Bringing Back Cinema Serials: Christian Style

Back in the days when “Christians didn’t go to movies,” the film industry had already learned a very profitable lesson: serials make money. As the name implies, serials were continued stories. They were shown on Saturday mornings, attracting children for successive exciting episodes of a B-quality shoot-’em-up and kill-’em adventure story.

Fortunately, evangelical film makers have not stooped to the level of the serials of the forties and fifties, but they have discovered that such series as Francis Schaeffer’s How Should We Then Live? and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family can create repeat audiences, multiply ministries, and frequently increase revenues. A number of series-type films have been released within the past year, and they are the primary focus of this report.

Fun In Marriage

Who but Charlie and Martha Shedd could call a film series Fun in Marriage Workshop and get away with it? Should it not be Commitment in Marriage or Biblical Roles in Marriage? For any other workshop leaders, perhaps so. But for Charlie and Martha Shedd, who are on their forty-second year of honeymoon, any other title would seem rather inappropriate.

The five-part series is an excellent attempt by Cinema Associates of Seattle, Washington, to capture the dynamics of the workshops this Presbyterian minister and his wife have conducted across the country. Topics discussed include “Vocal, Body and Soul Communication,” “How to Stay in Love,” and straight answers to delicate questions. The cost is $60 per film.

The Shedds share deeply from their own marriage experience as they have in Charlie’s many books and in their syndicated newspaper column. They draw upon letters received over the years, surveys they have done (helpful, but not scientific), and discussions with the four couples who enter into dialogue with them amid the natural beauties of the scenic Northwest.

This series is more than a viewing experience. It becomes a workshop when the audience is invited to fill out a questionnaire before continuing the discussions. The Fun in Marriage Workshop Student Workbook, which must be purchased separately (cost: 75¢), allows each viewer to make a careful examination of the personal aspects of his or her marriage relationship. Though the films are entertaining and helpful, the workbook should double the impact for couples who participate.

The strengths of the workshop contribute to the weaknesses of the films. The workshop format and the anecdotal nature of the Shedds’ approach cause the films to run long, and at times they seem repetitious. The apparent use of only two cameras to record the workshop leaves the audience looking at the hosts while a participant talks somewhere off camera. These problems, however, are minimal, and the impact is not seriously limited.

The Fun in Marriage Workshop would make an excellent feature for a couples’ retreat (formats, and even menus, are suggested in the Fun in Marriage Workshop Leader’s Guide, available for 50¢). The series could also be used for a Sunday school class, though participants would need to complete the questionnaires ahead of time, and a week’s time should elapse between films to allow the discussion leader to bring the workshop into the local classroom.

A Run At The Muppets

After years of success on television, the Muppets have finally come to church. Well, almost. Actually, Buford and Friend (Gospel Films; $35.00 per film) are closer to a third cousin once removed than to Kermit and his television cast. Yet the series of five films featuring a stuffed hound dog named Buford, his animal puppet friends, and big name guests that include Debbie Boone, Jamie Owen Collins, Andraé Crouch, David Meese, and David Boyer may be one of the more useful releases in Christian films for children in recent years.

Modeled after the popular television show, each film is built around a single theme (prayer, forgiveness, witnessing, God’s Word, and fellowship), which weaves its way through a series of vignettes, musical numbers, “on location” reports by Buford about a biblical event, a Bible verse, a Hollywood Squares-type quiz show with Fenway (penguin), Reggie (raccoon), Quemby (koala bear), Miss Bullah (cow), Julius (wolf), Sigfried and wife (old man and woman), and a rotating series of attractive game show hostesses.

The strength of the series is the clever way the themes appear throughout the programs. Buford’s “On Assignment” reports are expecially creatively done as he reports Bible stories from behind the scenes while other puppets dramatize the events.

Unfortuntely, the genius of the “Muppet Show” is not captured by Buford and Friends. Kermit and company communicate to adults and children simultaneously, functioning on two levels at the same time. Buford and his guest stars fluctuate back and forth, playing to either adult or childhood audiences. Most of the music is too long and too far removed from the experience of a child. Though some Muppet-style backup to the singers may have helped, when Dave Boyer sang of such abstract themes as the “Triune Oneness of Our Triune God” and proclaimed that “His Grace Has Set Me Free,” the majority of children still reasoning in concrete fashion may have found little if any meaning in the songs.

Buford and Friends, despite budget limitations, is a clever tool for teaching biblical values to children. The half-hour length of the films makes them ideal for use in day camps, children’s church, club programs, vacation Bible school, or camping programs. Since the films can be rented individually or as a series, local churches have a great deal of flexibility in the way they can use them.

Someone Special

His Stubborn Love is a celebration of the specialness of a woman’s life. The viewer emotionally attends a party, as author Joyce Landorf blends an Erma Bombeck-type wit with James Dobson-style popular psychology, along with the spiritual heritage of her own mother. It is a picture of life through the eyes of one who is able to look back on the idiosyncrasies of family living and laugh.

The film series is a six-part series of films produced by Word, Incorporated, and focuses on “Change Points” (Landorf’s own version of Gail Sheehey’s Passages), “Your Irregular Person” (handling life’s rejections), “Mourning Song” (dealing with losses in life), “God’s Waiting Room” (experiencing God’s persistent working), “His Stubborn Love” (discovering how God can heal marriages), and “Tough and Tender” (analyzing what every woman wants in a man). Each film runs close to an hour in length and is only available as a part of the entire series, which costs $345.

Joyce Landorf is first and foremost a communicator. Her presentation is charming, humorous, insightful, dramatic, and at times very moving. One gains the impression that the speaker is a person very much in touch with herself, her family, and God. She is saying both verbally and nonverbally, “This view of life can be yours as well.”

On the other hand, His Stubborn Love, appears to be as much of an extension of our American middle-class culture as it is an exposition of a biblical perspective on women. The refined, upper-middle-class, Dallas suburban audience who attended the filming are in many ways a reflection of the author. Wisely, Landorf does not claim her view of life to be God’s view, thereby heaping guilt upon those whose marriages do not match the glowing reports of her own family. But from time to time she insightfully quotes from biblical passages.

A sensitive example of her insights is found in “Mourning Song,” in which Landorf speaks from her own grief. She describes her feelings over losing a newborn baby, David, and when nine months later she saw her dearly loved mother succumb to cancer. She then uses Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of dying to explain the feelings through which people who have suffered such losses as divorce, death, and financial reversals find themselves passing. The isolation and rejection one who has suffered loss experiences, states Landorf, can be amplified by insensitive counseling, and by remarks and actions from even the most well-meaning of friends. She uses a multitude of personal illustrations.

One walks away from His Stubborn Love feeling a little more special, perhaps because for six hours a woman has been told by her mother, her husband, her family, her readers, and her audience that she is a unique creation in their eyes and in the eyes of God. In turn, she has made the audience feel special.

Premiere

Because they came caroling,

A host of them,

Performing melodic wonder

In the first-night sky,

I have decided

On a season ticket.

Despite uncertain days,

I am rapturous—quite!

Regularly enjoined

By angels—

Singing in the night.

Further,

I hear what they herald:

Divine decree—

The sweet Infant cry

Of creation—calling me.

SALLIE CHESHAM

Good News

Good News Is for Sharing is another curricular innovation from David C. Cook Publishing Company, following its Lifestyle concept and Christian Growth Electives. Cook is now entering the movie/video tape field with 13 short discussions featuring Leighton Ford discussing evangelism. The package is available as six rental films ($198 for the series), featuring two discussions per film, or as three videotapes for purchase ($395 for the series), with four segments per tape.

The series is built around Ford’s book by the same name (Cook, $2.95) and focuses on some basic issues of personal evangelism: What does “evangelism” mean? What are the major hindrances to witnessing? What does it mean to be “lost”? What is the gospel? Each segment is 9 to 14 minutes in length, and places the evangelist in informal settings in the Pacific Northwest with a group of young adults who discuss the issues with him.

The films’ informality does not remove the strength of the message, though discussions do not appear to be Ford’s strength and at times he lapses into a crusade style. But the impression left by the rough-cut segments viewed was that they can provide discussion material for a class or seminar on evangelism.

More Than A Children’S Film

After watching Gary Coleman on television’s “Different Strokes,” most child actors in evangelical films appear to be marionettes, lacking in expressiveness, development of character, and/or warmth of personality. To compensate for sterile acting, many film makers have turned to slapstick humor or overt violence to involve the viewer emotionally in the story line.

The recent Gospel Films release, More Than a Champion (cost: $59), successfully blends excellent acting and character development by children with a near Hitchcock-like use of the viewer’s imagination to produce a desired effect. There is suspense in the 56-minute drama, its most violent scene occurring at the end of a race when a horse’s leg is injured, and happening in a split second.

The story is of Billy, whose dream is to win a junior rodeo competition, and his Uncle Wilber, a clever rodeo clown. The plot pits two value systems against each other, personified by Skip Harper, a macho rodeo champion who represents a win-at-all-costs philosophy, and Uncle Wilber, who presents a contrasting model of strength through sacrifice. It is when Uncle Wilber faces an angry bull to save a rebellious Billy’s life that the little league cowboy understands the old clown’s words about Jesus, whose strength was seen in his unprotested death.

More Than a Champion is well written and well acted, employing the skills of Wilbur Pelougher, a talented circus clown in real life, and blending catchy music with lively rodeo action. But more important, this evangelistic children’s film speaks in concrete terms preadolescents can understand and respond to for salvation.

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