The Hurricanes

The Southern coasts have still not fully recovered from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Landscapes have been changed forever, populations have shifted permanently, rebuilding continues while some people still find themselves living in FEMA trailers, and economies have not recovered to their pre-hurricane status. TV news raised questions about the wrath of God, but Christians were given a significant opportunity for outreach and ministry. Many took in refugees; many more went to help with recovery and rebuilding. I suppose that, just as it was poetically fitting that a movie about the war in Iraq concluded the 00’s with Oscar wins, there’s also something satisfying in seeing the final football season of the decade end with a Super Bowl win for the New Orleans Saints. But the work of rebuilding all along our Southern coast isn’t finished.

The Cultural Moments

The most influential moments in our popular culture in the 00’s centered around film and television. Fox News became mainstream, and now the political slants of news reporting (both liberal and conservative) are far more apparent to us all.

The Passion of the Christ woke Hollywood up to the possibility of making money on mainstream films with clearly Christian themes. Without The Passion, the Narnia movies might never have gone into production, and Christians might never have seen or at least heard of To End All Wars, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Amazing Grace, Henry Poole Was Here, The Nativity, One Night with the King, The Last Sin Eater and more.

Whether we like it or not, the most influential television show of the decade was Survivor. It mainstreamed Reality Television, changing how Hollywood works (to the detriment of good writers) and turning us into celebrities. We’ve all complained about television having hundreds of channels with nothing to watch. Well we got what we wanted: all that empty programming space was filled with Reality shows. Perhaps we should be careful what we wish for.

What's Coming Next

On the horizon are political, economic, spiritual, and environmental problems plus a whole host of new technologies which we’re already beginning to see. I leave these topics for next time. Instead I want to conclude my look at popular culture by mentioning one movie which will have a huge impact on the future of film and television though its 2009 release means it technically belongs to the decade of the 00’s.

Avatar is a tad anti-Western, and rather New Age. It is also stunningly beautiful, and a true picture of things to come. 3-D film is coming into its own. March’s Alice in Wonderland and April’s Clash of the Titans were in 3-D as are several other blockbusters slated for the summer of 2010. Studios are looking at converting existing films to 3-D for sale on DVD and Blue Ray. 3-D televisions will come out on the market this year, sooner than had been expected—this thanks to Avatar. Even 3-D cameras for amateur use are coming to the market. 3-D may or may not become an industry standard in the long run, but bigger and bigger screens will. I-Max and Omni-Max theaters will become less the exception and more the rule. Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) is going to be held to higher standards, images are going to become more stunning and intricate, and movies will become more experiential for audiences. As part of this trend, movie theater ticket prices will go up, and it will happen this year—not for just 3-D movies but for all films.

The last time someone pushed the envelope of film technology to new heights so quickly was in 1977 when George Lucas released Star Wars. That movie has impacted film technique, style, pace, imagery and content ever since. Thirty-two years later James Cameron has done it with Avatar. I’m not convinced people will be watching this movie for years to come as many Star Wars fans do. But Cameron had a vision over a decade ago for a film which couldn’t even be made because the technology to do so hadn’t been invented—Cameron got it invented, and movies will be changed for decades by what he’s done in Avatar.

It is good to remember where we’ve come from and consider what’s ahead. At the same time it’s important that we not get so caught up in trends and present things that we forget what’s most important to remember:
I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done. (Psalm 143:5)
A memory focused on God will never mislead us.