Schenck, a pro-life activist and missionary to politicians on Capitol Hill, broke with his expected evangelical position on gun ownership when he found himself questioning what it meant to be pro-life. In her directorial debut, The Armor of Light, Abigail Disney documents Schenck’s conversations on the subject with politicians and people of faith, while also highlighting his interactions with Lucy McBath, the mother of an unarmed teen murdered in Florida. To find out more about Schenck’s story, we caught up with him in the midst of his ministry to those struggling with the violence at Umpqua Community College in Rosemont, Oregon.

The Armor of Light documentary focuses in on Schenk, who is the chairman of the Evangelical Church Alliance and president of the National Clergy Alliance. Schenck has been serving as a commissioned missionary to elected officials since 1995, sent to Washington, D.C.  intentionally for that purpose of ministering to members of all three branches of the United States government. While he has been pro-life when it came to abortion, he began to question his stance on guns after being repeatedly asked to pray after violent situations involving guns, like the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 and the Naval Shipyards in 2013. The change in his position on guns and laws concerning guns caused many of his previous supporters to question his beliefs and his politics. The controversy escalated, drawing director Disney to him.

When the opportunity for the documentary presented itself, Schenck admitted that it was intimidating at first to have the cameras following him around but that, ultimately, it proved therapeutic to give voice to his internal struggle over whether Christians should be gun owners or not.

While some issues tend to be defined based on divisive lines between those who claim to be religious and those who are not, Schenck’s stance has been highlighted by what some Christians, like Tenn. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, have said in response to recent violence. Ramsey posted on Facebook that Christians should better arm themselves to be prepared for similar situations, and Schenck gently rebutted him.

“While the Lt. Governor of Tennessee may be well intentioned,” Schenck wrote, “it’s not good advice. Anyone with good firearms training knows that when you strap on a gun, you are psychologically ready to kill another human being. That’s a paramount moral decision. Guns are lethal weapons that put lives at risk, including the gun owner’s own life and the lives of loved ones, neighbors, and friends. The best people to give moral advice on guns or any other issue are church leaders, and they’ve been conspicuously silent on the question of Christians arming up in fear. I appeal to pastors and other church leaders to speak out clearly, prayerfully, and biblically on the Christ-like approach to guns, fear, and even love of enemy. I appeal to Christians not to look to secular sources for their most important moral decisions. We must turn to God in prayer, search the Scriptures for wisdom, and look to Christ as our only model for dealing with evil.”

That silence by Christian leaders with conviction about escalating violence troubles Schenck, and is why he chose to step out and take a stand. “I’ve received a couple of emails and a phone call,” Schenck said, “but people have to sit with this kind of challenge. It took me months to accept Abby’s invitation because I had a reticence to share my voice. I had to find courage. I knew that the film could cost me long-established friendships, so I had to weigh the cost. We’re told to count the cost by Jesus, but the truth is that people are starving spiritually, ethically, and morally for guidance.”

Schenck wanted to be clear that many of the things that made people defensive about his stance were natural, and that he respected them for holding those values. “I’m careful not to dismiss the impulse to take care of your family,” Schenck said, passionately. “Some of those things don’t make the film because we had ninety minutes to share two years’ worth of conversations, distilled down.”

“The challenge of the gospels is to go beyond that, but we’re missing that in the Western church,” he continued. “We talk about how to live for Christ but we don’t talk about how to die for him. I know a few pastors who are armed in the pulpit in case someone comes there, but I’ve been asking if it’s always the will of God that we survive?”

The theologian, evangelist, and missionary said that we have a natural human response that is powerful but we’re called to work to get to Jesus’ response. Schenck pointed toward Jesus’ injunction to his disciples to put their swords away in the Garden of Gethsemane as he was being arrested, and his encouragement to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

“Paul tells us in Philippians to refer to others as better than ourselves,” he shared, “so I have to remember that I’m not the most important person in the equation.”

The film’s impact certainly has Schenck aware that what he expected and what happened are often miles apart. “People tend to jump to conclusions,” Schenck continued, “because the conversation questions their orthodoxy. It puts people on the defensive, so I’ve learned to be sensitive and work to relax their defensive reactions.”

Regardless of what you believe about the Second Amendment, guns, or faith, The Armor of Light is a discussion starter that allows us to see one experienced pastor’s perspective in a world where violence is becoming more and more prevalent. Hopefully, audiences will watch the film with their friends and family, and then offer up their opinions about how our communities, our churches, and our country can move forward, holding the Constitution of the United States in one hand and the hand of God in the other.

The Armor of Light will be in select theaters on October 30. 

Filed Under: Current Events, Featured, Film, Interviews Tagged With: Abigail Disney, Armor of Light, Christians, Gun control, Pro-Life, Republican, Reverend Rob Schenck, Umpqua Community College, violence

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