You know sometimes I go to see a movie with these reviews in mind
I think oh that movie probably left some cool religious themes, but I'll confess
I went to John Krasinski's a quiet place without any expectation of doing a religious commentary
I just thought it would be a fun night the movies it got very good reviews
I kind of liked thrillers, but I didn't expect anything really of a religious nature, and I must say I was just delightfully
Surprised by what I found. I don't claim. I can find some golden thread that draws all this together into a very coherent. You know
religious
Message but I think it's hard to deny. There are a lot of religious elements in this rather extraordinary movie
The the plot is laid out very deftly at the beginning of the movie
There's this plague of devouring creatures. That's descended upon the earth and it appears
They've they've killed off almost everybody where they came from we don't know which I kind of like in thrillers
It doesn't over explain things was it an alien invasion of some kind who knows but there are these
Awful creatures and though they're blind
They are extremely acute of hearing and so human beings have figured out if you're gonna survive
They have to remain
Silent and so the movie opens we see this this young family. This is a young couple, and they're three of young kids
And they're making their way through
Beautiful, but very dangerous open country because they're exposed to these creatures, and they're maintaining a very strict silence
But then their youngest child their boy
Has a little toy rocket, and he sort of inadvertently hits the switch, and this little noise comes out and the father
Panics you could see but then before he can get to his son boom
He's been devoured by one of these creatures so the movie gets our attention right away like what's at stake here?
At this point I think it was through a sign in the mailbox
We discover the name of the family, and I don't think I could this is the least bit accidental
they're called the Abbott's the Abbott family because I say that's not XML because
When we see their home, and how they're living
It is for all the world a monastery. Here's this family living basically in
silence almost like in a Trappist
Silence they speak as the Trappist do in sign language to each other
They engage in quiet work with books so the kids are studying
They do farming, but of course there can't be any sounds. There's no machinery or
Implementation or anything metallic it's all done quietly in a kind of pre-modern way
To get their food they fish
But again in pre-modern of style they even creep around the monastery
Barefoot because they can't be making any sound they're a bit like the Discalced
Carmelites, you know who are not wearing shoes
And maybe the most startling thing it's a scene that I must say
Really got my attention because it's so rare in a Hollywood movie
Very quietly they gather around the table for their evening meal and they join hands and they pray a silent grace
So what do we see well we see this?
Abbot and abbess the mother and father who are basically running a monastery a place of silence of
Quiet work at books and in the field
and and of Prayer
Well, what strikes me is in these more thoughtful kind of thriller movies the the beasts or the monsters you know?
represent usually our primal
fears so our own fear of failure our own fear of our inner darkness our fear of
sickness of
The death of loved ones of our own death right so the monsters
Symbolize usually all these things that were afraid of in a primal way. Well the first move of this movie
I think is to say the way to keep the beasts at bay is a return to
a monastic life of simplicity
Prayer and
Care for each other it's very clear that this family in a moral sense of the term even as they're in great danger
That morally speaking they're flourishing meaning that they are in a very generous way caring for each other so
Is this the style of life, but in fact it's keeping the the powers at bay. I think is a really interesting thing
Okay, the plot thickens when we realize and again. It's just very it's not
Trumpeted, it's just in a very kind of quiet way. We realized that the mother the Abbess of this monastery is
pregnant and
we think oh my gosh how in the world is this family going to survive the birth of a newborn a
Howling crying newborn in fact won't the birth of this child?
Amount to their to their death, I mean they're all going to be exposed if this child is allowed to be born
But yet they are making elaborate preparations both. I would say psychological spiritual and practical
To bring this child into an extremely hostile environment
Now I couldn't help, but think of the situation in our culture where you know abortion on demand is
legally protected
Partial birth abortion a child coming out of the birth canal can be killed
Even a child who by some miracle survives an abortion procedure can can be killed under the protection of the law
When so many people say some version of or how could I bring a child into such a terrible world?
I don't know without trumpeting this view. I think this movie presents a pretty radical
pro-life position
As this family is willing to welcome life in a very generous way in the most
hostile and difficult of circumstances
Now I'm not gonna go into all the all the plot twists and so on in the movie. Let me just highlight a couple things
when the baby's coming the mother happens to be alone in the house and
As the babies come into the world one of these awful creatures has made its way into
Them into the space and has come up the stairs to where she is and the mother is desperately trying to maintain our own
Silence as the baby comes into the world to keep the baby quiet
Well as this as this my is waiting to devour the child
I couldn't help but think of that great scene in the book of Revelation when the the
Woman laboring to give birth as the dragon is about to devour the child
But then in the book of Revelation the mother and child are whisked away
In this movie the the monster is is is whisked away
The other two children find themselves at a point in the movie in grave danger there outside the house and
They they are trapped in an abandoned car and one of these creatures
Reminded me of a Jurassic Park is in fact the movie quotes a lot of horror movies in many ways
But here is that this beast is kind of clawing at the car
Like in that awful t-rex scene from you know the first Jurassic Park
There they are the father sees the situation he realizes that that he can't save them unless unless
he cries out and
Draws the creature to himself and away from his children
And so he catches the eye of his daughter through the window of a car, and he mouths the words
I love you to her and then he
Screams he shouts and of course the Beast comes
devours him well
Anybody who is sensitive to the Christian theological tradition?
Recognizes this kind of move as what the Church Fathers called the Christus Victor
Move that means Christ the victor, I Christ the the conqueror
How's it work?
Jesus as it were drew the dark powers to himself
and in the process
Liberated those whom the dark powers had controlled now the Church Fathers will play with that image in different ways, but the idea is
And watch my video on Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino to see another
Variation of this theme by drawing the powers to himself in a self sacrificial way
He liberate those who are in thrall to the powers so this beautifully?
exemplifies the Christus Victor of theory
Okay, much more. I could say about this movie, but that just gives you a hint
Now what's this all in the mind of Krasinski?
Who is the the director of the movie as well as the star of it wasn't the mind of the writers?
I'm not precisely sure but it is true that Krasinski is a Catholic and indeed a devout Catholic
his mother Irish Catholic his father a Polish Catholic I
Don't know I think it's hard to deny that these themes are operative
And they make a quiet place in my judgment anyway the most surprisingly religious movie of the year