Where Have All the B-Movies Gone?

     It's a question I've been trying to sort out in my mind, as I think about the difference between popular culture, including folk art, and mass entertainment.  In a way it is like the difference between the poetry of ballads, or folk tales, and the slick and predictable fiction smelling of the cheap white wine and crackers at an academic workshop.

     The other evening my wife and I watched William Wyler's The Heiress, starring Olivia de Havilland in what seemed to me among the greatest performances I've ever seen by any actress, period.  She begins the movie as an ingenue, utterly uncomfortable in society, awkward of speech, overshadowed by her well-meaning and lively aunt and her chilly father (Ralph Richardson).  He continually compares her unfavorably to his deceased wife, who apparently glittered without trying.  Yet the daughter is deeply attractive, womanly, and intelligent, as the audience well perceives.  She is also the possessor of "ten thousand a year" in her own right, and an additional twenty thousand a year at the demise of her father, who has a heart condition.  Then along comes a handsome young man without a dollar to call his own (Montgomery Clift).  He breaks the barrier of her shyness, professes his love, and asks her to marry him.  I don't want to give away the plot -- I confess that until the last sixty seconds of the movie I was not sure what was going to happen, or even what I thought should happen.  The point is that The Heiress could not be a B movie.  It could only be a great movie, or a miserable attempt at being a great movie.  That's because, for all its reliance upon immediately recognizable types, or rather archetypes, the characters transcend them, and compel you to rethink what it is like to be, for instance, a vulnerable woman in love, or a father who believes he loves his daughter but does not, or a young man with nothing to recommend him.  Add to that a magnificent and understated score by Aaron Copland.

     We also watched a movie I'd never heard of, called The Missouri Traveler, with Lee Marvin playing Lee Marvin -- the gruff and ornery strong man who doesn't give a damn about anyone or anything, and a teenage Brandon de Wilde (the kid in Shane and the young man in Hud) playing a runaway orphan.  The boy shows up in a small town on his way to Florida, where he hopes to make a living somehow.  He ends up staying in town, befriended by a bachelor newspaper editor, and basically adopted by the townspeople after a period of disgruntlement and suspicion.  Not for one moment does this movie veer from what everybody knows about boys and men, and men and women.  It's a story about a boy's struggle to become a man -- and it's pretty straightforward in that regard; the kid takes his lumps and stops whining about them; he isn't coddled and doesn't want to be.  It's also the Gilgamesh story all over again -- enemies fight (in the movie, it's boxing) and because of the fight they become friends.  And the Problem Man is brought into domestic life in the end by the love of a woman, who, as it turns out, wants a man for a husband, not the males she so frequently bosses around.  It's well done, no fuss.  A straight B movie, which is all that it pretends to be.

     Now I wonder what has happened to that type of thing.  Our editor David Mills recently sent me a book of short stories called Island, by one Alistair MacLeod, Nova Scotia's most renowned author.  Most of the stories are about growing up among the farms and fishing villages and mines of Cape Breton.  The writing is excellent, except when MacLeod falls back upon political poses -- and I say this even though I'd bet that we agree on our politics.  When he remains with the archetypal stories of the human race, he is fine, and sometimes more than fine.  In one of the stories a ten-year-old boy has come to Cape Breton with his father and mother for the first time, to visit the father's family.  The mother hates Cape Breton; she has social ambitions, and prefers the sophistication of Montreal to the ruggedness of a miner's house.  But once they're on the island, the boy finds ways to be outdoors from breakfast to nightfall, roaming about with his cousins, and learning in fact to be a boy.  In any case, he and his father one evening go to the mine to pick up the rough old grandfather and four uncles.  The miners come out of the earth all black except for little rings of white around their eyes; most of the men are laughing and talking salty talk.  The grandfather, hobbling with age, follows them all quietly into the general washroom, with his son and grandson coming along.  There he takes his grandson and presses his head against his shirt and belt buckle, hard, getting him filthy black.  "There's nothing for it now," says the grandfather, except to clean the boy off, too.  So the boy strips down, alongside grandpa and the uncles and all the chattering men, to shower in the big open room.  It's as if to say to the boy, "You are one of us."

     That's solid B material, I'd say.  And again, I wonder what has happened to it, in music, in movies, in most fiction, and perhaps -- perhaps -- in poetry.  I say that because the bad movies I see now are not B movies.  They are just bad.  The B material works from an archetype, and doesn't try to do more, and that reliance upon the wisdom of the ages, with no genius and sometimes with only an ordinary degree of intelligence, is enough to see you through.  But when the archetypes aren't recognized any longer, then the ordinary "artist" has to fall back on something, and then all the choices are bad.  He can fall back on stock characters he has seen not in life but in other movies or books, without understanding really how they reflect the unchanging nature of man; and then you get second-rate stuff that doesn't annoy but doesn't please, either.  He can do much worse, though.  He can fall back upon his own "originality," and produce dreadful stuff.  And there is even worse than that.  He can fall back upon the fads of the day -- in our day, the politically correct.  And then the ineptitude is glaring and ridiculous, as when the idiots who produced Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter a few years ago turned it into a story about Being Nice to Indians.  It's as my wife said about whether John Wayne's movie The Cowboys could be produced now.  That's a B movie marred by occasional pretensions (not on the Duke's part; he is excellent) to be more than that -- not least, by the typical John Williams bombast-with-kitsch score.  I said that it could be produced, but it wouldn't.  She said that it couldn't, because they'd have to include with the boys the Duke hires at least one Tough Girl who's better than the boys at lassooing and shooting and breaking a crazy horse and so forth.  And that, of course, would ruin the movie -- which is an archetypal tale of boys learning to become men.

     All of which makes me consider that the great wealth of hymns that I see in old hymnals is of that B variety, with occasional gems (Bach's Passion Chorale, Bach's Christ lag in Todesbanden; well, anything by Bach, for starters).  That's no insult.  It's just what I see as characterizing a really popular form of art.  Isaac Watts on the best day of his life was a very fine poet.  On the worst day of his life, though, he was not a bad poet; he was simply a poet who relied totally upon the archetypal stories of the Christian revelation, just as he relied upon the fundamental meters of English ballads.  Now that does not characterize church music as it's composed today.  That music seems to me composed by people with all the pretentiousness of John Williams, none of the talent (and I confess the man has talent to spare), no fund of tradition to rely upon, and no sense of the archetypal stories.  The typical hymn of old is neither pretentious nor fatuous.  It is just what it is, a solid, honest attempt to tell the story that had been told a thousand times before.  When it's well done, it can touch upon sublimity:

           When I survey the wondrous Cross
           On which the Prince of Glory died,
           My richest gains I count but loss,
          And throw contempt on all my pride.

Our hymns now, or rather our awful show tunes, won't condescend to do something so humble.  Your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen?

Comments

[Bob]

"Praise songs" these days all seem to be loosely dimetric or trimetric and rarely contain anything like a complete clause, let alone a complete sentence. I wonder if there's any relation between our hymnody and our intellect. . .

[Matt B.]

Very interesting...hadn't thought about this before, especially with regards to hymnody. I wonder what you'd think of poetry (hymnody) like this:

See, what a morning, gloriously bright,
With the dawning of hope in Jerusalem;
Folded the grave-clothes, tomb filled with light,
As the angels announce, "Christ is risen!"
See God's salvation plan,
Wrought in love, borne in pain, paid in sacrifice,
Fulfilled in Christ, the Man,
For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead!

Not Christ Lag, but not "praise and worship" music either. B-hymn?

Thanks, Tony. See you at GCC soon...

[Tony Esolen]

Thanks, Matt!

That's a good question. It is not Praise and Worship. By my definition it is a B hymn in its attempt to tell the story of salvation, straight, without pretension. But -- and I hope I don't step on any toes here -- it's not a very good B hymn, after the first two lines (which are quite good). The meter is messy. The stanza leads you to believe that there will be rhyming all through, and there isn't. In that regard it does try to be more than it is, or pretends to deliver more than it can. It would be better if it had not rhymed at all. The Rule of Violin Playing ought to be applied to rhyme and meter. You don't have to be Paganini to play well, but unless you play really well, you'd better not play at all. In Violin Playing, there's what delights, and there's what torments, and very little in between. Rhyme and meter in English poetry are often like that ...

[Stuart Koehl]

I'm feeling smug because I can't think of any hymn in our repertoire written after the 14th century. Some of ours, in fact, go back to the depths of time, like the Phos Hilarion, or Gladsome Light, sung at the lighting of the lamps at Vespers:

O Gladsome Light
Of the holy glory
Of the Father Immortalm
Heavenly, holy, blessed light.
Now that we have reached
The setting of the sun,
And beheld the evening light,
We sing to God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It is fitting at all times
To sing a hymn of praise
In measured melody to Thee.
O Son of God, Thou giver of light,
The universe sings Thy glory.

[Firinnteine]

It's a genre with which I've had a mixed relationship (at best), but I'm beginning to suspect Country music often has elements of this "B" status you're talking about... even though quite a lot of it is overproduced and overslick, there are plenty of solid stereotypes, and some of them are pretty durn human. (This isn't to pretend that lots of it isn't just bad, too. But isn't that true with all genres of any art in most ages?)

[Bob]

Speaking of "praise and worship" music, a friend and I have been discussing what exactly it is that's bad about the stuff, and he insists that there is something "effeminate" in the music itself, though he can't really say what he means. He's not talking about the lyrics (plenty to talk about there), but the actual music. Anybody else think this? I thought maybe it's that contemporary worship music is written in a way that excludes deeper voices and forces a man who has a bass voice to either shut up or make a feeble attempt to sing higher, either of which seem to be a miniature of the common evangelical church's program for men--shut up or act like the rest of the girls.

So, since I really know next to nothing about music, can anybody who does make any comments?

[Kyle Eastwood]

I'm afraid I'm too young too know what real B-movies are. I was wondering if any have seen the remake of 3:10 to Yuma (I need to see the original now); which has definite archetypal characters in it.

I believe these some good B Hymn verses:

1. My God, my Father, while I stray
Far from my home on life's rough way
Oh, teach me from my heart to say,
"Thy will be done."

3. What though in lonely grief I sigh
For friends beloved, no longer nigh,
Submissive still would I reply--
"Thy will be done."

4. Though Thou hast called me to resign
What most I prized, it ne'er was mine;
I have but yielded what was Thine--
"Thy will be done."

6. Let but my fainting heart be blest
With Thy sweet Spirit for its Guest;
My God, to Thee I leave the rest--
"Thy will be done."

7. Renew my will from day to day;
Blend it with Thine and take away
All that now makes it hard to say,
"Thy will be done."

8. Then, when on earth I breathe no more,
The prayer, oft mixed with tears before,
I'll sing upon a happier shore,
"Thy will be done."

-Charlotte Elliot

[Wonders for Oyarsa]

Hi Dr. Esolen,

An exhibit A for Firinnteine - some gloriously sappy sentimentality:

I was just out of the service thumbing through the classifieds
When an ad that said:"Old Chevy" somehow caught my eye
The lady didn't know the year,or even if it ran
But I had that thousand dollars in my hand

It was way back in the corner of this old ramshackle barn
Thirty years of dust and dirt on that green army tarp
When I pulled the cover off,it took away my breath
What she'd called a Chevy was a sixty six Corvette

I felt a little guilty as I counted out the bills
But what a thrill I got when I sat behind the wheel
I opened up the glove box and that's when I found the note
The date was nineteen-sixty-six and this is what he wrote:

He said,"My name is Private Andrew Malone"
"If you're reading this,then I didn't make it home"
"But for every dream that shattered,another one came true"
"This car was once a dream of mine,now it belongs to you"
"And though you may take her and make her your own"
"You'll always be riding with Private Malone"

Well it didn't take me long at all,I had her running good
I loved to hear those horses thunder,underneath her hood
I had her shining lika a diamond and I'd put the rag top down
All the pretty girls would stop and stare as I drove her through town

The buttons on the radio didn't seem to work quite right
But it picked up that oldie show,especially late at night
I'd get the feeling sometimes,if I turned real quick I'd see
A soldier riding shotgun in the seat right next to me

It was a young man named Private Andrew Malone
Who fought for his country and never made it home
But for every dream that's shattered,another one comes true
This car was once a dream of his,back when it was new
He told me to take her and make her my own
And I was proud to be riding with Private Malone

One night it was raining hard,I took the curve too fast
I still don't remember much about that fiery crash
Someone said they thought they saw a soldier pull me out
They didn't get his name but I know without a doubt

It was a young man named Private Andrew Malone
Who fought for his country and never made it home
But for every dream that's shattered,another one comes true
This car was once a dream of his,back when it was new
I know I wouldn't be here if he hadn't tagged along
That night I was riding with Private Malone

[NJI]

Is it a plausible hypothesis that B-movies - the straightforward use of a known archetype to tell a known story, without any "greatness" involved - have faded away because today's A-movies are B-movies, with superior acting/score/sets/CGI/what-have-you? For instance, Wall-E is an archetype. It has a great many superior pieces - the art, the details of the script (or what serves as the script in Wall-E), the humouous anecdotes - Pizza trees! - and so forth, but it is, at the most basic levels, an archetype. The same can be said of Prince Caspian, along with any number of other recent blockbusters. The Fantastic Four movies are a particularly good example.

Granted that there is nothing new under the sun, so that all stories have some common elements... is it reasonable to say that B-movies seem to be disappearing because they've been moved up a notch, provided with superior pieces, and sent forth as summer blockbusters? (Or, more accurately, blockbuster attempts... many are absolutely terrible.)If accurate, this points to an interesting tendency: the tendency to be uninterested in "simple, but good." We must have the BEST! If it doesn't score >$200 million, it's barely worth doing. And so on.

This may also be demonstrated in praise music. There are some "CCM" pieces that are, without question, excellent. And most of the rest are terrible. Like the movie industry, the driving assumption seems to be that "If it ain't a home run, it ain't worth hittin'." So everyone swings for the fence, which will always result in either glorious success or (more often) hideous failure. There's no middle ground - no room for the B-grade. If I may risk over-extending the baseball analogy, this takes a great number of options out of our playbook.

Of course, this is rampant speculation at best... but I do find it interesting.

Bob: I don't know if it's necessarily true that bass voices are specifically excluded from CCM so much as that there is very little interest in harmony - at least, in singing harmony. It's in the music, it just isn't sung. This leaves the bass to his own devices, and woe unto him if he isn't musically trained/capable enough to develop the song's harmony on his own. As a bass-baritone who has sung everything from Christ lag to In the Secret, I can assure you that harmony is possible with with most CCM praise music... and in some cases, is really quite good... but it doesn't come as part of the package. And since solo bass is usually lost in the crowd, the music will usually come out sounding like it has no... eh, forgive the incidental pun, but no base. (Hence the embrace of the bass guitar in CCM.)

I do agree that there's something effeminate about a lot of this kind of music. (I think that's established simply by the fact that the apparently requisite praise-n-worship face makes a woman look like she's intent and involved and makes a man look like he's been stabbed in the kidney.) And part of it may be the lack of harmony. But I think another major piece is that the music, even more than the words, emphasizes what Pope John Paul II, I believe, called the essence of what is feminine.(Reference, please, anyone? I read the document a while back, but I don't remember what it was called.) Anyway... peace, calm, relaxed happiness, a nurtured, protected feeling - somewhat reminiscent of a drugged state - seem to be the goal of CCM. It emphasizes feminine roles at a musical level. There aren't a whole lot of good songs about us as Christians fighting, or protecting, or providing, or many of the other prototypically "masculine" roles... those are all left for God to handle in their entirety. Not that "Under His wings" and other catchphrases of the sort aren't things we should do, but essential interaction with the world can't consist solely of hiding behind God.

There are certainly other aspects driving this effeminate nature, but that's the major piece I see.

[Michael]

I agree with NJI on B-movies being dressed up as A-movies in summer blockbusters, though I'm not sure I would agree with his example of Prince Caspian (I still haven't seen Wall-E, though I intend to).

But Dr. Esolen also wonders "what has happened to it in music...most fiction and perhaps...poetry." On the music front, I would submit that it is for the most part being covered by one man, a simple heartfelt storyteller in the (shock and dismay!) CCM industry. Mark Schultz's love ballads are incomparable in the music industry, though some might look to John Ondrasik (better known by his stage name "Five for Fighting"), though I think his songs are a cut above archetypes. For Schultz's simple--though not simplistic--love stories, see: "The Time of My Life" from his album Song Cinema, "Letters from War off Stories & Songs and "Walking Her Home" off Broken & Beautiful.

In the realm of fiction...I'm not sure, honestly. I found myself constructing a novel a few months ago when I stepped back to look at the plot and realized "Holy cow, I'm writing a modern-day version of Crime and Punishment! How unoriginal." Dostoevsky is certainly no B-list author, but the archetypes in his writings are undeniable. And here I found myself following them on my own, completely unintentionally. Isn't this what B-anything should be: an unintentional tapping into something akin to Jung's collective unconscious?

Mostly, I think it is the pretension that Dr. Esolen laments. I was at an arts festival last weekend and went to a reading/shop talk session with two authors. It was depressing to hear them speak of the message of their books. Certainly there is authorial intent to consider, and I have no problem with thematic elements...but they hadn't set out to tell a story, they had set out to say something! Talk about pretension!

[Matt B]

Tony,

Ouch! My toes! Only kidding, of course. This is a hymn which, like some others, is sometimes trotted out as an example of modern hymn-writing that competes with the old stuff. I think the author even says he writes in a "folk" idiom. :-)

[Wonders for Oyarsa]

All right, Tony - here is an honest to goodness, solid, modern B-hymn for your edification:

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

[Michael]

Wonders,

I think you posted that same song on a thread of similar complaints ages ago. And I still agree with you. :-)

[Tony Esolen]

Wonders,

Yes, I agree -- it fits my definition of B art. But will you agree that the quality of the lines is at best rocky? Isaac Watts knew exactly what he was doing as a lyricist. So did Cole Porter. Why can we not have coherent sentences and consistent rhyme (within the wide latitude granted by English convention), if we're going to rhyme at all?

[Kamilla]

I'm amazed the discussion has gotten this far with no mention of Bruce Campbell!

I went to see a B-sort of movie this weekend. ALthough, I'm not sure it qualifies as a B-movie for this discussion - call it a special subcategory (the "chick flick").

Yes, I admit it publicly - I went to the sing-along version of Mama Mia. It was rather fun - only marred slightly at the end when they unnecesarily bow to the sexual mores of Hollywood.

Kamilla

[labrialumn]

"Where have all the B movies gone?"

Straight to DVD.

Or else to Sci Fi Saturdays.

[labrialumn]

Harmony, schmarmony. I want polyphony!

[ChestertonianRambler]

"She said that it couldn't, because they'd have to include with the boys the Duke hires at least one Tough Girl who's better than the boys at lassooing and shooting and breaking a crazy horse and so forth."

What about Open Range? I'd say that's a pretty straightforward use of archetypes--the only thing changed from a classic Western is the cinematography, editing and (most important) sound editing.

I also wonder if this isn't a matter of perspective. I think people have always gone to the cinema to "see something new"--just look at Cecil B. DeMille. It's just that what was new then doesn't look so now.

[Rob G]

I think it's true that many of today's "A" list movies are simply big budget B-movies; they have pretensions towards deeper meaning, moral choices, etc., but often present them rather superficially without much depth. This is not to say that the real B movies of old were necessarily shallow or bad. One could argue that many of yesteryear's B films were better in many ways than today's big budget extravaganzas.

One can often find quality B-type movies among the smaller releases from the studios and among indie films. These movies don't have to live up to the expectations of huge budgets and promotional campaigns, therefore they can concentrate more on character and plot as opposed to having big names and/or expensive SFX to draw in the crowds.

My friends and I that are avid moviegoers often refer to these as "small" films. They may be smallish in budget (not necessarily "low budget") and modest in intent, but when they achieve what they set out to do, they're in many cases very good indeed.

[Wonders for Oyarsa]

Alright everyone, I'm pulling out all the stops. Prepare yourself for true glory - true "A" art to the praise of his glorious grace that would make Bach envious if he weren't already playing such songs in the highest heavens for the saints and angels. Click here, and have a listen...

[Clifford Simon]

(Parody):

Excuse me, but have you not been around recently? Of course Hollywood is still doing archetypes. Just who do you think are Batman, Indiana Jones, and Rocky? The finest archetypes that comics have offered. But, leave it to a dull public not to see. Humph - true artists don't need audience.

I won't be treated like this. I'm going on strike.

- Hollywood Screenwriter

-- -- --

On the optimist side, I think I could show you - produced only some 2 or 3 years ago - some solid B TV. (But it's Korean TV.)

[Clifford Simon]

Just to comment on what I think I'm learning from Dr. Esolen -- if I were a publisher, I'd contract him to write "Recreation for Dummies."

Chapter 1: How to enjoy a baseball game.

Chapter 2: How to enjoy a movie.

(Of course, edifying spiritual content is to follow each deceptively-mundane chapter-title.)

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Alright everyone, I'm pulling out all the stops. Prepare yourself for true glory - true "A" art to the praise of his glorious grace that would make Bach envious if he weren't already playing such songs in the highest heavens for the saints and angels. Click here, and have a listen...<<<

Ahhhh! My ears! My ears! It burns with lameness!

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>I think it's true that many of today's "A" list movies are simply big budget B-movies; <<<

So were yesterday's big-budget potboilers. Ten Commandments? The Greatest Story Ever Told? The Robe? Quo Vadis? Other than budgets and pretensions, what separated them from other Sand-and-Sandal Epics, such as Land of the Pharoahs (Joan Collins married to Jack Hawkins--of course it didn't work out!). I won't so belabor the obvious as to note that there actually WAS a B-movie sequel to The Robe--Demetrius and the Gladiators, starring Victor Mature.

[Clifford Simon]

Candidates for Bs in contemporary worship music? I may have found an unusual few.

My flesh is tired of seeking God,
But on my knees I'll stay.
I want to be a pleasing child,
Until that final day.

My mind is full of many thoughts
That clutter and confuse.
But standing firm, I will prevail,
In faith that I'll be used.

(Chorus)
Amen! I'm asking once again.
Won't you help me my friend, Lord Jesus.
Holy Lord Spirit, set us free,
From chains we cannot see,
Come release us.

I wrestle not with flesh and blood,
My fight is with the one,
Who lost the keys of hell and death,
To God's most precious son.

One sleepless night of anguished prayer,
I triumphed over sin.
One battle in the Holy war,
God's promised me to win.

Amen! I'm asking once again.
Won't you help me my friend, Lord Jesus.
Holy, Lord Spirit, set us free,
From chains we cannot see,
Come release us.

My flesh is tired of seeking God,
But on my knees I'll stay.
I want to be a pleasing child,
Until that final day.

- Keith Green (ca. 1980)

(Keith Green was best in his judgmental mood, and could get up to the Bs. At his worst, he could get down to the D-minuses. He didn't care.)

(Oh, and try to look beyond the ghastly infixing of "Lord" in "Holy Spirit." Like fingernails on a chalkboard...)

-- -- -- -- --

Depth of mercy can there be,
Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God, your wrath forbear,
Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

Chorus
Its my only hope
You're my only hope
It's my only hope of Heaven
At the cross forgiven

I have long withstood your grace,
Long provoked you to your face,
Would not hearken to your calls,
Grieved you by a thousand falls.

Chorus

There for me the Savior stands
Shows his wounds and spreads His hands.
Face to face before the Son
And like Isaiah I'm undone

Depth of mercy, vast and free
So much deeper than the sea:
God of love, you heard my cry
Now into your open arms I fly

Chorus

- Caedmon's Call (2003)

(On re-printing this, I was sorry to see at least two lines which I thought were sentences, are actually mere phrases with no verbs... oh well.)

(Plus, the site that I got it from didn't even spell correctly. There were bad spellings in multiple places in this lyric. I mean, who knows how to spell "hearken" anymore? It was "harken". Didn't punctuate, either: there were no question-marks. The question marks on the rhetorical questions up there, were inserted by me. Tells you how seriously people take the words they sing...)

[ADG]

Clifford, I think your last example from Caedmon's Call was largely written by Charles Wesley.

Philosopher Roger Scruton recently argued that contemporary pop music is fundamentally about the performer. From that, it's easy to see the possibility for pretentiousness and the reason there is so much "originality." It's hardly original to use a classic archetype.

Further, much contemporary church music draws on the "bad" parts of the surrounding culture instead of the "B" parts. But thankfully there are exceptions (as some have already noted).

[Wonders for Oyarsa]

Ahhhh! My ears! My ears! It burns with lameness!

Zap!

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Philosopher Roger Scruton recently argued that contemporary pop music is fundamentally about the performer. From that, it's easy to see the possibility for pretentiousness and the reason there is so much "originality." It's hardly original to use a classic archetype.<<<

Thomas Day made a similar point about modern liturgical music in "Why Catholics Can't Sing" and "Where Have You Gone, Michaelangelo?"

[Wonders for Oyarsa]

Here's one from N. T. Wright that I'm rather fond of:

On the seventh day God rested
in the darkness of the tomb;
Having finished on the sixth day
all his work of joy and doom.

Now the Word had fallen silent,
and the water had run dry,
The bread had all been scattered,
and the light had left the sky.

The flock had lost its shelpherd,
and the seed was sadly sown,
The courtiers had betrayed their king,
and nailed him to his throne.

O Sabbath rest by Calvary,
O calm of tomb below,
Where the grave-clothes and the spices
cradle him we do not know!

Rest you well, beloved Jesus,
Caesar’s Lord and Israel’s King,
In the brooding of the Spirit,
in the darkness of the spring.

[Stuart Koehl]

There is something about that particular meter that reminds me always of very bad middle school poetry competitions.

[dj]

>>>Alright everyone, I'm pulling out all the stops. Prepare yourself for true glory - true "A" art to the praise of his glorious grace that would make Bach envious if he weren't already playing such songs in the highest heavens for the saints and angels. Click here, and have a listen...<<<

I always liked "I Love Lucy." That was Ricky Ricardo, right? I couldn't watch the whole thing. I was afraid my wife would come in and ask what I was doing. It felt kinda dirty...

[Wonders for Oyarsa]

I always liked "I Love Lucy." That was Ricky Ricardo, right? I couldn't watch the whole thing. I was afraid my wife would come in and ask what I was doing. It felt kinda dirty...

That's a shame. You probably missed the best verse:

He is like a mounty
He always gets his man
and he'll zap you any way he can!
ZAP!

[Firinnteine]

"...and nailed him to his throne" is pretty good stuff. :-) I hadn't read that Wright piece before, thanks.

"In Christ Alone" is a favorite, too.

Some churches are doing classic (B?) hymns, reset to new music, occasionally with a new chorus. The choruses aren't always up to par, but some of them work pretty well, and I like a number of the tunes.

[Rob G]

"Ten Commandments? The Greatest Story Ever Told? The Robe? Quo Vadis? Other than budgets and pretensions, what separated them from other Sand-and-Sandal Epics, such as Land of the Pharoahs."

Some of the distinctions between movies of this sort are notable only in hindsight. The fact that a lot of people still watch and enjoy some of these films, while others are pretty much forgotten, is one distinction that can be made. A few have stood the test of time -- many have not.

[Stuart Koehl]

Of all the Sand and Sandal Epics, I think only Ben Hur stands up as being a masterpiece, though Ten Commandments is almost on the same level (what do these two movies have in common?). Most of the others, whether Big Budget or B-Movie, descend into the realm of camp (like Samson and Delilah, which boasted an "Orgy Coordinator" in its credits). Many of their flaws are endemic to all the movies of their time (like the insistence on giving everyone anachronistically modern hair styling, their preternatural cleanliness, and their extremely well-tailored clothing). But I think the thing that drives most of them over the edge is their deadly earnestness, which, unless taken with a large dollop of irony, make them almost unbearably pompous.

[Bill R]

"Orgy Coordinator"

Imagine THAT on your resume!

[Stuart Koehl]

One thing that strikes me about a lot of contemporary "Christian" music (aside from their solipsism) is their maudlin sentimentality, a desire to make Christ "cute". This was captured perfectly in the movie "Talladega Nights", in which Ricky Bobby insists on praying to "Little Baby Jesus", resulting in an argument about why they can't pray to some other Jesus. Ricky Bobby says its because he always sees Jesus as an infant--"Perfect little seven pounds six ounces baby Jesus", as he puts it. The rest of his family and friends then volunteer how they imagine Jesus: "A mischievious [sic] badger"; "A muscular trapeze artist", and so forth. This is really too close for comfort to all those plaques and postcards one can buy in which Jesus looks like anything you want him to be--except a first century Galilean jew.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Imagine THAT on your resume!<<<

I'm sure that these days, the Department of Labor has it in its listing of standard job categories, complete with job description and prevailing wage rates by administrative region and metropolitan statistical areas.

[Michael]

>>One thing that strikes me about a lot of contemporary "Christian" music (aside from their solipsism) is their maudlin sentimentality, a desire to make Christ "cute". This was captured perfectly in the movie "Talladega Nights", in which Ricky Bobby insists on praying to "Little Baby Jesus", resulting in an argument about why they can't pray to some other Jesus. Ricky Bobby says its because he always sees Jesus as an infant--"Perfect little seven pounds six ounces baby Jesus", as he puts it. The rest of his family and friends then volunteer how they imagine Jesus: "A mischievious [sic] badger"; "A muscular trapeze artist", and so forth. This is really too close for comfort to all those plaques and postcards one can buy in which Jesus looks like anything you want him to be--except a first century Galilean jew.<<

Alternatively, we could pray to the Father who is not at all human, through the Son, just as pre-Messianic Jews, Christ Himself and the Apostles did. But that might just be crazy theology talk.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Alternatively, we could pray to the Father who is not at all human, through the Son, just as pre-Messianic Jews, Christ Himself and the Apostles did. But that might just be crazy theology talk.<<<

Jesus would hardly have prayed to himself as the incarnate Logos, but neither did he deny that he was indeed God's Son. As Peter was inspired to proclaim, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God", and as Jesus responded to Phiip's request to "Show us the Father", "How long have you been with me? He who has seen me has seen the Father".

Immediately after the Resurrection appearances, the Apostles did indeed refer to Christ as Kyrios (Lord), and understood him to be both fully God and fully human, too. As the Second Epistle of Peter tells us, we are to become partakers in the divine nature, becoming by grace what Jesus was by his true nature.

As for praying to the Father through (dia) the Son, it's not crazy theology talk, it's just rank heresy. But Arianism, or worse still, adoptionism, is always a temptation for those who find that the true doctrine of the Holy Trinity gives them headaches.

[Rob G]

"Of all the Sand and Sandal Epics, I think only Ben Hur stands up as being a masterpiece, though Ten Commandments is almost on the same level"

I'd add 'Spartacus' to the list. And when I was a kid in the late 60s I saw an Italian film about David and Saul that I thought was pretty good at the time. I've never tried to trace it, however, and my childhood perception of it may be way off. This calls for a trip to IMDB.

[Stuart Koehl]

Spartacus is OK, in a didactic, pinko sort of way. But it descends into pure camp because of, well, Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis. Especially Tony Curtis:

"I yam a singah of sawngs, an' I tawt de classics to da children of my mastah."

and the immortal line:

"Spahtacus, I luv ya like a brudda".

Aside from which, its depiction of the late Roman Republic was laughable Bolshie agitprop.

[Rob G]

Yeah, casting in some of those flicks can be quite...questionable. Edward G. Robinson as 'Dathan' in The Ten Commandments is a notable example.

I think one can enjoy Spartacus without buying into its "message." Same with such anti-war films as "Dr. Strangelove," "Attack," etc.

[Stuart Koehl]

Well, sometimes the guy who makes the movie conveys a message he didn't intend. Take, for instance, "High Noon". Fred Zinneman, the director, and Carl Foreman the screenwriter, apparently intended to make an allegory on the McCarthy era (John Wayne saw it that way), but I don't know anyone who sees it that way today (except, of course, for dogmatic communists and students at film schools); rather, it's viewed as an anti-communist film, with the Miller gang as the Soviets, Will Kane as the reluctant Cold Warrior, lloyd Bridges as the Better Red Than Dead crowd, the townspeople as the cowardly Europeans, and Grace Kelly as pacifistic American Public Opinion forced by circumstance to do the Right Thing.

Patton was intended to be an anti-war movie, but turned out to be one of the great celebrations of martial virtue and a great recruiting film. Part of the problem for liberals, I think, is their antinomian vision of the world, in which black is white, down is up, wrong is right. So despising traditional virtues, they make films that attempt to mock them simply by showing people who honestly believe and embody them, but the public, being simple-minded (in their estimation), does not view these things with the proper irony, but rather take them literally, and so invert the intended meaning.

That's the problem they are having with John McCain and Sarah Palin today--they look at these people and see a pair of fossils (one an admittedly young and comely one), and view their beliefs as retrograde and laughable. But ordinary, NORMAL people don't see it that way--the things liberal loathe they admire, and so attempts to discredit McCain (and especially Palin) simply by putting their beliefs on a platter for the kind of mockery they would generate in the East Village or some faculty lounge, garners the "wrong" response from the general population. This in turn drives liberals into a frenzy, because we are obviously too stupid, too bitter, and too wedded to our guns and religion, to follow the example of our betters.

[Bill R]

"This in turn drives liberals into a frenzy, because we are obviously too stupid, too bitter, and too wedded to our guns and religion, to follow the example of our betters."

Sort of how they react to hearing us claim we are redeemed from our sins by the execution of a Jewish carpenter in Roman Palestine almost 2000 years ago....

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Sort of how they react to hearing us claim we are redeemed from our sins by the execution of a Jewish carpenter in Roman Palestine almost 2000 years ago....<<<

When you think about it, it's either a scandal or a folly, depending on your point of view.

[Rob G]

"Well, sometimes the guy who makes the movie conveys a message he didn't intend."

True enough. Even so, I believe that one can enjoy a film while disagreeing with its message, intended or otherwise. I watched "Bridge on the River Kwai" a few nights back after not having seen it for many years. Although it's an "anti-war" movie, how could a person possibly not enjoy a great film like that?

On the other hand, occasionally a movie is so heavy-handed that its message ruins it.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>On the other hand, occasionally a movie is so heavy-handed that its message ruins it.<<<

Which is why not one big-budget Hollywood movie about Iraq or Afghanistan has made money, ever.

[Rob G]

"Which is why not one big-budget Hollywood movie about Iraq or Afghanistan has made money, ever."

I don't even think the small-budget ones have. Those films just preach to the choir. Although I did read a couple positive reviews by conservatives about "Stop Loss," which I haven't seen.

[margaret]

B words, B tune:

http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/l/l257.html

Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing;
fill our hearts with joy and peace;
let us each thy love possessing,
triumph in redeeming grace.
O refresh us, O refresh us,
traveling through this wilderness.

Thanks we give and adoration
for thy Gospel's joyful sound;
may the fruits of thy salvation
in our hearts and lives abound.
ever faithful, ever faithful,
to the truth may we be found.

So that when thy love shall call us,
Savior, from the world away,
let no fear of death appall us,
glad thy summons to obey.
may we ever, may we ever,
reign with thee in endless day.

[Stuart Koehl]

A tune, A lyrics, A Author

Recessional
by
Rudyard Kipling

God of our fathers, known of old--
Lord of our far-flung battle line
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe--
Such boasting as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the law--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard--
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard--
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord!

[Bobby Winters]

>>Although it's an "anti-war" movie, how could a person possibly not enjoy a great film like that?
<<

Isn't that because we are _all_ antiwar, but realize that sometimes is necessary, and thank God there are those who are willing to make the sacrifice for us?

[Rob G]

"Isn't that because we are _all_ antiwar, but realize that sometimes is necessary, and thank God there are those who are willing to make the sacrifice for us?"

Yes, Bobby, although I posed my question as a more or less rhetorical one...I think you are probably right. My point was that feelings toward great art can transcend one's political, philosophical, and even religious differences. I'm no great fan of the Reformation, but I love Mendelssohn's "Reformation" Symphony, for instance.

[Stuart Koehl]

Apparently Catholics have become big fans of Marty Luther, the composer. Almost every time I have been in an RC church in the past five or six years, I've always heard the organist playing "Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott" at some point in the Mass, while "Nunn Danket Aller Gott" is a favorite processional/recessional.

Of course, when you look at contemporary Catholic hymns, you can see why this is the case.

[labrialumn]

Caedmon's Call is influenced by Kemper Crabb, a guy who definitely likes medieval church and popular music.

Stuart, Luther also prayed to the Baby Jesus, and then there is the Infant of Prague. Maybe Ricky Bobby is in an ancient Tradition.

It is troubling to call the Father "altogether not human" for we are made in His Image and Likeness. Therefore there is at least a sense in which He is not the Wholly Other of the existentialists. And as another pointed out, Jesus said "if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father" We aren't being anthropomorphic, rather we are theomorphic, as it were.

Stuart, I find it odd that you consider (Paul? Jesus Himself?) a rank heretic for telling us to pray to the Father, through the Son. I admit that someone might mistake that as supporting the subordinationism of the Orthodox. ;-)

Stuart, does Kipling's hymn have suggested music? It'd be kinda neat close to Independence Day, though I'm somewhat known for 'strange hymns and carols' already ;-) ((strange as not in the LW).

Chesterton's O God of Earth and Altar, is another good one fit to the times.