Thrashbrowns Loses his Religion: Part 9

Art Is a Lie that Makes Us Realize the Truth

Youse guys know who Richard Dutcher is? 

When I was in film school, this movie called God's Army came out. It was kinda cheesy in places but I'd never seen a film that had so realistic depicted LDS church members before. For someone who wanted to make movies and had grown up Mormon (and who wanted to get his perspective on the religion out there), that movie was hella inspiring. I immediately began to formulate screenplay ideas for movies that would look at the church and the world through my eyes. I wanted to join Dutcher in God's Filmmaking Army. At least I did until I saw The Singles Ward. Seriously. Fuck The Singles Ward.

Well, Richard Dutcher wrote and directed God's Army and played the secondary lead in the film. 

Dutcher has become a low-key hero for me, but not because of his movies. Some years after the release of God's Army, Dutcher made the decision to leave the LDS Church. He was a hero to a lot of people in the church, a bit of a rock star among Mormons. He could have just kept doing that. He could have kept raking in the accolades from Mormons, kept making movies about LDS folks for LDS folks. 

But he didn't. He did what he felt was right and became a ghost story that I bet parents tell their kids before bed to scare them straight. "Stay close to the church or you'll end up like Richard Dutcher." That kind of shit. He made the decision that was right for him, regardless of how difficult it might have been. That's why he's a hero to me.  

Anyway, I remember either listening to or reading an interview where Dutcher said something along the lines of "Mormons don't respect art." And man, thinking about that quote really did a number on me.

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I don't know that I agree 100% with Dutcher's assessment. I don't think Mormons disrespect art. I think they define it differently than non-LDS people. From my times amongst them, I've learned through osmosis that most Mormons look at art as something uplifting and edifying. Art is wholesome stuff that expands one's soul. That's problematic for me.

On top of that, there the conception in LDS culture (and it's something that's prevalent throughout American culture, too.) that movies, TV, comics, music and the like are only entertainment. I can't tell you how many times I heard some dude at a pulpit saying something along the lines of "be mindful of the entertainment you consume, for it can destroy your testimony AND your soul." 

That statement both minimizes the importance of art to that of sensory fast food, mindless entertainment that has no value when compared to the truths found in the Gospel. At the very same time, the statement makes art into some insidious, incredibly powerful entity, some sort of kaiju that will tear through your soul and smash everything in sight.

It should go without saying that I have serious issues with that kind of ambivalent thinking. Like, which is it? Is art, pop culture, whatever you wanna call, disposable, unimportant trifle intended to just keep you occupied between all the actually important parts of your life, or is it so powerful that seeing the wrong film or hearing the wrong song can lead to you winding up dead in a ditch? Pick one.

This was always something I wrestled with. What were the churchy people afraid of? Me watching Ahnold or Sly or Bruce Willis and then running around with an uzi blasting everything in sight? Were they really that worried about me losing my ability to feel the Spirit, cuz judging by how they treated me, the only time they even noticed I existed was when I was doing something wrong or trying to forge a friendship with their kids.

Then I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker myself and the whole art/religion question got so much more complicated.

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The first feature-length screenplay I ever wrote was a fucking doozy. It was part Stepford Wives, part Mallrats, part Gojira (the movie, not the French metal band) and part Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke. It was full of weird sci-fi shit and bits I swiped from other movies. Most of all, it had a fuck-ton of profanity. I mean, it probably would've made Tarantino blush. Or maybe just roll his eyes. I'm not as good at cursing as he is.

Even though it was a mess and would need at least 377 rewrites to mold it into something that could actually be shot, I was proud of it. I had done something that not many people ever do and I had discovered that I really love writing movies along the way. I was fucking stoked. I should have been fucking stoked.

On one weekend that I was home, my baby sister (who is waaaaaay cooler than I'll ever be) asked me to read my script to her. So I did and unfortunately, my dad walked through during a scene when one of my characters was unleashing a confetti-burst of swearing. He looked at me and asked me who wrote that "trash." I told him that I did. His response: "Why couldn't you write something good?"

That right there captures the problem I have with Mormons and their attitudes towards art. "Good" or "bad" is not determined by the actual quality of the art, but whether or not its content meets a set of morality standards that are so narrow, only kids' movies measure up. Can you watch it with your 6-year-old nephew? If not, neither one of you should be watching it.

The problem is that art doesn't fit neatly into a wholesomeness box. It doesn't eschew what some may find offensive because art is a reflection of what humans experience in real life. How do you tell a story about war or abuse or sex that adheres to a PG rating? I know it can be done and maybe this is a symptom of a lack of creativity in the movie biz. But sometimes you can't connect with a story that sanitizes its subject matter. It just feels dishonest.

This holds true for TV, comics, music, you name it. How do you write a song about violence if you can't talk about violence?  How do you tell a story about crime without the blood and death that come along with it? And doesn't message matter? Is a violent, profanity-filled war movie worthless, even if its point is to rail against war?

What's better? A PG-rated lie? Or an R-rated truth?

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As someone who wanted to make films (and I still do, it's just a little beyond my reach right now), I obviously have serious issues with slapping limits on the kind of stories I want to tell. I don't want the stress and worry of writing something that presents my perspective on difficult subjects and having to deal with people who will automatically think it's trash cuz it doesn't meet their standards of morality. It's not like I wanna make porn or shit like that. I just want to tell stories in a way that feels honest and authentic to me and that means people will probably swear, tell dirty jokes, and just be offensive in general.

That's how creative minds tend to work. We just spew out our ideas. Some work and some don't but what really doesn't work is trying to make your story adhere to someone else's standard of what is and is not objectionable. That works fine for writing news stories and movie reviews and shit like that. Writing movies, novels and the like? Not so much.

Another thing: who gets to decide what's objectionable and what is not? Even within the church, I got the feeling that people's moral compasses pointed in a variety of directions, with a variety of specifics. And there's nothing wrong with that. We're all different people. Why should your standards apply to me if we don't believe the same thing?

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Right about now, I bet you're thinking "Hey man. All you ever watch is superhero movies and dumb action flicks like Predator. Who are you to preach to me about how movies, TV and all that jazz are deep and meaningful?" 

Okay, Hoss. Point one: If you want me to find a deep, meaningful message buried somewhere within the text of Predator, I will certainly oblige. People on YouTube make pretty decent livings talking about how deep and meaningful the Marvel movies are. I'm sure I can find something substantial in Predator.

Point two: I don't particularly enjoy talking to people about big franchise movies anymore. But those are the only movies most Mormons seem to watch cuz even though they're incredibly violent, they don't have any swearing or nudity in them, they're fine. After all, the Book of Mormon is full of people getting wiped out in bloody conflict after bloody conflict. So chopping the shit outta a human being must be approved by the Lord.

I'm getting a bit sidetracked, so here's my point: If the only movies you watch are the big blockbusters that everyone sees, you're not gonna be exposed to stories with a ton of depth. You're not going to see perspectives from individual filmmakers because big movies are made to committees and are purposely as broad as possible to attract the largest possible audience cuz big movies take shit-tons of money to make and market. 

If all you see are the big movies, you come away thinking that cinema is entirely about rollercoaster ride flicks that have universal messages that anyone can relate to but don't say all that much. Film (and this goes for other art forms, like TV and music. Somehow literature, painting, sculpture and the like seem to get more of a pass) is capable of communicating so much more than action, wonder and hollow sentiment. They can teach you if you'll let them. They can enlighten and open you up to perspectives beyond your own. Plus, if you guys watch a greater range of films, I don't have to get so fucking bored talking about Avengers or Batman movies. I'm so tired of talking about superheroes...