Category Archives: movies

Did Mary Suffer Labor Pains?

Posted on 25.Nov.06 by | 19 comments

In anticipation of the upcoming movie, “The Nativity Story”, Taylor Marshall brings up the question of whether or not Mary suffered in her labor. Marshall, quoting Thomas Aquinas, writes that Catholic tradition teaches that Mary “did NOT experience birth pains when giving birth to Christ our Savior.” (emphasis his) Apparently the movie, which will premiere at the Vatican, shows Mary suffering through child birth.

Has anyone read anything about this from a Reformed perspective? My first thought is to lean in the other direction. The writer of Hebrews seems to go at length to show how Christ was ‘just like us’ in our humanity. God did not deliver Christ from the natural suffering coming from crucification, why would we suppose that he spared Mary from the natural suffering that accompanies child birth? Taylor makes the point that Mary could have been delivered from the curse of Eve as was being used to bring the new Adam into the world.

What do you think?

19 Comments

Posted in movies, theology

Movies We’ve Seen Lately

Posted on 16.Nov.05 by | 2 comments

We don’t typically rent movies, we just borrow them from the public library, which means we usually wait a while for new or popular releases or end up getting really random things from the racks. Here’s what we’ve seen lately, rated out of four stars.

Hitch (2005) with Will Smith and Kevin James was funny enough to warrant renting if you haven’t seen it. Not the world’s best comedy, but pretty solid nonetheless. ***

Evelyn (2002) with Pierce Brosnan was okay. An interesting story, but a little too sappy, even for this pregnant momma. **

Ocean’s Twelve (2004) was a disappointment. They tried way too hard with this one. *

2 Comments

Posted in movies

HP & POA

Posted on 09.Jul.05 by | 5 comments

I watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban the other night with some friends, after re-reading the book a few days earlier. I am shocked at how much was changed. The movie was fine. I never really noticed the changes a year earlier in the theatres and thoroughly enjoyed it. Watching it right after reading it, however, the differences stick out. Sometimes they’re petty — Hermione slaps Malfoy in the book, punches in the movie — and sometimes they’re more substantial. JKR tells an elaborate story of how — for a few people — Sirius is finally proved innocent; the movie took too many short cuts.

All of this made me wonder: I know this story already. I know the background to something that happens for only a few seconds or is in the background of the shot. How much sense did the movie make to someone who hadn’t read the book? How much more (if any) would someone get from watching it again after having finally read the book?

Final thought: if they did all this editing for POA, what will they do to GOF or OOTP? There is too much to cut in GOF/OOTP. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

5 Comments

Posted in books, movies