It’s hard to know how to respond to a movie such as “Precious.”
This independent feature and Oscar underdog is heavy stuff. The central figure is Claireece Precious Jones, an obese, illiterate16-year-old girl from Harlem whose regular abuse at the hands of her father has already resulted in one child. As the movie begins, she’s pregnant with another.
As the movie traces her small steps toward a somewhat better life – starting with learning the alphabet – “Precious” nimbly walks the line between exploitative horror show and inspirational hooey. It’s a noble effort, with outstanding performances. But the question you’re left with after watching – you might say suffering – through the experience is this: To what end?
You feel helpless while watching “Precious,” and despite the progress Precious makes, you don’t feel much better after the movie is over. As the misery of Precious’ life becomes overwhelming, my instinctive response was revulsion – at the abuse, the poverty and, I’ll admit, to Precious herself, an enormous teen who eats a bucket of fried chicken for breakfast and ends up vomiting outside of her classroom. She seems hopeless, as does the world around her.
So what are Christians to do with this movie? If you believe that God has charged us to redeem the world in His name, surely social justice is a part of that charge. But how do we respond in the face of such inexplicable awfulness, a situation that even leaves the social workers in the film flummoxed?
“Precious” leaves the audience in a state of despair, the kind where you throw your arms in the air and plead for God’s grace. Perhaps, then, “Precious” is something more than a call to human action. Perhaps the film isn’t directed at us, but at God. Some movies praise Him, many defy Him and others simply scream out in rage over the despicably fallen state of His world.
“Precious” screams. Who will hear?
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Comments (5)
We were never charged to “redeem the world in God’s name”, to go and make everything right, to build the Kingdom. Muslims “redeem the world in God’s name”, pass Sharia laws, build mosques, build holy cities and broadcast calls to prayer over towns. We are called instead to build up the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Redeeming the world is something only Jesus will do. In fact, the disciples were puzzled why Christ did not redeem the world during his ministry. After his crucifixion the disciples said, “but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.”
For this dispensation, Jesus “redeems us from the curse of the law”, “redeems us from wickedness”, “redeems us from an empty way of life”. Eventually He will redeem the world.
We were called to make disciples, to teach, to baptize, to preach the good news, to lay hands on the sick, to cast out demons, to proclaim the good news of forgiveness. The sickness of this girl’s family and community is sin and the only remedy is the gospel, repentance and walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
This movie should be a call to revival.
The world see this kind of abuse every day and turn there heads even down to the social workers i'm not here to judge but i live this life and can related sooooooo!!!!!! much and still going trough they all ways claim to reach out tell some one what is going on and i was a child then i like one comment that percious love hurts and love don't do anything but beat you down i'm not bitter sure i'm a little better off then i was when i was a child in fact back in those days then, who was their to tell it took the grace of god to pull me out of what i was going through i thought that i would not live to see the aged of 16 or if i did i was going to whine up in a mental institution still going through but aren't we all going through something so right now i still feel like i've have no one to turn to but god i have to encouge my self and when you tell people what you are going through this is the most that you get oh honey i wish that i can help you but/ oh i hope that things get better for you /oh honey thing will get better. oh so easy to say when you are not walking those shoe i'm glad that this movie was made to put it out there cause everyday someone is going through this kind of unhappiness and it is just swept right under the rug you have to live it to see it and to talk about it but i do believe that god surley let people like that see that they get their redemption at the end of the tunnel. So you see i have no room to judge what was actually play out to realization in god's grace amen.
Whereas institutions are condemned, it was the people (straight and gay) in social services and alternative high school that SAVED her, that heard her 'screams' when her mother clearly should have.
Precious had the survival skills necessary; perseverance, fortitude and resiliency. I left the movie hopeful, especially if she was able to get into an AZT trial. The story leaves you wanting to learn more.
We see young people waking down the streets, we make judgments without knowing their situations. Precious is a wake up call to any of us who make snap judgments. The book, which goes into the story of the other girls in the class shows us that Precious story is just one of many people given awful chances to succeed. This was everyday life in my world in the 1980s.
Your article comes accross as pity when what Precious and youth like her need are good people who are willing to address the systemtic problems that are in their lives, such as the people she had in her life. Where parents don't know how to parent and schools are overwhelmed caring for social needs while trying to educate kids.
Sigh, somehow I thought you might mention something about the church scene with it's view of the kingdom, people of different abilities and clear background stories, singing in the choir and how she saw herself there.
She vomited because she was pregnant. You never mentioned how she was made into a heavyset woman child. There was so much that you did not comment on in this movie. It makes me wonder, could you handle living in Precious' world?
I found the blog useful http://youthforjesus.com
Freedy