Summer Movie Review: Howl's Moving Castle

Howl’s Moving Castle is a movie that will go unseen by most Americans because it hails from a genera unappreciated and misunderstood by many in our great nation. It is an anime movie from Japan and as such is a bit different from what we normally expect in from things that we class generically as “cartoons.” One of the things I like about Howl’s Moving Castle is how each character is individually seems to represent some great flaw in mankind that they must overcome. Howl, for example, represents both vanity and cowardice. He is an extremely powerful wizard, but when his hair is accidently died a different color he completely loses his mind and says, “If I can’t be beautiful, I would rather be dead.” While on the one hand we might dismiss such a comment as completely outrageous, how many women are out there who feel the same way and struggle with eating disorders? For one to place their entire self worth in how they look is to forget about the fact that we are all children of God. Jesus died for our sins no matter what we look like and calls us to develop a much deeper inner beauty that will never fade with the mere passing of time. There is also the Witch of the Waste, who is completely absorbed with having the hearts of as many young men as possible. She pursues Howl not as someone to love and care for until death, but rather as a young, handsome man who is merely a trophy. Something to own as a possession rather then a person to be respected. While this is generally an attitude that men hold towards women, it is no less disordered when turned the other way. In the end she is forced to give up Howl’s heart to someone else who truly loves him for who he is. There are other interesting characters in the movie, each with their own personality flaws, but I encourage you to see it for yourself. Even though many of us are tempted to dismiss anime as something that is either for little kids or morally offensive, this is often times only extreme cases. While Howl’s Moving Castle may appear as just another cartoon, it deals with complex issues such as the morality of war and those who are forced to fight as well as love, friendship and kindness. It is certainly a welcome alternative to the glorification of violence and sexuality that seems to flow out of Hollywood these days. .

Summer Movie Review: Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park is, in my opinion, a Spielberg classic. Honestly, who wouldn’t think it ridiculously cool and fun if scientists were able to find a way to genetically engineer and clone a dinosaur? The answer should, unfortunately, be me. Well, me and you. And I only say unfortunately because I would love to see a real dinosaur. The problem arises when we look at the means of actually producing the dinosaur, cloning. Now I am not a moral theologian, so I had to go around and do some digging in my efforts to find out what the official church teaching is on animal cloning. The end result was, to be honest, a bit confusing. Human cloning is, of course, completely against the dignity of human life. But animal life does not have the same amount of dignity that a human person does, otherwise it would be morally wrong to kill a cow and enjoy a big juicy stake. This is not to say that animals don’t have any intrinsic dignity, only that humans have more. I think that the whole process can be summed up by one of Jeff Goldblum’s lines in the movie “Just because we can do something doesn’t mean that we should.” Jurassic Park is a great movie because it really takes a look at critical look at science from a non religious perspective. Our modern society tends to view faith and religion as the enemies of science, which has never been true. Well, almost never. There was that whole Galileo thing, but that was almost 400 years ago so I say it is high time we just let it go. Anyway, the point is, the Church doesn’t hate science. It just thinks we need to be careful about what we are doing and what the methods are that we use to achieve our ends. For example, many people question why the Church is against embryonic stem cell research. The answer is quite simple, because it is wrong to kill a baby just so you can run scientific experiments. The Church instead supports the use of adult stem cells for research, that way no one has to die. But back to cloning dinosaurs. I am still not sure what the official teaching is on the subject, but from a purely realistic point of view I just don’t know if I want to share the modern world with a velociraptor. Still though, it made for a great late night movie.