Day Four - Movies & the Pro-Life Message

Today's Reflection

by Emily Chaffins

Imagine a world where the government watches your every move. Where people are so afraid of suffering that they take injections that wipe away every emotion. Where people have forgotten how to love.

That very scenario is presented in the powerful 2014 film, The Giver, directed by Phillip Noyce. This film is a prime example of how films can share an impactful pro-life message that really hits home, without being preachy. You would not think that a sci-fi film could have much to say about the beauty of life and the evils of abortion and euthanasia, but that’s exactly what The Giver does – and does well. Films are an important method of sharing the pro-life message because they enable the viewer to visualize what the culture of death looks like. People can absorb deep truths about the beauty of life through the senses of sight and hearing as they watch films with pro-life messages.

In the film, The Giver, we meet teenage Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), who is about to graduate, meaning that the government will allocate him a job. All of his life, Jonas has lived in a city that no one is allowed to leave, ruled by an oligarchy of leaders headed by the Chief Elder (Meryl Streep), who Jonas and those around him never question. In this culture of death, the family has been destroyed. Specific women are consigned by the government to be Birth Mothers, whose job is to have babies, thereby reducing the glorious gift of bringing life into the world to something akin to a factory output. The babies are transferred to an institution where people with the job of Nurturer, like Jonas’s father, take care of the babies and then sort them and dispose of the less “ideal” babies. The babies that survive then are allotted to a woman and man who the baby will learn to call Mother and Father, even as the “family unit” thereby created is merely functional. Then, when they attain a certain age, without exception, all the elderly are moved to what is advertised as a place of relaxation, but what is really their euthanized deaths. All this occurs behind the scenes and Jonas, like everyone else, has no idea what is happening. The citizens trust the elders, who are the successors of the original people who gathered the citizens together into this place to make a paradise devoid of suffering.

At graduation, Jonas’s friend, Asher (Cameron Monaghan) is made a Pilot, and his friend Fiona (Odeya Rush) is made a Nurturer. Jonas, however, is designated the Giver in-training. The job of being the Giver is given to one person at a time. That special person is able to perform the function of a Giver, which is to be the only one who can recollect the past and thereby advise the elders. While the Giver is expected to be fully compliant with the Chief Elder’s plans, the current Giver (Jeff Bridges) is secretly rebellious and recognizes the urgency in training the next Giver to have the tools necessary to change the culture. To be able to do this, the current Giver has to teach Jonas about what it is to be human. The Giver allows Jonas to see in color, since the ability to process colors has been turned off for everyone else as a means to safeguard “equality.” Everyone has been forced to inject themselves with so-called “medicine” that numbs all emotion, and when the Giver secretly encourages Jonas to forgo taking the medicine, Jonas experiences emotions for the first time in his life, including happiness, pain, and attraction toward Fiona. Jonas also learns the truth about what is happening to the most vulnerable in society, and he recoils in horror. He realizes that everyone has forgotten how to love – and that, as a consequence, no one is truly living.

In visiting the nurturing site, Jonas befriends a baby named Gabriel, in whom Jonas recognizes the capability to become a Giver when he grows up. However, when Gabriel is scheduled to be disposed of, Jonas realizes he has to do something to save not only Gabriel, but the whole city, from this culture of death. The Giver provides the answer: if a Giver treks to a certain location beyond the city walls, the “spell” will be broken and sense will return to everyone who has been living in darkness. The only problem is that the Chief Elder will do anything it takes to stop him.

I won’t spoil the ending, but I will say this – with its messages of the wonder of life; its cinematic effects, such as beginning the movie in black-and-white to mimic how the world would appear to Jonas and the others and then gradually shifting into color; and finally with its stunning ending, the Giver is an example of how movies can truly inspire the audience to rethink its values and to recognize that every life has meaning.

Movies can be powerful tools to help the audience think about these topics in an immersive and deeper way than ever before. The Giver does just that, guiding viewers to think about the beauty of life at all stages, and how circumstances in life – such as strength or age – do not define your worth. As members of the pro-life movement, we should be careful not to confine ourselves to just one mode of getting our message across. The pro-life message can be – and should be – shared through every means, not just debate and conversation. Today, let us consider how we can use our unique and individual gifts to communicate the message of life with others.

Prayer for Pro-Life Advocates

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
You have filled us with your Holy Spirit,
Who is our advocate in the heavens
And you have made us advocates
For the weakest of all, the unborn.

Your Son has promised us
That we will be hated on account of his Name
And persecuted for the good that we do.

We ask you today to bless
All of us who are advocates for life.
Bless every facet and activity
Of the pro-life movement,
And grant us strength
And perseverance in this cause,
No matter what the obstacles.

Bless all those who have assisted
In the effort to expose Planned Parenthood,
Through projects in the past
And in the present.

Give them, and all of us who work in this great movement,
The protection of your Providence
And the peace and joy
That come only from you,
And that nobody can take from us.

We pray in the name of Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

Prayer written by Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life