Praising Vera?

That’s right, a new movie about an abortionist is receiving glowing recommendations from some Christian sources. What’s going on here?

I haven’t seen Vera Drake, the new film about an abortionist from talented English director Mike Leigh.

Wait a minute before you click “BACK” in disgust at my ignorance. The tentative release date for Australia is Feb 24.

What’s more, I don’t pretend to be able to critique the film.

I intend to critique the way some Christian writers are receiving it.

The Un-Movie

There’s a funny thing about movies. Movies only work when there is conflict - and conflict works best with contradiction and contrast and questions.

Let’s try a little game.

Imagine you are in a darkened cinema. You’re rewarding yourself for getting a pile of study finished, or maybe you’re just escaping study. You have paid for the petrol to get to the cinema, the ever-escalating ticket price itself and your junk food of choice.

This is turning into an expensive exercise, but you’re looking forward to forgetting it all and slipping into a world far away from your own.

The movie begins:

30-year-old Sandra is addicted to a life of self-centred security. A friend invites her to a home Bible-study. She goes out of sheer boredom. She is surprised to find that these Christians live a more purposeful and vibrant life than she does. Pretty soon, she’s getting down on her knees in her lunch hour and admitting to a God she has never spoken to before that she is wildly jealous of them. The Holy Spirit is at work in her life and Sandra commits herself to Jesus’ care and lordship.

The movie ends happily at this point.

Do you feel ripped off or what??

As an event in everyday life this is great but as a movie it is about as boring as anything I can come up with.

The momentary surprise and pleasure you felt at seeing Christians presented in such a positive light wore off about 30 minutes into the movie when you became desperate – and I mean desperate – for something to happen. Anything!

So what’s wrong with it?

There’s no conflict except what goes on in Sandra’s spirit and that’s not visually compelling. As far as questions or contradictions, the movie doesn’t raise any. The Christians are lovely people. The non-Christians are selfish.

Hollywood’s way of adding conflict might be to turn the Bible-study group into neo-Nazi racialists (thriller) or closet paedophiles (edgy drama) or introduce a bad-boy love interest for Sandra to redeem (chick flick).

Now, I’m absolutely not saying that in order to make a convincing, entertaining movie you have to discredit or question Biblical Christianity.

Life is a stunningly complicated, exciting, sad, funny, heartbreaking adventure. Who better to tell stories which are complicated, exciting, sad, funny and heartbreaking than Christians who serve the great Storyteller Himself?

Obvious Propaganda[i]

The Abortion Lobby (or any of its followers) could easily make an Un-Movie (e.g., Sandra makes herself and everyone else oh-so-much happier by having an abortion).

Such a film, however, would do little for their cause. A few die-hard pro-abortionists might like it but on the whole it would be a waste of time.

It would also be of no interest to filmmakers or critics with any sense of subtlety or art.

What it would do is make things a lot easier for Christians, who would (without expending any brain cells at all) be able to point out the heartless and absurd dishonesty of this Un-Movie.

The Effective Movie

Based on all of this, what kind of movie do you think would be an effective aid to a pro-abortion stance – something that would make well-meaning fence-sitters hop into that yard? Remember, conflict and contradictions; contrast and questions.

Here’s my idea of what it might be like.

It would have a hero/protagonist who would be easily liked. Someone we could feel comfortable with; someone maybe even a little ordinary who surprises us with extraordinary courage. (Not a highly-paid abortion-doctor or a radical, slogan-wielding activist.)

It would feature at least one sympathetic, decent character who was against abortion.

The women seeking abortions would be desperate and abused; their situations would wrench our hearts.

It would be artistically irreproachable; well directed, superbly acted, classily written.

Most of all, it would be a great movie, because great movies are powerful.

Personally, I think this screams “Oscar gold”.

Praise for Vera

Let’s hear a little of what two reviewers for Christian publications have to say about the movie. This is excerpted from a review posted 10/22/04 on the Christianity Today website by Stefan Ulstein:

“Set in England in 1950, Vera Drake is the true story of a gentle, modest housewife and cleaning woman who performs abortions for "girls who have gotten in trouble."

…

“Vera shows up at a pregnant girl's apartment armed with the tools of her trade packed in a sensible handbag. She washes up and prepares her materials as though she is baking a nice pie for the family. She is kind and reassuring. She is discreet but not crafty. In her heart and in her mind she is simply helping. She wouldn't dream of taking money.

…

“Vera Drake succeeds as a brilliant film in its portrayal of Vera's activities as an extension of her Martha-like devotion to meeting the needs of others. It would be easy to make Vera Drake an apologia for either side of the raging abortion debates, but Leigh takes a different path. We see Vera visiting her skills upon a terrified rape victim and a haggard mother of seven.

…

“[Vera’s] husband and children are shocked, and wrestle with their love for this dear woman, and her secret activities that are so offensive to their beliefs. Sid is adamant: "How could you, mum? Those are little babies!"

…

“Some films succeed because of an incisive and compelling script, or brilliant performances. Others capture a mood or time so flawlessly that we forget we're watching a movie. Still others give us a new way to look at difficult issues - including those issues on which we already have firm convictions. Vera Drake excels in all of these. It's a seamless vision, executed by a master filmmaker. Like great literature, great film leaves us with more questions than answers. It challenges us, not so much in what we believe about right or wrong, but in how we believe in them.

Mike Leigh has given us a gift. In a hopelessly polarized debate, he allows us all to see real people involved in real situations. It is a film that will keep people on either side of the abortion debates talking. Perhaps they will even talk to one another.”

And here is Harry Forbes, writing for the Catholic News:

“Leigh's "Vera Drake" (Fine Line Features) tackles the difficult abortion theme with objectivity. His heroine is a cheery, lower-middle-class housewife....

“…Besides helping sick neighbors and such, she also assists young women who are "in the family way" by performing abortions, then illegal.

…

“Vera takes no money for this task, but simply sees herself as assisting these young girls who feel they have no other recourse.

…

“As this small, feisty, utterly ordinary woman, Staunton gives an indelible performance.

…

“As for the abortion theme, the procedure isn't glorified in any way. The women involved are almost all desperate, and even though Vera's methods seem relatively benign, the women's fear and sorrow at what they are doing is achingly evident.

“Leigh goes to pains not to make Vera a heroine. Nor, to my mind, does the film proselytize for abortion.”

Any of this sound familiar?

Tactics

I was once told by Babette Francis (all-round amazing woman and founder of Endeavour Forum) that we don’t realise an important battle has been won by pro-life activists.

The abortion lobby no longer uses the term “pro-abortion”. Instead it favours “pro-choice.”

A euphemism is “the use of a word or phrase that is more neutral, vague, or indirect to replace a direct, harsh, unpleasant, or offensive term.” [ii]

Bernard Nathanson, a prominent ex-abortionist, wrote in 1979 that “pro-choice” is a euphemism, noting, “Who could possibly be opposed to something so benign as ‘choice’?”[iii]

The fact that they shy away from the word “abortion” means that there has been a success in getting the general public to see the tragedy of the word.

If pro-abortionists glorified the procedure they would immediately “turn off” a great percentage of the fence-sitters mentioned earlier. So they take the wind out of pro-lifers’ sails like this:

“Yes, we agree with you, abortion is a difficult and sad thing. But we are not simplistic and narrow-minded like you; we recognise that difficult situations call for difficult decisions. We are pro-choice.””

Are Christians praising Vera Drake for simply making good use of tactics that the abortion-lobby has been using for decades?

Intentions

Interestingly enough, both of the reviewers quoted above offer guesses on Mike Leigh’s intentions in making Vera Drake. But what does Leigh have to say himself?

Here’s a quote from a recent interview with Leigh from a (secular) Canadian website, Hour.

HOUR: Is it a coincidence or a machination that this film came out at this time - in the same week that the President of the United States wouldn't look into a television camera and say he wouldn't try to overturn Roe vs. Wade? [The 1973 US Supreme Court ruling that legalised abortion on demand.]

LEIGH: No, it was absolutely intentional. When I got the idea to do the film, it was a couple of years ago, and I realized it would come out about now. No accident at all.

HOUR: Yet, somehow in your hands, a loaded political issue becomes fundamentally a story about people. It really isn't a harangue on any level.

LEIGH: Well, that's the trick, isn't it?"

In another interview[iv] I found on the net, Leigh says:

“I deliberately made a film that doesn’t make any black and white statements, in fact I couldn’t. The film is a function of my own feelings. It’s a moral dilemma that asks questions of you and asks you to see an essentially good person cast in the societal role of a criminal. In the current immediate context of the fact that the law may be changed in the United States people should be aware that if you change the law we will retreat to where we were and go back to the situation that the film portrays.

… The population of the world has increased since the beginning of this conversation by rather more babies than you could get into the top floor of this building and not all of them are born into loving environments. That has to be confronted in this chaotic society.”

Yes, Mr. Leigh, that does have to be confronted. Just not in the way you mean.

Serpent-wise

Jesus says we should be innocent as doves and wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16). I fear that all the wisdom in this particular situation has been on the pro-abortion side.

Are we going to be taken in by this film because it is sad, because it is artistic, because it is moving?

Are we going to allow it to work in our hearts on such a vital issue simply because it succeeds in doing what every single movie sets out to do – be convincing?

“Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5:6) It only takes a pinch of yeast to change that whole piece of dough into something quite different.

By all means, see the film – if God leads you to do so. But know that you are among serpents. When you are around serpents, it pays to be at least as wise as they are.

about the author:

Christina Sonnemann, 23, is a Tasmanian screenwriter

Links:

Christianity Today review of Vera Drake

Catholic News review of Vera Drake

Hour interview with Mike Leigh

Endeavour Forum

Bernard Nathanson

Vera Drake website

A preconception-blasting article on “over-population”

[i] Propaganda n.

1. information or publicity put out by an organization or government to spread and promote a policy, idea, doctrine, or cause

2. deceptive or distorted information that is systematically spread

[ii] Euphemism n.

1. a word or phrase used in place of a term that might be considered too direct, harsh, unpleasant, or offensive.

2. the use of a word or phrase that is more neutral, vague, or indirect to replace a direct, harsh, unpleasant, or offensive term

[iii] Aborting America by Bernard N. Nathanson, M.D. with Richard N. Ostling, pub. Doubleday & Co.

[iv] Link intentionally omitted due to pornographic content on website.