By Jacob Martin
Oregon writer
The movie “Gravity” is stirring a debate about religion nationwide and stirring box office sales at the same time. Gravity broke box office records for October with the highest grossing film of all time for the month with a hefty take of $55 million. The film has scored in the 95+ by aggregate web critic sites Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. The film is such an epic symbol that it has found many spiritual Christian interpretations.
A Washington Post opinion piece states, “…for Christians like me, there’s a special resonance to be found. We can find life after death, the movie suggests. We can be born again, even in the coldest and darkest of places.”
Writing for Sojourners magazine, Jeffery Weiss writes,“…the main character represents an increasingly common theme in American religion: The spiritual “none of the above.”…But there are moments where spiritual and philosophical themes take center stage.”
My friends who saw the movie were moved by the words of Sandra Bullock’s character during her deepest hour. In the face of approaching death and doom she said, “No one will pray for my soul. I’ve never prayed. Nobody has taught me how.”. The words resonated, not because she was exposing deep feelings about her aloneness, but also about people’s responsibility in helping people in prayer. People don’t help or ask for help in praying with others because we all assume everyone is all right. People are seldom ok and it takes a disaster to expose our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. This was the same for the astronaut who reflected on her broken life many miles from earth and inches close to her own death.
Finally, the film does an amazing job of displaying the stunning beauty of our planet earth in gigantic proportions. This is why one needs to see the film in a large theater and not wait for television. You will miss something special. In seeing the artistic beauty of the earth so freshly unveiled in this film I feel closer to the creator. If you see the movie and see the scope of things you may feel the same.
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