Thoughts on the third knives out movie? I’ve heard Christians refer to it as anything from horribly disrespectful verging on blasphemous to genuinely meaningful and respectful outsider art.
And I’ll admit, I disagree - vehemently - with basically your entire worldview, but I find it fascinating enough to study, since you’ll usually elaborate your reasons for feeling any particular way about something.
I usually will, but this movie I haven’t seen.
The first Knives Out was a really well-made movie with the message “Doesn’t Matter if You Break the Rules if You’re Fundamentally a Good Person.” Which…is nonsensical. If the rules are based in goodness, and you’re a good person, you’ll follow them. If people are not fundamentally good, then that’s why we have rules. But it was entertaining and well-made, so I enjoyed it even though I felt a fistful of “Immigrants Should Be Allowed to Come in Illegally and Anyone Who Thinks Otherwise is Racist” getting crammed down my throat.
The second Knives Out was a much, much less well-made movie that preferred shock and awe and twists to good characterizations or storytelling, and it did the tired old “the elite are all always either evil through-and-through or stupid or turned-evil-by-societal-pressure-if-they’re-Women/POCs.” And the fist getting crammed down the throat this time was “It’s Okay to Riot and Be Violent; The Ends Justify the Means if You’re Oppressed.” Which, again, same fundamental worldview issue—there’s such a thing as Real Good and Real Evil. The people who oppress other people started doing so from the starting line: “The Ends Justify the Means.” And you think you’re gonna fix that way of thinking by fighting fire with fire? No. Fast forward 500 years and the Oppressed People will be Oppressors because they started from a place where anything they do is justified because at one point in history something bad happened to them. Or worse. They’ll just keep identifying as “oppressed” and they’ve made their own brain-prison.
So after enjoying the first movie but acknowledging that it’s not doing anything good for the world, then barely being able to sit through the second as it regurgitates a message that’s bad for the world…no, I’m not interested in what it has to say about my God.
Like I want to hear what Knives Out has to say about my faith.
I’m sure it goes the James Gunn route.
The “hey man, you know what’s really punk rock? Being nice to people. Just being decent, man.” The “everybody, even the $&!$king freaks, even the screw-ups, the mistakes—everybody gets into heaven. That’s what God’s all about—he made humans, that’s what it means to be human, to be messed up, and everybody gets in. And me? I’m gonna do my best and save people where I can, bro”
I call it Rocket Raccoon Religion. You could call it Superman25-Spirituality if you want.
Punnnnk rock, “I’m pro Jesus but I’m anti-organized-religion, Jesus is my #$!&ing homeboy, man”
I’m sure it edges toward that. Probably has a corrupt version of the church or someone representing the church who isn’t above-board morally, they’re actually doing messed-up stuff to people or being tempted to use the cloth for corruption or whatever. The priest might not be the murderer—Riann Johnson was at least a little more subtle than that, last movie of his I saw—but the priest probably like, was an accessory to the crime or could’ve stopped it or something. I’m sure Christians like it because that priest does or says something in a moment of purity or compassion where Christians can go, “yeah, that’s what we’re supposed to be like!” but if they pay attention, that whole “that’s what we’re supposed to be like” part of the movie is probably just a moment in a character who’s otherwise a dupe or a corrupt almost-villain.
I could be wrong. I haven’t seen it. But religious people tend to like it when they see a glimpse of hardcore-passionate-purity in an otherwise dark story told by an unbeliever. That doesn’t mean the unbeliever understands the whole picture.
But if what I just guessed at, above, is the thing he’s saying about Christianity—like James Gunn’s thing about Christianity—it’s still a counterfeit. Jesus said love one another—but the way He did was to tell people to strap on their electric chair, fry who they used to be, and become like Him. He called “loving others” demanding that they kill their old selves and live a life of changing, transforming. And if they won’t do that, Jesus said they had chosen their own eternal punishment. But nobody likes that part. So they go “down with exclusive organized religion and the judgy Christians! Just stick to the love part!”
In summary:
It’s probably Riann Johnson saying, “here’s the problem I have with religion and here’s what I like about it,” in a character/plot point.
And honestly, I’m not interested.
You vehemently disagree with my worldview, but it fascinates you to hear me talk about it anyway. I’m not like that, and I don’t see the sense in being like that unless you don’t know what’s true. C.S. Lewis wrote that there’s always a million answers until you know which one is right.
I’d rather be fascinated by the real thing (whatever is true reality) than be fascinated by everybody’s counterfeits. Knives Out 1 and 2 proved to me that the director believes a counterfeit and he (naturally, like all of us) can’t keep what he believes out of what he says.
So I’ve lost interest. He can catch my interest if he starts talking about reality. I’d love to see reality from his perspective if he ever gets back to that.
