. . . is neither Christian nor much of a movie. I'm referring, of course, to . . .
. . . Seven Days in Utopia, the recent film equally about golf, spiritual mumbo-jumbo, and how to misuse a national treasure, actor Robert Duvall.
The plot is simple: A young professional golfer has a bad day on the links -- a really, really bad day -- and slinks off Utopia, Texas. In this tiny town he falls under the sway of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the guise of Robert Duvall in the guise of an old tournament golfer who had a lot of bad days on the links and in his personal life, but has now stropped drinkin' and seen the light.
The wizened Mr. Duvall takes the young hero, Luke Black as Luke Skywalker Luke Chisholm, under his tuteledge and restores him to spiritual and sportsial health through a series of exercises that are barely more sophisticated than having the poor boy shut his eyes and fall backwards into the arms of his friends.
The climax is a come-to-Jesus moment in a cemetery that lacks one important thing -- Jesus. Luke buries his bad stuff in a small wooden box and and receives from Mr. Duvall a nice King James Version. In the next scene the young man walks into a country church in the middle of a service, winning approving smiles from Mr. Duvall and the beautiful young love interest who, mercifully, was named Sarah, not Princess Leia Organa. In this denouement, we are given to understand that Mr. Black/Chisholm has now received the good-walk-spoiled, Central-Texas, good-old boy version of The Force -- known here as SFT: see it, feel it, trust it.
This idea of redemption though an acronym is sophomoric. The pretentious sports-psyche jargon is wrapped in the artifacts, institutions, and rituals of Christianity, but without any real hint of the spiritual reality behind them all -- witness the alleged conversion experience that omits the Son of God.
This is exploitative and shameful. The movie should either have embraced Christianity or ignored Christianity. Substituting golf clubs for a lightsaber and substituting the empty forms of religion for the living truth of faith in Jesus Christ -- well, whatever it is, it is not a Christian movie.
A far better Christian sports movie, it happens, was Secretariat. Nominally it had nothing to do with faith. The Christian element came subversively through the soundtrack. Unca D has explained this before.
Mr. Duvall has also done two serious and very good movies that explored Christian themes with great sensitivity and depth -- Tender Mercies and The Apostle. Utopia is not just a bad Christian movie; it also may be the worst movie Mr. Duvall has ever made.
SFT, indeed. Don't see it. It's about feelings, not spiritual truths. And it's entirely untrustworthy as a Christian witness.
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