I have to admit at first I didn't really get it. As I was watching the movie I kept waiting for Sonny, the main character, to get REALLY mad at God. Even more than he was before he left town and the neighbors started complaining.
But the whole time he just didn't shut up about Jesus. And at first I think I misinterpreted that to mean that he was evangelizing for himself...any maybe he was. ;)
But one of the things we talked about after the movie was done was how God can still use even we are so flawed just like Sonny was. The parable of the Wheat and the Weeds even came to mind. How the farmer was reluctant to pick out the weeds when they were so intertwined with the wheat because he didn't want to hurt the wheat.
And that was the same thing with Sonny. He did have an ego problem but yet that might have somehow helped fuel his passion for preaching.
Even though he was flawed he did have a huge heart for God. Tried to make himself right by re-babtizing himself but couldn't stay perfect.
And that was okay because God still used Him. That to me was the most encouraging part of the film, seeing a man that had some really bad problems, I mean he killed somebody!, but God could still take that part of Sonny that was fully devoted and bring to prosper. Kinda reminds of another parable. "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' at it would move. Nothing would be impossible."
I'm going to be a "good reader" and watch The Apostle again sometime!
I'd agree with Rachel; I really wasn't expecting this movie to be how it was and maybe that's part of the reson why it was sometimes difficult to discern; I'm not used to seeing a kind of movie that isn't so easily defined( for instance, my roommate asked if it was a drama, a comedy, etc., and I really don't know what category it falls under; it's not as predicatable as other films.) I think it was easy to sometimes misinterpret some of Sonny's evangelizing as doing it simply out of his own self-preservation (for instance, when he converted Billy Bob Thorton, I'd thought that he did it mostly out of fear that he was going to escalate the situation and bring the cops, which could expose him).I do plan to see it again as well, and maybe I can veiw it as a "better reader" the second (or maybe even Third) time around.
ReplyDeleteThis is a movie that only gets better with age. Leaving room to go back and reconsider a film is exactly what good reading is about.
ReplyDeleteBtw Rachel, your observation about the " wheat and the tares" perfectly captured Sonny and is a brand new clue for in coming to terms with this film. Thanks for sharing it!
Interesting comment that maybe Sonny was partially preaching to himself. I know that at times it becomes really easy to do that when one touches on topics meanful to her or herself.
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