On April 8th they had the award ceremony and winners are in *BLUE. To check the complete list of award winners go here for German or here for English.April 10, 2011: Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year A)
So what do you get when you mix together a miniscule budget, some second tier actors, and a corny exploitative title. Well, according to Martin Scorsese and a host of others, you get one of the best horror films ever made. And I’m certainly not going to be the one to argue with them. Even if I Walked With A Zombie had nothing else to offer but the oft cited scene in which nurse Betty walks her catatonic patient through a field of sugar cane at night while the wind whispers through the stalks and voodoo drums sound in the distance, it would still be one of those movies that sticks with you long after you watch it.
Fortunately, I Walked With A Zombie has a lot more going for it than just one iconic moment. Other memorable parts include Betty coming upon the ghastly pale Jessica for the first time as she wanders mindlessly through the dark corridors and Betty’s confrontations with the off kilter Calypso singer whose song lyrics would be more fitting for a Greek chorus. But it’s not all just imagery either. The characters feel real and layered, the script is extra smart, and Jacques Tourneur’s direction keeps the whole affair in a slightly dreamlike state where you’re never quite sure what is fact and what is fiction.
Really, about the only thing I Walked With A Zombie is missing is an actual zombie. Oh sure, there MIGHT be one, maybe even two or more. But again, you’re never told one way or the other. Still, even though you are left with doubts about whether or not Jessica is truly dead, there can be no doubt that she is absolutely lifeless. In fact, though Jessica is by far the worst off, all of the occupants of the Gordon plantation appear to exist in various states of half life as a result of their less than honorable relationships with one another. It’s only the island’s other inhabitants, the deeply religious voodoo worshipers, who seem vigorous and alive. And it’s only when Betty begins to bring the two groups together that the Gordons begin to show signs of life again. At least those for whom it’s not too late.
In a sense, because of the way they have systematically murdered each other’s spirits with their actions, The Gordons are suffering something akin to what God’s people experience in this week’s readings. In the verses leading up to the first reading from Ezekiel, their long captivity having “killed” their spirits, we hear the Israelites cry out to God, "Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off." They have become the living dead. The reading from Romans takes up this imagery, but rather than talking about physical imprisonment, Paul is referring to the soul crushing captivity of sin that leaves the body in motion but the spirit in the tomb."
And it’s not just irreligious people like the Gordons who are susceptible to this state of being. As Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP points out in his homily for this week, there are plenty of Catholic Zombies walking amongst us! “Otherwise normal looking, normal sounding Catholics who shamble around in their living bodies without a living spirit. What animates them, what gives them the appearance of being alive is uncertain. What is certain is that they are truly dead, and that their bodies are a walking grave. What can be done for these poor spiritless creatures? They must be freed from what binds them to the grave; freed from the walking death of sin… The Catholic Zombie virus is deadly. It can kill the spirit of Christ in us and leave us to walk among the living and the dead. The best treatment is prevention. Personal prayer, the sacraments, good works, and holy reading. But none of these are effective without a firm belief in the Christ, a willingness to obey his commands, and the good habit of hoping upon the resurrection. If you are dead inside, take heart, b/c the Lord has promised, “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them. . . I will put my spirit in you that you may live. . .thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.”
So the next time you’re at mass, take care, because you too may be walking with a zombie. Just make sure the zombie isn’t you.
CinéfondationSo there I am coasting along through the North Georgia Mountains on one of those roads where it’s sheer cliff on one side and long plummeting death on the other when I round a particularly sharp curve and see this…
Blood Mountain Cabins. Who in their right mind is going to stay in a cabin at a place named Blood Mountain? Especially when I notice, as I stop to take a picture of this foreboding sign, that there is absolutely no cell phone signal where I am. That’s right. Blood Mountain, campground, no cell phone signal, less than 20 miles from where Deliverance was filmed. Yeah, you know what I’m thinking, don’t you?
And to make matters worse, after I got back home, I looked Blood Mountain up and found this on the Historical Marker Database, “In Cherokee mythology the mountain was one of the homes of the Nunnehi or Immortals, the “People Who Live Anywhere,” a race of Spirit People who lived in great townhouses in the highlands of the old Cherokee Country… Before the coming of white settlers, the Creeks and Cherokees fought a disastrous and bloody battle in Slaughter Gap between Slaughter and Blood Mountains.”
So, yeah, Blood Mountain, campground, no cell phone signal, less than 20 miles from where Deliverance was filmed… AND location where Indian spirit people died. Seriously. And from the looks of it, if you end up having to run away from BLOOD Mountain, you’ll most likely just end up on neighboring SLAUGHTER Mountain. Unbelievable. Staying there would just be asking for it, wouldn’t it? You’d have to be like those dummies in the later Friday The 13th movies who just keep coming back to Crystal Lake to party even though the morgues in the area are practically overflowing with Jason’s victims.
You can understand the kids in Part 2 because the headless Mrs. Voorhies is about as dead as you can get. And you can kind of forgive the kids in Part 3 because Jason has only just gotten started. But by Part 4 (The Final Chapter), any kid who plans on spending the Summer at Crystal Lake drinking, taking drugs, and engaging in pre-marital sex may as well just go ahead and stab themselves 6 or 7 times before they leave the house. At least they’d save themselves the gas money it would’ve taken to get there.
Look, everybody makes bad choices, and being stupid, while not desirable, is not a sin in and of itself. But willful ignorance is, as St. Thomas Aquinas so eloquently explains in the Summa. “It is clear that not every kind of ignorance is the cause of a sin, but that alone which removes the knowledge which would prevent the sinful act. …This may happen on the part of the ignorance itself, because, to wit, this ignorance is voluntary, either directly, as when a man wishes of set purpose to be ignorant of certain things that he may sin the more freely; or indirectly, as when a man, through stress of work or other occupations, neglects to acquire the knowledge which would restrain him from sin. For such like negligence renders the ignorance itself voluntary and sinful, provided it be about matters one is bound and able to know.”
Now obviously the concept of willful ignorance can be applied broadly to any situation where a person ignores evidence that appears to contradict his or her preconceived notions (modern politics seems practically overrun with willful ignorance), but in Church terms, it specifically means the purposeful darkening of the intellect so it doesn’t interfere with any sinning. The term is usually associated with those people in the Church who don’t take the time to educate themselves in their own faith, i.e. those who know the Church has something to say about masturbation, but aren’t really going to listen to what it is because they feel it’s none of the Church’s business and, well… they just like it.
Most likely, we’ve all engaged in willful ignorance at some point in our lives. But take it from the unlucky visitors to Crystal Lake (154 and counting), it’s something to be avoided. The end results just aren’t worth it.
