Violence | Mockingbird

“And Death’s Dark Shadow Put to Flight…” A Post for Newtown, Connecticut

by Bryan J. on Dec 17, 2012 • 5 Comments

It goes without saying that our prayers and hearts have been with Sandy Hook Elementary and the Newtown community since last week. On this side of our Sunday services, “Lord have mercy” is pretty much all I have left to say in my spiritually and emotionally exhausted state, and I don’t think I’m alone when I say that.

For those of us who are still struggling to maintain composure in light of tragedy, or for those exhausted from the 24 hour media coverage, or for those wrestling with the relationship between a good God and an evil…

Books / Film / Reviews

Catching Fire: Cruciform Heroes, Unconventional Villains and Breaking the Closed Circle of the Modern Bestseller

by WB on Nov 7, 2012 • 4 Comments

A brief recap: in The Hunger Games piece, we examined a two-level voyeuristic scaffolding built by Suzanne Collins as the book meditates on our attraction to violence and suffering. The Gamemakers create a brutal world into which teenagers are plunged to fight to the death for the amusement of thousands in the fictional dystopia of Panem and, simultaneously, Collins herself is constructing that world as the author for the amusement of, by now, over a million contemporary readers. In our indignation against the Gamemakers for the horrors they perpetrate, we are ultimately drawn into a split between our own enjoyment…

Film / Reviews

The Dark Knight Dies and Rises: Sacrifice and Freedom in Gotham

by WB on Jul 23, 2012 • 21 Comments

[Spoiler Alert - those who haven't seen it, run don't walk...it's fantastic!]

“All their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.” -Ecclesiastes 2:23

“Put your sword back in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” -Matthew 26.52

Nolan has now traced the Dark Knight’s journey from streetfighter to hero, from hero to villain, and from villain to…recluse. Wayne has died to the world and only holds on to the shadow-life of mourning for Rachel, and Alfred drops more than a few hints that…

Death / Film / News / Suffering / Testimony

Violence in Gotham, Pittsburgh, and Aurora: Breaking the 4th Wall

by Bryan J. on Jul 23, 2012 • 1 Comment

This post is not a review of The Dark Knight Rises, but a bit of therapeutic reflection on the massacre that occurred in Aurora Co. during the midnight showing of the movie. So consider this piece to be spoiler free and a bit more vulnerable than the average Mockingbird post. For those who are interested in the film itself, Mockingbird’s two official reviews of TDKR are WB’s “The Dark Knight (Dies and) Rises: Sacrifice and Freedom in Gotham” and Jeremiah Lawson’s three-part “A Path Through Three Prisons: Bruce Wayne in Nolan’s Batman Trilogy.”

Mockingbird has often discussed the drama concept of…