Do you have a favorite movie? I do, as most of us who have had the privilege to view a story on the silver screen do. My favorite movie is Hook, starring Robin Williams as Peter Pan. If you’ve ever read the literary work that is Peter Pan (and I refer to the full length book by J. M. Barrie and not the condensed short stories we read to children as bedtime stories) you realize that the story line in the movie Hook is so well conceived, and so well researched, it could have been part of the original story line.
I like the movie Hook for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is the lead character, Robin Williams. If the definition of an actor were “One who makes you believe that they really and truly are the character that they portray in the play or film“, Robin Williams would truly be a master of the craft. Who else could make you truly believe that they were Mork from Ork and then English professor John Keating at an all boys school in Dead Poets Society? From a doctor in Patch Adams, to a cross dressing housekeeper in Mrs. Doubtfire, and yes, as Peter Pan in Hook, Robin Williams was a master of his craft. Making me believe that he was each character in each role, and that only he could possibly fulfil the role that he was in.
The second reason I like the movie Hook, is because it is just plain cleverly done. In story line parlance, a hook, is a reference (either forward in time or backwards in time) to an outside event that usually is completed (explained or made sense of) later on in the story line. And Hook is a mastery of hooks (pun intended). Hook not only has backward references to Peter Pan (a character dating back to 1902, with stories in 1904 and 1911, a full 89 years prior to the movie), which is easy enough to do (I can easily take an already written work and write a new story line that correctly references back to the original work), but it also incorporates a forward reference from the original work to the new work. And it works. This is completely astounding when you consider the writers took a work written some 80 years before their storyline, and created a new story that the original 80 year old work references as if it could see 80 years into the future and predict an outcome. Given the film’s title, Hook, obviously referring to Captain Hook within the story, and the double entendre it creates with its story line hooks both from and to the original work, it leaves one enthralled. At least it did me.
However Hook is not the movie I’d like to leave readers with today. Rather the story/film I’d like to consider is Mary Poppins. With a side note on its companion film Saving Mr. Banks.
The film Mary Poppins has been translated into 17 different languages, shown in countries around the world, is the winner of 5 Academy Awards (the most of any Disney film to date), and is one of the most profitable films of the 1960s. It is truly one of the classics of its time.
I was 3 years old when the movie Mary Poppins was first released in theaters and I don’t recall the first time I saw it. I was most likely quite young. I do remember however, the first time I had a glimpse into what the movie was all about. And it was during the second Feed The Birds sequence.
I’m not sure how many times I had seen the movie before that particular song and scene in the movie struck me, but I do know that it was long before anyone else in my circle of family, friends, school mates, or even co-workers, expressed anything other than the story being about Marry Poppins, a magical nanny come to have adventures with the Bank’s children.
If you watch the film carefully (this is one of those time when you have to pay attention and study the film, rather than just sit back and enjoy it) you realize that the climax of the film is at that still, quiet, moment when you hear Feed The Birds. And if you watch the children, and Mr. Bank’s reaction, you suddenly realize, the story is not about Mary Poppins at all, but rather about Mr. Banks.
Several years later Disney Studios came out with the film Saving Mr. Banks to chronicle the making of Mary Poppins. Saving Mr. Banks has been criticized for perhaps not getting all of the history quite right (or at the very least, telling it from the Walt Disney point of view), but the one thing I know it did get right was depicted in the scene where Walt Disney sits down with P.L. Travers and tells her that he gets it. He understands that her story is not about Mary Poppins, but rather it is all about Saving Mr. Banks.
Disney historians have confirmed that that meeting did not actually take place. However the reality of the message of the story line is not lost. It was Mr. Banks that was about to lose his children, his home, and even his job. It was Mr. Banks who needed saving, not the children that needed some magical nanny.
Shortly after Mr. Banks loses his job at the bank, and returns home despondent, and proclaims all of his trials and tribulations the fault of Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins gets this concerned look on her face as if perhaps all may be lost. This look clues you in as to who the real mission was all about. And it is not until Mr. Banks realizes that his home, his wife, and his children are the most important things in life, and he is off to the park with them to fly a kite, that Mary Poppins quietly slips away.
You realize, at that moment in time, that you have been watching a film you thought was all about a magical nanny, Mary Poppins, and her adventures with her young wards, when in reality it was all about a man whose world was about to come crashing down and who desperately needed saving. And, at least in my case, you think to yourself, how clever!
It has occurred to me that God is like that in our lives. Practically the whole world goes about their daily activities thinking that the events that play out are about them and those around them. They believe they are the star of the show.
When in reality it is not about us at all, but rather all about Jesus Christ, God’s Son. He is the center, He is the focal point, and it is all about Him, not about us.
But here’s the beautiful secret of creation. We are made in His image. We were created to have a relationship with Him. And we are part of His family.
And if you let Him, He will give you the starring role in the story that is all about Him. And others watching that story unfold will marvel (just as I did with Mary Poppins) as they suddenly realize that whereas they thought the story was all about the star character (you), it really wasn’t, it was actually ALL ABOUT HIM.
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