The Last of the Mohicans

So, I guess I am taking personal requests now. I was on the phone with my brother Joe and he asked me to review Last of the Mohicans. I said sure with out knowing how difficult it would be just to get the movie; 3 libraries and 45 minutes later I finally got my hands on it, besides who wants to watch the BBC version?!

Over all I thought the movie was ok. It was like watching Braveheart and the Patriot with less violence. I thought Inglorious Basterds was the first movie that showed an actual scalping but I was wrong. If you sneak a peak at this movie, you will get to witness a scalping, whoo hooo!

Daniel Day Lewis plays Hawkeye, a fur trapper who ends up helping a British Officer transport the daughters of a General to reunite them during the French and Indian War. (Why is called the French and Indian war when they both lost?) Of course, a love story develops between the eldest daughter and Hawkeye as well as a more subtle love story between the youngest daughter and Hawkeye's brother. There are some great battle scenes and beautiful scenery of the early Adirondack Days. You thought Albany is a small city today, wait until you see it in 1757. You also follow another Indian who is out seeking revenge on Colonel Munro due to the death of his family. Overall it is a pretty good film, if you liked the Patriot or Braveheart, you will definitely like watching The Last of the Mohicans. You can check out the trailer under the trailers page.

Besides the obvious love story and the sacrifices one might make for one's true love, I wanted to focus on a more subtle subject and that is the subject of Adoption. Hawkeye was adopted by a Mohican fur trapper and you could tell that Hawkeye had completely assimilated into his new surrounding.

As followers of Christ, we are adopted as sons and daughters into the Family of God. We are accepted as we are in our imperfections. When I think of those who are adopted, it is usually under rough circumstances, un-planned pregnancy, unable to provide a stable home, unable to provide general necessities, or possibly the parent feels they are incapable to raise the child as they should. I can only imagine how those circumstances affect the adopted child as they grow up under the knowledge of their adoption; feelings of abandonment, rejection, crisis with identity, anger, hopelessness, and fear. No matter what our family situation is, God is our only True Father. He does not abandon, he does not abuse, he does not disappoint, he does not lie, he does not let us down. Even I have to realize that I will let my own children down and bring disappointment in their lives but I pray that they will one day know Jesus and call him Abba Father. No matter how far we have walked away, Christ waits with open arms. No amount of shame or fear can keep us from Christ, we just have to confess our sin and ask for forgiveness found in Christ alone.

What is so precious about Precious !?

Wow! What an insane movie! Based on the novel PUSH, director Lee Daniels deals with some deep and dark stuff, including rape, incest, mental and physical abuse, illiteracy, teen pregnancy, and even Mongoloids.

If you haven't seen it, watch it! But beware, it is a tough movie to watch. Gabourey Sidibe gets an A+++ on her acting as Precious along with Mo'nique who played her mother. You will find other treats like Mariah Carrey playing a Social Worker and Lenny Kravitz playing a kind, male nurse.

I think everybody has a good idea of what the film is about so I will give a brief summary and then get into some controversial issues brought up in the movie.

So Precious, you find out early is pregnant again and the father is her father!! What the heck?! You fall in love with her character from the beginning, you feel deep sorrow for her hell she lives through and yet you also appreciate her optimism and dreams for a very different life. Precious wants to pursue her education and her dead beat mom just wants her to go down and start collecting "the welfare." Precious faces ridicule and constant dehumanization from her family and the streets. Precious makes some real tough choices, one including keeping her 2nd baby that was conceived by incestual rape and the other one to stay in school at the fear of physical, violent retribution by her own mom.

At the end of the movie, I was left with a glimmer of hope that Precious might just make it, because Precious, even though a fictional character, embodies the hell and fear that many kids live through today.

What blew my mind was the treatment of the incestual rape of precious. You see flashbacks of precious that include the rape, multiple beatings, and constant psychological abuse. To think a girl has to go through that is horrible, but it happens and it happens even today. It was reported that 7 out of 10 women face some kind of sexual abuse and that is only out of the ones reported! Watching this and I think how evil humans can be and that Satan walks around like a lion looking for anyone to devour. And the thing about sin is it likes to hide in the dark and uses fear to stay hidden. Sin will do anything to keep out of the light. In the movie, Precious' mom kept her in the house except for school and used violence and fear to keep her quiet, and what secret did her mom want to keep hidden? That she is getting undeserved welfare. The house was always dark and it was only Precious and her mom. When a teacher buzzed to talk to Precious, her mom later beat her because she didn't want any "white $%^&" coming around the house. Sin enslaves you by keeping you in the dark and crippled with fear.

The last issue I want to discuss is the issue of homosexuality. One teacher that really showed her love happened to be a lesbian. Now, this was based on a novel and probably was put there on purpose, but as Precious said, "The homos didn't beat me...they didn't rape me..." This got me thinking about love. Rejects usually accept others that are rejected, because they know what its like to be hurt and cast away. I am thinking these are the kinds of people that Christ would have hung out with. In Matthew, "¹²On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

When some of us think of sexuality, we think homosexuality bad, heterosexuality good, and even God talks about homosexuality being an abomination. He also talks about lust, looking at another's spouse, marrying a divorced women, and other heterosexual acts as sin. Is one greater than the other? Will God judge homosexuals any different than heterosexuals? When it comes down to it, it come to this, Is Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour? Is my name written in the Book of Life? Do I as a Christ follower love homosexuals less, by no means.

Matthew 25:37-46 (New International Version)

³⁷"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

⁴¹"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

⁴⁴"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

⁴⁵"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

⁴⁶"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Ultimately, we, followers of Christ are called to love the Least of These, no matter who they are.