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Entry: The Broken Compass Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_broken_compass#11524 Post contents: M. Z. Forrest said: "While I happen to like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street”, they are purely secular Christmas movies. While there certainly was a Catholic influence upon Hollywood not producing trash, much of it was outright puritanism." I don't like either movie, but I agree with you about the Puritanism. The code was a mixed blessing. There wasn't as much porno and blood lust, but what we got was a lot of gee-whiz, Beaver Cleaver Americanist drivel. A big problem was the negative, materialist mentality which creates a check list of you can't show this and you can't say that rather judging and promoting healthy art on the level of its formality. Or, I should say, these prohibitions needed to be balance with efforts to promote more noble affirmations of the good because you always need prohibitions. A big problem is that movies are and have been democratic, capitalist art, and the disordered desires of the mass of men offer an irresistibility tempting market for capitalist exploitation. So by this logic things become more and more depraved. But again, I think Christians must make, or at least, assimilate, a much deeper critique of popular media and entertainment which in many ways serves to channel devotion away from God and to the State. Secularization, such as that of the Christmas story, is part of this project since it enlarges the space the state claims as its own, and diminishes the domain of the Church. I would say to Mr. Piatak, that what we need is truly sacred art not just art that includes angels, prayer and religious carols. The worst thing about “It’s a Wonderful Life” is its mediocrity, sentimentality and diminishment of higher things. Sent at: 2008 10 13