When i think about the reasons i loved this movie so much, i've realized that the reasons i loved this movie are completely routed in the empire.
This movie is about finding "love" and transcending social groups within a high school setting. It's the typical hollywood love story. Filled with bullies, mean girls, and cheesy lines about finding true love. I think it gives a false portrayal about what it means about human purpose. These kind of chick flick movies are what lead teenage girls to believe that being beautiful, popular, and having the most handsome, popular guy as a boyfriend is what gives meaning to life, and is what will help them achieve true happiness.
It sucks us deeper into the empires deception of true happiness. The Empire convinces us that finding love, getting into a good college, being independent, and taking a stand are the perfect formula for happiness. The Empire teaches us that everything will always turn out happy. There are always happy endings. And we find these happy endings through the empire. The Empire will show us how our life should be, and it will teach us how to attain that life by becoming popular, beautiful, and by getting that guy that everyone else wants.
In the world of a Cinderella story, the main character Sam, faces all kinds of "evil" in terms of the Empire. She has a step-mother and step-sisters who order her around, treat her like a slave, and keep her from any sort of life. This is on top of the stereo-typical mean high school cheerleaders and popular guys. And it is their interference that is keeping Sam and the object of her affection, Austin, apart. The empire deceives us into believing that is always someone else's fault that things are not working out for us. Sam and Austin experience conflict with each other because all kinds of other outside sources. It has nothing to do with the fact that they do not communicate or hardly know a thing about each other.
The redemption in this story is when Sam goes to Austin and basically yells at him telling him "I want to be myself, I am okay with myself", and after taking some time Austin walks off the field of his biggest football game of the season to tell Sam exactly how he feels about us. I think that a comment made by my friend Rachael captures exactly what the Empire wants us to get from this movie "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed at the climax of this movie, when Austin kisses Sam, "I just love this part! I wish a guy would walk off the field for me and kiss me in the rain!"
However, i think this movie has redeemable qualities for the Kingdom as well. Even though it is done in stereotypical teen movie fashion, it teaches a lesson about being yourself. I think its a good thing to learn to be satisfied with the person God created you to be and to love yourself. Sam is unable to find happiness before she is happy with who she is. I think this is true to life. Until you come to terms with the person God created you to be, you can't really be happy or know love. I think it also teaches a good lesson about overcoming adversity, Sam overcomes the evils in her life just as the kingdom can help us overcome adversities in ours.
This movie is probably not the best example of finding the kingdom within the empire. It is probably a really good representation of the empire and what the empire wants us to believe about life. I think it adds a lot to teen insecurities and has a lot more a negative influence than a positive one, and i think this class has helped me see that a little more.
Good post, Kristin! The thing about culture is that any particular artifact is bound to have qualities of both the Kingdom and the empire woven through it; discernment is the process of sorting between the two. You do a great job of analyzing this film with an eye toward that reality.
ReplyDeleteA Cinderella Story is one of my favorite movies and now thinking about it in light of the class is a bit different. The one thing that sticks out to me is the rain that finally comes at the end of the movie, ending a drought. The people of the California city had waited months for the rain to come and it finally does. I suppose that from a Kingdom perspective, the rain can symbolize the fact that God will provide for us and fulfill His plans only according to His timing. It just reminds us of our need to be patient with God and know that we will not always receive things according to our desires; things will not always go as we planned. I am also reminded of what we read in Engaging God’s World. Plantinga explains that we must have virtues to fulfill our vocation. He goes on to say that “patience, the readiness to absorb irritants without letting them paralyze us,” is a key virtue that we all must learn.
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