On Sunday night more than 1,000,000,000 people participated in the cultural festival that is the 85th Oscar Awards Ceremony. Â I can’t even begin to imagine the impact that Hollywood has on our culture’s development, and if there’s an opportune time to catch a glimpse of the dialectical conversation between the influence of the big screen and the values of our current culture, Sunday night’s celebration was it.
The first thing out of the mouth of the spokesman for the winning visual effects team of Life of Pi was this:
“The irony is not lost on any of us up here that, in a film whose central premise is to ask the audience what they believe is real or not real, most of what you see is—well—it’s fake.â€
Fake or not, films have an incredibly powerful influence on the shape of our culture. Directors are the modern day priests. Actors and actresses are our prophets.
The Oscars are, among other things, a celebration of story — the story of our culture. [Read more…] about A Christian Reflection on The Oscars and Lent