A READER writes:

I saw a new movie this week, Deliver Us from Evil, that has me writing to you for reasons I’ll get to in a minute.

Regarding the film’s quality, it is simply of its era: lots of 21st century, post-MTV visuals, audio, and violence. I won’t even be critical. This is multiplex filmmaking, plain and simple. And to be fair, there were some effectively creepy moments (e.g. a zookeeper possessed by Satan, captured on video, calmly, authoritatively bringing a lion under his charge).

But I’m not writing to tell you about the film’s aesthetics. It was the characterizations that struck me, for the worst of reasons.  First, we have two “buddy” cops—but this isn’t Adam-12 or Starsky and Hutch.  These officers are never in uniform (save for a brief training flashback) but never is it really established that they are “undercover” (unless I missed it).  And this is where it’s worth writing to you:  They look and talk exactly like, well, the very type of thugs I would expect them to chase.

Their arms reveal conspicuous tattooing.  They wear backwards baseball caps. Their language, their demeanor, their bearing—nothing about them I found to be admirable. These were not “anti-heroes” out of some early 70s-styled film that was questioning the establishment or asking larger questions regarding society. And they weren’t even Dirty Harry or Charles Bronson, vigilante types within a confining system who had to bend (or break) the rules in order to get things done. Quite simply, they weren’t admirable in any real sense of the term.

It gets worse. There is a Catholic priest who suffers the very same type of characterization. Clerical collar? Are you kidding? It’s leather jacket and V-neck T-shirt for the entire ride. His hair is long, unstyled, messy-looking.  Same with his beard and facial hair. He smokes! And as you can guess, he blends right in as a sort-of buddy cop—and in such bonding, even “confesses” fornication that resulted in an abortion (although he protested the latter).

As I watched these characterizations and attempted to process them, all I could think about was a recent website entry (was it John Derbyshire?) that opined that “equality” is now the grand goal that seemingly is to replace (or fulfill?) Judeo-Christian ethics in contemporary society. Therefore, a typical multiplex moviegoer can now watch such a film and experience a tremendous, perhaps liberating sense of equality:  “Those two tattooed, foul-mouthed cops?  Wow, they’re just like me. That long-haired, cigarette-smoking priest whose sexual affair resulted in an abortion? Wow, that’s the very same jam I was in—and that I got out of, the exact same way, although I really didn’t want her to. I mean, wow, these officers . . . even this priest . . . they’re “only human” just like me, after all. Everybody is equal . . . just part of one big human family . . . wow, I feel stronger now, knowing such traditional authority figures really are no better than I am.”

It sounds like a bad joke, but this priest is so “only human” that he almost lets Satan get the best of him in a moment of weakness during an exorcism.  Of course, it’s his buddy-cop who slaps sense into him at this critical point—-I guess proving that priests are not necessarily more effective than cops in dealing with Satan. We’re all equal, right?

— Comments —

Jewel writes:

I thank the reader for his review on a movie I will never see for any reason.

Since becoming Catholic, I have noticed more and more the Catholic-hate, and the caricaturing of all things Catholic. It is fascinating, since I come from a position of having done that, myself.

But reality is a far different painting than the moving picture ‘arts’ portray. No longer is it art reproducing the culture. Culture has pretty much been purchased by Hollywood and is imitating the fantasy.

Not to despair, however. The Kumbaya Doubting Thomas Hippie Priests are certainly in abundance, but their numbers are quickly being culled by nature. Death is the great restorer.

What I am noticing is young priests. Manly, manly men, with a look of determined faith in their eyes. I met one such man at my parish speaking to an elderly woman who was as thrilled as I to see a priest in his twenties…wearing the cassock!

I said to her: This is the youngest man you have ever called Father.

Not long after that, I had the privilege to attend a Latin Mass. The priest could not have been any older than his mid 20s. But the same determined look of battle-preparedness on his manly face.

My daughter – a self-proclaimed atheist – even noted his features and was amazed at the mass. She even recognized the Dies Irae chant.

The funeral was for a college professor who taught figure drawing. In his spare time, he helped to bring the Latin Mass back to Lancaster, and helped organize a group of men to sing Gregorian Chant. My daughter had worked with him and was a dear friend. His death was truly humbling and also glorious.

Hollywood is blinded by aschemiolatry, and like all false gods, this will not deliver them from the evil in which they find themselves.

May we continue to see many manly men entering the ranks of Christ’s battalions – with grace and beauty and fearlessness.

Stewart W. writes:

Regarding the Deliver Us from Evil movie, the promos for that movie caught my eye at first because they were purported to be based on a “true story.” I’m certain that your reader’s assessment of the movie is accurate, but in reading (or watching) an interview with Ralph Sarchie, the author of the original book, I was struck by his emphasis that he attended a traditionalist Catholic church, and only participates in the Latin Mass.

It provided him enough credibility in my mind that I’ll probably watch the film when it becomes available on Amazon, at least.

Leo Walker writes:

It is primarily the Church’s doomed quest to become ‘relevant’ that has made it irrelevant.

Laura writes:

Not the Church, but the enemies within its walls.

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