Movies and Morals by Anthony Schillaci (review)

594 BOOK REVIEWS The study approaches the nineteenth century through "national " philosophies , and the discussion of German materialism handily recapitulates Delfgaauw's earlier work on Marxist thought. Perhaps the importance given de Biran is not proportionate to his influence in the French school, yet the author defends his case well. On the other hand, the contention that German philosophy had less influence on French thought of the last century than is usually supposed is not explicated as it should be. The significance of Darwin and Spencer on nineteenth-century British thought is rightly stressed, although some may resent their inclusion in a survey of philosophy. The harried teacher of the introductory course is bound to recognize in Pelfgaauw's survey something of value: a swift yet competent look at our intellectual origins which keeps in mind today's students and their impatience with the past. The Pennsylvania State University University Park, Pa. JoHN B. DAVIS, O.P. Movies and Morals. By ANTHONY ScHILLACI, 0. P. Notre Dame, Ind.: Fides Publishers, 1968. Pp. 181. $2.45. Sister Corita once remarked that if Christ were teaching the crowds today, He would be taking them to the movies. Father Schillaci's book, " Movies and Morals," is saying basically the same thing, Films, at least some of them, are in fact contemporary parables, offering the visually literate viewer emotional maturity, moral sensitivity and even religious experience. However, not every Hollywood effort qualifies as modern man's morality play. This is true of even the so-called "religious" films. Father Schillaci contends that movies like "Going My Way," "Say One For Me," "The Bells of St. Mary '," through a cheap and sentimental presentation of their subject, often succeed in degrading the very values they seek to portray. He suggests that we look instead at the new cinema which " tells it like it is." Typical of the films in this category are: " The Trial," " Knife in the Water," "Alfie," "Georgie Girl," and "Sundays and Cybele." They tell us about life and what the book calls the four absurdities of our human condition: the loss of identity, the loss of vocation, the death of community and the death of love. But it is in the Bergman masterpieces: "The Seventh Seal," " The Virgin Spring," " Winter Light," " Through a Glass Darkly," and others, that cinematic theology finds its most fertile field. Here we have what the author defines as " a kind of devil's catechism for the theological virtues expressed, not in terms of theological abstraction BOOK REVIEWS 595 but of human suffering." Aptly enough, the book devotes an entire chapter to an analysis of the Swedish director's vision of good and evil. To appreciate the film as art, it is important to know something about its " grammar." While this is not the purpose of the book, it does provide some interesting insights into the art of cinematography. For example, there is the matter of the director's use of a left to right camera or object movement to denote the usual, customary or peaceful action, but a right to left pattern to indicate difficulty, struggle, evil or disorder. This difference in movement is illustrated in Bergman's" The Virgin Spring": "the young maiden rides her pony to the church from left to right, along a peaceful lake and meadow which stress the horizontal lines of repose. But after her violent rape-murder, her family fights its way through a tangle of forest filled with diagonal and conflicting lines, going from right to left to find her body." The appendices of a book are usually just that. But the fifty pages added at the end of " Movies and Morals " have a value comparable to any of the preceding chapters. This is the "how to" section of the book, providing not only the usual bibliography, but sample work shops, film series on various religious and moral topics, for teaching and preaching, as well as the addresses and telephone numbers of major film distributors. Movies are coming into their own as a true art form. Many say it is the art of the age. Colleges and universities are increasing the number of courses on film appreciation and technique. The average...