"In spiritual matters there really is no 'Third World.' It's all Third World."
- Dallas Willard
Monday, September 29, 2008
I am starting a series on love, relationships, and the gospel this week at Element, and I'm looking for some good film clip ideas to use in the services.
Any help?
I'm looking for things that are relatively short, somewhat "dramatic" (although comedic is okay), and that somehow illustrate (in the context of relationships, although not necessarily romantic relationships) sin, grace or gracelessness, forgiveness or unforgiveness, and/or restoration and reconciliation.
As an example, we have used in the past the clip from "Friends" where Ross reveals to Rachel he cheated on her and begs for forgiveness, with her saying it's over because she can't ever look at him the same way.
We also used an argument scene from "The Break Up."
So please recommend some clips in the comments. Everything helps, even if it just reminds me of something else.
(And please, no lectures about movie clips in church or whatever.)
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Comments on "Movie Clip Recommendations":
2. Bill
- 09/29/2008 8:36 am CDT
How about that scene from Braveheart where William Wallace shouts "They can take our lives, but they'll never take . . . OUR FREEDDDDDDOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!"
3. Quaid
- 09/29/2008 8:40 am CDT
LOL.
Is there anything in Forrest Gump? Doesn't he take back Jenny a hundred times? There has to be a scene in there somewhere.
Also, I can't remember the exact dialogue, but the last scene in The Graduate might have something along the lines of what you're looking for.
Lastly, I offer Wayne's World where Wayne goes to Cassandra's video shoot and tries to apologize and ends up making a fool of himself. (AND I NEVER LEARNED HOW TO READ) - It's also the movie's gratuitous Oscar Clip.
4. Bill
- 09/29/2008 8:45 am CDT
I love this scene from Unbreakable. Absolutely fantastic
(note: got this here)
MEGAN(whisper)
I've come to a decision.
DAVID(whisper)
Oh.
Beat.
MEGAN(whisper)
Let me just ask you
something okay? And you can
be totally honest. I'm
prepared for any answer. It
won't affect me...
David nods, "yes."
MEGAN(whisper)
Have you been with anyone?
Since we started having
problems? The answer won't
affect me.
Beat. David stares at his wife.
MEGAN(whisper)
It won't affect me either
way.
Beat. David doesn't say anything. He just nods, "No."
Megan's face starts to tremble. She starts crying. Tears roll over her very
affected face. She tries to wipe them away, but there's too many. Beat.
MEGAN(soft)
...My decision is... I'd
like to start again. Pretend
we're at the beginning.
(beat)
It's a big deal you walked
away from that train. It's
a second chance.
(beat)
If you want to ask me out
sometime, that would be
okay.
Megan nods and walks down the stairs as she wipes her face. David watches her
disappear into the shadows.
5. Bill
- 09/29/2008 8:47 am CDT
side note: it's not too much of a stretch to say that that scene absolutely made that movie for me.
7. Jared
- 09/29/2008 9:15 am CDT
Braveheart clips and church relevancy are like peanut butter and chocolate!
---
Bill, that Unbreakable scene is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Awesome. I've got that on DVD so I'm gonna check it out.
More like that, everybody, please. :-)
---
Not sure about The Notebook. I think even our ladies think it too sappy.
Plus, a movie about cheating on your fiancee with the "bad boy" isn't exactly where I'm going with the series. :-)
9. Linda Gilmore
- 09/29/2008 9:55 am CDT
How about a scene from About a Boy? There's several places that illustrate how much people need each other, but I'm thinking of the end scene, where the narration is the main character saying that some men are island chains. It's a good movie and that's a great scene (even if it completely different than the book).
11. Melanie Glenn
- 09/29/2008 10:33 am CDT
Les Miserables (the 90's version with Leam Neeson and Uma Thurman) is full of beautiful examples of undeserved grace and forgiveness. One example: the scene in which the main character, Jean Valjean, has been brought by police before a bishop and his wife. After a night of staying in their home while on the run, he is accused -and guilty of- of taking their silver. Showing mercy on Jean Valjean, the bishop tells the police he has not done anything of the sort by denying that his silver was stolen, thus keeping him from being re-arrested and taken back to prison.
The quote:
Bishop: Now don't forget, Don't ever forget. You've promised to become a new man.
Jean Valjean: Promise? Wha, why are you doing this?
Bishop: Jean Valjean my brother you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I have bought your soul. I've ransomed you from fear and hatred, and now I give you back to God.
12. Karl
- 09/29/2008 11:16 am CDT
Melanie beat me to it w/ Les Miserables. I second her motion.
The scene that she mentions, where Jean Valjean the thief is ransomed for God is powerful in itself, but even more so when paired with/followed by the scene later in the movie where Valjean, now mayor of a town, acts as protector to Uma Thurman's Fontaine and stands up to her accuser inspector Javert. When they are alone she offers herself to him in payment and he declines; she asks why he would do such a thing for her when she is a whore and her child has no father, and his reply speaks powerfully of grace.
13. Karl
- 09/29/2008 11:20 am CDT
Forgot to mention in Les Miserables, that inspector Javert is the epitome of gracelessness and unforgiveness. The scene with Valjean defending Fontaine to him juxtaposes the two attitudes very well.
Not in any of those scenes, but at the end of the movie, Javert so can not bear the grace offered to him that he chooses death rather than accept it. Yet another powerful picture.
14. jen
- 09/29/2008 12:40 pm CDT
This may sound silly, but I just rewatched Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore and a couple of scenes might work for you.
The first is when Hugh and Drew get into an argument about the song they wrote and he berates her for wanting to keep the integrity of the song by berating her personally.
Then at the end, he sings a song he wrote that basically asks for forgiveness and expresses his deeper feelings for her.
15. British Nathan
- 09/29/2008 2:51 pm CDT
Pretty near the end of An Ideal Husband, with Rupert Everett and Cate Blanchett, there's a beautiful moment where the wife of the main protagonist, who's always rather put him on a pedestal, has just found out about some rather shady dealings in his past, and Rupert Everett's character says something like, "You have set him too high; do not now set him too low," and talks explicitly about forgiveness and... well I can't remember the details; it was a while ago that I saw it. Very good, anyway.
My housemate has just walked past my computer and reminded me that there is an entire film called "Amazing Grace" about John Newton and William Wilberforce. There's got to be some grace in that.
16. Lee Anne Millinger
- 09/29/2008 3:15 pm CDT
The scene from "Ordinary People" in the dining room between Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland. Gracelessness and unforgiveness.
18. Lauren
- 09/29/2008 5:00 pm CDT
I always thought the bit from Star Wars Revenge of the Sith where Anakin (now Darth Vader) is burning in the lava but still trying to kill that other Jedi-guy (the one who was his mentor) as a good depiction of how sinful creatures hate God and even while they burn and would rather burn than to repent and ask for help out of the mire.
19. Jack
- 09/29/2008 6:27 pm CDT
Hello -- new reader here, linked over to your great blog from some of Hunter Baker's posts.
Here's a suggestion from Jerry McGuire:
Too sappy?
20. Les
- 09/29/2008 6:44 pm CDT
Back to that Forest Gump suggestion. A lot led up to the scene on the steps where Forest looks back at Jennie and says, "I am not a smart man... but I know what love is," but that line, in that timing, does it to me.
23. Jared
- 09/29/2008 11:44 pm CDT
REQUEST to all:
If you're recommending a scene, please share details. What happens, what is said. Direct quotes if you can remember them.
I won't have the time or the money to rent every movie mentioned to search for the scenes referenced, so getting good details as to what happens will help me better determine if it's a film I should check out.
Thanks!
And keep 'em coming!
24. Lee Anne Millinger
- 09/30/2008 7:04 am CDT
I'll do my best.
Actually, the whole movie "Ordinary People" is about forgiveness or the lack thereof. It's about how a wife (Mary Tyler Moore), husband (Donald Sutherland) and son (Timothy Hutton) deal with the accidental death of the older son.
In this scene, near the end of the movie, Beth (MTM) wakes up to find Calvin (DS) weeping in their dining room.
Beth Jarrett: Calvin? Why are you crying? Can I, uh... can I get you something?
Calvin "Cal" Jarrett: I don't...
Beth Jarrett: What did you say? Calvin, what did you say? Tell me!
Calvin "Cal" Jarrett: You are beautiful. And you are unpredictable. But you're so cautious. You're determined, Beth; but you know something? You're not strong. And I don't know if you're really giving. Tell me something. Do you love me? You really love me?
Beth Jarrett: I feel the way I've always felt about you.
Calvin "Cal" Jarrett: We would have been all right if there hadn't been any mess. But you can't handle mess. You need everything neat and easy. I don't know. Maybe you can't love anybody. It was so much Buck. When Buck died, it was like you buried all your love with him, and I don't understand that, I just don't know, I don't... maybe it wasn't even Buck; maybe it was just you. Maybe, finally, it was the best of you that you buried. But whatever it was... I don't know who you are. I don't know what we've been playing at. So I was crying. Because I don't know if I love you any more. And I don't know what I'm going to do without that.
As Calvin does most of the talking here, you see Beth react ... and for the most part, her face is impassive. Until he says he doesn't know if he loves her. Then a shadow of something like feeling.
Without breaking a step, she goes upstairs, takes her suitcase out of the closet and begins to pack. At this time, only when she is alone, does she allow herself to show how really broken she feels about losing Cal's love.
26. Tom Goodman
- 09/30/2008 8:57 am CDT
The Notebook? (shudder) (And that's what every dude will do in your church, too)
I suggest "A Beautiful Mind." Several scenes:
Here's one:
Alicia: How big is the universe?
Nash: Infinite.
Alicia: How do you know?
Nash: I know because all the data indicates it's infinite.
Alicia: But it hasn't been proven yet.
Nash: No.
Alicia: You haven't seen it.
Nash: No.
Alicia: How do you know for sure?
Nash: I don't, I just believe it.
Alicia: It's the same with love I guess.
Closing scene:
Nash: [to Alicia] What truly is logic, who decides reason? My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional, and back. And I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life. It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logical reasons can be found. I am only here tonight because of you. You are all I am. You are all my reasons.
The most beautiful scene is in the middle, though I don't have the exact wording. Alicia is asked by a friend how she's coping with John's mental breakdown. She says something like, "Of course I want to give up, but then I remember the man I fell in love with, and I see the man he can become." I've used this quote in a sermon, but it was a long time back.
28. Linda Gilmore
- 09/30/2008 11:16 am CDT
Here's another scene from About a Boy, and I think I remember it well enough to be more specific. In the movie the boy, Marcus, lives with his mom, and fairly early in the story she attempts suicide. There's a scene then after she comes home from the hospital and she and Marcus are talking about it. Marcus expresses some concern about her mental health and she says she's fine for now and doesn't anticipate not feeling fine for some time. But Marcus asks, "What about later, what about next week?" She says something to the effect that they can get through anything because they have each other. They're a team. And then Marcus thinks to himself "But two isn't enough. You need more than two, you need backup." And that sets Marcus on his quest to enlist Will (Hugh Grant's character) as their 'backup.'
Another good scene option might be to contrast the beginning, where Will is talking about being an island, and then the end, where he has realized that some people are island chains (about as close as he can get to admitting he needs other people, but you see it as progress).
Over all, it's a good movie about people needing each other and helping each other through difficult times. And it's funny.
29. Shrode
- 10/01/2008 12:36 pm CDT
OH YEAH!!!! Now I remember:
The Lion, THe Witch and the Wardrobe:
The scene where Aslan presents Edmund back to his siblings at camp after he had betrayed them. He apologizes. The girls welcome him back with open arms and hugs. I remember noting that the physical way that the girls express forgiveness was very different from the way that Peter expressed forgiveness, but it was forgiveness just the same.
I love the movie scenes where one man forgives another man, not with words, but with facial expressions, and slight physical gestures, usually allowing the forgiven one to come join the forgiving one in some task like fishing or working with tools.
I wish I could remember some more specifics. Aaaargh.
Leave a Comment:
Maybe the Princess Bride clip where Westley (as the Dread Pirate Roberts) quizzes Buttercup whether about how quickly her love for the farm boy dissolved after his departure.
They discover each other and roll down the hill.
I asked my wife and the answer went like this:
Her: Helloooooo. The Notebook.
Me: Can you be more specific?
Her: Uhhh. The whole movie.
So - for what that's worth.