Yesterday I preached on hope. As I prepared the message, I wondered about how hopeless the average person in our culture feels these days.
On Friday night, Barb and I watched a recommended film Confessions of a Dangerous mind. It is about Chuck Barris, the creator and producer of such stellar TV accomplishments as The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show. He was a pioneer and ahead of his time, and he was nuts. He was persuaded that he was also a CIA hit-man. Hmmm.
The film ends with the real Chuck Barris speaking to the camera, presumably speaking his own words. Here is the script, from the screenwriter’s web site.
The actual Barris is being interviewed.
ACTUAL BARRIS
Y’know, I came up with a new game show idea recently. It’s called The Old Game. You got three old guys with loaded guns on stage. They look back at their lives, see who they were, what they accomplished, how close they came to realizing their dreams. The winner is the one who doesn’t blow his brains out. He gets a refrigerator.
The camera holds on Barris’s face as he puffs a cigar.
BLACK.
THE END
If this is a reflection of the hopelessness that some men feel at the end of their lives (and I think it is), then the need for gospel hope is apparent.
MagistraCarminae
Well, looking at the list of screenplays from the author, he has written two of the movies I most hated in recent years, and do NOT recommend to anyone…”Being John Malcovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. Am I missing something in my movie viewing? Hmm…
Randy Greenwald
I know several people who liked “Eternal Sunshine.” Can we ever really erase our past? Should we want to? Intriguing questions. Anyway, I don’t watch movies to have my own world view verified. I watch to understand what and how others think — and to glorify God in the gifts he has given even to those who rail against him.
MagistraCarminae
See my post on Confessions of a movie goer…