Thoughts on an old movie

I watched "Dragonwyck" (1946), with Gene Tierney and Vincent Price for the first time yesterday. I am surprised sometimes watching old movies when they address the existence of God so directly, as it seems to be avoided at all costs in Hollywood now-days. Especially as it is handled in this movie, with the protagonist taking the intolerant viewpoint that there is right and wrong and a God who is the ultimate judge. The main character Miranda (played by Gene Tierney) - a likable, steady, relatable middle-class girl - was ever referring to how everything happened by God's will and how people were made to know right from wrong. Her husband Nicolas (played by Vincent Price, the typecast villain) - wealthy, pompous, and dark - was a law unto himself and declared that he wouldn't live by a list of rules.

In the scene that caught my attention, Miranda is feeling guilty for marrying Nicholas so soon after his first wife died, and she is trying to talk about it with him, but he doesn't share her scruples. Here's part of the dialogue:

Miranda: Well, I believe that God has put a sense of right and wrong within all of us. And that when we are doing wrong, no matter if no one else knows, we do.

Nicolas: And you've remembered that ever since your Sunday school days, haven't you? That's a good girl.
Now, let us enjoy our lunch.

Miranda: Nicolas, you do believe in God...?

Nicolas: I believe in myself and I am answerable to myself. I will not live according to printed mottos like the directions on a medicine bottle.

(Watch it on YouTube. Starts at about 3:40.)

Later on, there is a conversation between the two where he talks about how he wants to live, to really live, and not merely follow the routine of normal life (this explanation with which he justifies his drug usage, but that aside). Here's what he says:

"...By ordinary standards, you're quite intelligent. But I will not live by ordinary standards. I will not run with the pack. I will not be chained into a routine of living which is the same for others. I will not look to the ground and move on the ground with the rest."

(Again, on YouTube. Beginning at about 2:13.)

And I thought how often we fall into the routine of "Christian life," missing out on truly living. It is much easier to be religious, to have a set list of duties to perform and services to attend, than to live a full, challenging, day-to-day-changing, not-in-our-control life. And all this made me think of an article my mom shared with me (The Demographics of Irrelevance) about the dire need for churches to preach and teach a comprehensive Christian worldview, how there are fewer men in church because it doesn't offer a full, challenging, inspiring view of life as a Christian.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Why would a young man stay in the church? Is there a “male” message in our churches today? Is there a message that gives a young man a worthy cause to work for and to fight for? Why would he stay, to listen all his life to the same sermon over and over again, in many different versions of it? Come back every Sunday to learn—for the n-th time, over and over again—that God loves us? Shed tears over the same emotional stuff every week?
...

This hasn’t always been the case. Two or three centuries ago . . . the American church had a message of victory, a message that this country was a City on a Hill, and by its example God would change the world for Christ. Whether they were rafters and cowboys in the wilderness, or store clerks and builders in the cities of the East, Christian boys heard the same message from their preachers: “We are a nation created by God to be Christian and to exhibit God’s glory. We have a Manifest Destiny to create a godly society that will be admired and imitated by the nations of the world. Christ has established His Kingdom on this earth centuries ago, and everything you do—your job, your family, your entertainment even—is expanding the Kingdom of Christ on this earth.” Pastors preached the civil liberties of the Law of God and then donned the uniform to lead the boys in battle for those liberties. . . . The churches did not wait for their boys to go out and find worthy causes. The churches led the boys in those worthy causes in their crusade to redeem the world for Christ.

I love that phrase, "to redeem the world for Christ." That is indeed a worthy challenge and something that cannot be accomplished merely by attending church every Sunday.

Granted, there is no gospel presented in "Dragonwyck," no mention that it is not the rules that make up true belief in God, but the relationship with and response to our Creator God. But I appreciated Miranda's firm stance, at any rate. And, if you like old movies, I would highly recommend this one! Very dramatic and suspenseful! :) And, of course, there's Gene Tierney!