Wednesday, October 31, 2007

More about Bella

Is Bella too vague on the pro-life meter? Can it too easily be interpreted as a movie that supports a woman's "right to choose"? Those are serious questions for a movie that was written and is being promoted by ardent Catholics. That some "pro-choice" voices see the movie as supporting a woman's "choice" indicates that a bit of work may be needed to bring about the director's intention of fostering a culture of life mentality.
One thing I find especially interesting in the feedback from the pro-choice side is that they see the movie as "supporting a woman in her choice." This tells me that they do not realize that pro-lifers could support a woman without at the same time approving her "choice." To them, Jose's willingness to "be there" for Nina signals his approval or support of her decision: they cannot see it as a sign of human, brotherly care for the person. See? There is a certain expectation that a pro-life movie would portray rejection, dismissal and condemnation of the woman as a person.
We have work to do.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree with you. It could of been taken as not so much Pro-Life but just a supportive movie for the situation. I was expecting more because of the PG-13 rating it was given. Although it was a great movie. I was very surprised when we walked out of our showing there was a line for the next. Hopefully this will open something up for more movies like this to come.

Under His Mercy!

Aimee

Anonymous said...

I think the pro-abortion crowd is trying to ice the excitement we in the pro-life crowd feel about this movie by saying it's ambiguous on "choice." It's not ambiguous at all, and I beleive they know this. They just don't want to lose ground in the culture wars so they are trying to make us lose heart. But the movie is very clear in showing what would have been destroyed if Nina had had an abortion, and that message is as clear as day. God bless the three amigos for this fine, Catholic artwork.