On a recent Saturday, I watched a movie for Mature Audiences. I’m interested in how this label, “Mature Audiences,” is used. We say to children, “You can’t watch this, it is for Mature Audiences.” I want to call the people who came up with this name because I don’t think they have a good understanding of “mature” or “adult.” When I say, “Adult Film,” what do you think of? Shame on you.
The movie I watched was an old one, High Noon from 1952 with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. It had been advertised as an Adult Western. There was no nudity, no profanity, and very little shooting. There isn’t a gun fight until the last fifteen minutes of the movie. So, why was it an adult film?
Pretty much everyone in it is stereotypical. The bad guys wear black. The scowl. They don’t like each other. They don’t like their horses. They are just mean animals. A clear hierarchy. They have their bad guy music. Like all these films, if you woke up in one, you’d know who you were by the music. If the music has b’s and d’s, you are a villain. Ba-ba-ba da – da – da – da. DUM. If there are t’s, you are a hero. Ta-te-te ta tat a ta.
The town’s people are also stereotypical. They talk a lot. A lot. They claim to support the Marshal, but they run in the end. It is amazing how much time in this film Cooper, Marshal Will Kane, stands by himself in the middle of the street. The only characters with any depth are Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) and Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly).
Marshal Kane has fallen in love with the ever-attractive Amy Fowler. At the beginning of the movie, the bad guys are riding into town, ba- ba- ba- da- da. And Will and Amy are getting married. There are two ceremonies, the wedding, and then the Marshal turns over his badge. Amy, his new wife, is a Quaker. She does not believe in violence. He is giving up being a Marshal out of respect for her, out of love for her. However, before they can run off and set up a store, they get word that Frank Miller is coming back to town to join up with the three bad guys we’ve already seen. His train gets into town of course, at High Noon.
After some struggle, Will takes back his badge. Amy tries to leave him. Much of the movie is looking at the eyes of Will and Amy, Cooper and Kelly. And their struggle. They have conflicting commitments, him to her and to protecting the town, her to nonviolence and to support him.Tough stuff. That’s an Adult film where the choices are hard, the path unclear, and emotional pain.
The world around them is clear: right/wrong, good/evil, cowardly/brave… but not so with them. It’s not clear. It’s hard. So you look at their eyes a lot… Tough stuff. But it is adult stuff. It is an adult film. Two adults struggling in an immature world.
Jesus encounters several people possessed with demons, but it won’t be the devil or the demons that will kill Jesus, it will be the religious, the political, and none with the maturity of Will or Amy Kane. They were big on morality but small on maturity, very similar to the township and the nice religious folks in High Noon. They all protected themselves, their stores, their families and were more than willing to sacrifice the Marshal, and his wife. Will and Amy are mature because they make mature decisions. Even though Will takes a stand against the law breakers and chooses to wear his gun out of a lack of clear choices of what to do otherwise, she chooses to love him in the midst of the moral ambiguity. Even though the leaders of the town betray Will, he still chooses to live out his role as Sheriff, not because they deserve it, but because that’s their way, they make hard choices when there are plenty of reasons to take the easier, safer way out.
In a similar betrayal, a group of men are hired to protect a town from bandits in The Magnificent Seven. The town’s people betray them to the bandits, but they choose to protect those who would even betray them to be killed. Their choice in who and how they will be regardless of what others choose to do is what makes them both mature and magnificent. That’s what mature adults do, even when unclear what to do, they decide based on integrity.
Poet Maya Angelou observed that a lot of what we credit as maturity isn’t maturing at all. She said,
Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.
John 18:4 Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” 5 They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus replied, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. Jesus knew they were coming for him. He knew Judas would betray him. He knew far more than you’d want to know. He knew enough to run away, but he didn’t. He stood.
In life, you can’t control others. You can’t control the world around you. But you can always choose. That’s what adults do. High Noon. Jesus style.
