I got a email today from Relevant magazine and in it they had an article about the 16 best films of the year. Number 5 stuck in my craw like a broken chicken bone and I had to write a letter to the editor....
#5
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada: A beautiful, slow-burning drama about love between friends, the length to which loyalty should be prepared to go and how sometimes our memory of events makes us feel better than the events ever did in reality.
-Gareth Higgins is the author of How Movies Help Save My Soul: Finding Spiritual Fingerprints in Culturally Significant Films (RELEVANT Books).
As someone who considers himself a fairly post-anal-retentive-knee-jerk-hyper-sensitive-navel gazing introspective-law yoked-do gooder...I must protest! Come on Gareth, come on Relevant, in the name of all that is even semi good, can you really promote this foul mouthed, brutal and chaos filled film? It plummeted me with non-stop profanity and ugly sexuality that was oozing from juvenile selfishness instead of marital beauty. It forced me like a train wreck, to endure a wife being practically raped and humiliated from behind by a self centered pervert. I finally dove for the remote after what seemed like an eternity of wading through a continual flow of putrid humanity for the proposed cinematic gem hiding underneath the viral video; when in reality it had been less than a half hour!
Excuse me while I spiritually puke into the proverbial toilet of regrets. I'm sure in this post-everything judgmental atmosphere, quoting a "slice" of scripture might seem a bit less avant-garde' but hey in the spirit of all things controversial...
"When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God." "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. -A letter from the apostle Paul to a bunch of idol humping barbarians, that had recently emerged from a flesh drenched, panty praising pagan culture." (Galatians 5:19-21,24)
Come on relevites...please don't turn this radical cultural reformation into a fleshy free for all. True gems come from extreme pressure, like the kind that produces excellent films that don't drag the viewers into cinematic hell...just to find a Cubic Zirconia!
3 comments:
Well, I hope your letter to the editor gets posted!
I hate to admit I watched this piece of crap. You may have understated your case. The best that can be said for it is it has a good cast, which, in my defense, is why I rented it. Oh well.
Jeez Eric, tell us how you really feel.
No seriously, I'll now avoid that one. Thanks for the heads up.
Good for you! Thanks for taking the time to do that.
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