Remember ‘Bruce Almighty’?
I was eight years old when ‘Bruce Almighty’ was released (2003), and as an eight year old living in a conservative Muslim society the most striking thing about the film was that they showed god.
Eleven years later, Morgan Freeman playing god doesn’t bother me anymore. But there are other aspects of this film that have caught my attention.
‘Bruce Almighty’ is directed by Tom Shadyac and follows the story of Bruce Nolan (Jim Carey), a TV news reporter who is fed-up with god on account of his miserable life. Bruce’s constant complains lead God (Morgan Freeman) to come down to earth and bestow his powers on Bruce in order to hopefully teach him a lesson.
The film is a light-hearted comedy and one would think it has no deeper intention other than to entertain and maybe poke fun at religion. But this may not be so. The media is currently being used explicitly to spread religious messages, televangelists being the most obvious example. At the risk of treading the dangerous water of subliminal messages, I feel that films like ‘Bruce Almighty’ could be a subtle manipulation of media to instill certain values in the viewers.
Shadyac grew up in a Judeo-Christian home and there is no doubt that his beliefs slipped into (or at least influenced) his work. Whether he has the intention to impose certain values on the public isn’t clear. Karl Marx would certainly see this movie as one of the many ways that the values of those in power are imposed normalized and thus ultimately adopted by the masses.
Monotheistic religions have the largest number of followers throughout the globe, and this film can be seen as promoting the Cultural Hegemony. If you look at the narrative, the morals of the story parallel teachings of monotheistic religion (the Abrahamic ones in particular):-
· Bruce being angry at God invites trouble as getting God’s power isn’t as wonderful as it sounds and his life soon spirals out of control. Thus, we are taught to be patient and trust god to fix the problems in our lives in due time
· God is portrayed as a man, this relates to the belief that God created human beings in his image
· Bruce complains to God and gets an answer from above, albeit a very personal one. This is to show us that god does in fact listen to us.
· Through Bruce’s experience we learn that there is a reason why all power lies with god and why we have to go through certain hardships and prayer is the only way out. This point is evident in the scene below.
I’m not alone in recognizing the values being promoted in this film, this Christian Website sells a bible discussion based on this movie and describes it as a “A comedy that illustrates the power, presence, and goodness of God”
What I’m wondering now, is whether this film was created to promote certain values or is it the product of the dominant values of society?
But before you answer that, I want you to look at the importance given to ‘free will’ in this movie. Traditional religions are often seen as rigid dictations of ultimate truths, and the considerable power given to humans in the form of ‘free will’ is often left out of the conversation. In Islam for example, humans are born with certain things being predestined in their lives but the concept of ‘free will’ is also emphasized as we make our own decisions (and are urged to make decisions in accordance with the word of god).
