With movies, I like to think my own thoughts…

Whether it be the gross takings from the box-office, or those percentages on Rotten Tomatoes – neither one is going to influence me one whit. They are not going to tell me what to think. No way 😀. I’ll like what I like for the reasons I choose, thank-you very much!

And so it came to pass with The Best of Enemies. I enjoyed it so much that I watched it on three different flights over three consecutive weeks. Then I went online to discover it was a total box-office flop and that dear ol’ Rotten Tomatoes, representing all those critics, managed to squeak it just up over 50%.


Oh dear. Never mind. Let me try and bring together the reasons why I enjoyed the movie (while trying hard not to provide a spoiler as I do so).

I love that it was loosely-based around a true story.
But that is just me. I much prefer such movies to superhero ones, or sci-fi ones. So much of that stuff is escapist. The last thing I want to do in a movie is escape. I want to engage real life with it’s issues and do some gospel-thinking about them. And … there is nothing better than some real footage from the actual characters at the end (and their voices were at the beginning as well, but I didn’t realise it on the first viewing) to help anchor the engagement in heart and mind. Love it when that happens.

I love watching a person’s worldview change.
This happens to the leading male character, CP – the big man in the local Klu Klux Klan. You kinda know it is coming, but that is OK. Worldview transformation is not simply about thinking new thoughts, but loving new loves. In fact the affective usually leads the cognitive more often than is recognised. That is the case here.

I love the biblical truths on display.
The dignity of human beings: ‘the same God that made you made me’. I read some of the critics. They don’t like the perspective from which the movie is told, as it becomes ‘a White savior narrative’. I can see what they are saying and it has merit, but I didn’t find that to be the key. She may not dominate the screen quite as much, but the leading female character – Ann, an African-American activist – is the one who provides the turning points in the plot and moves it forward. One time around justice, when she insists that the despicable Klan be given their space. The other time around compassion, when she visits an institution where people with serious disabilities are living, including the son of her enemy.

I love the way it plays with belonging.
It is such a big part of the Klan-appeal – no longer an ‘outsider’, no longer ‘alone’. ‘We are an endangered species’. ‘Not for one’s self but for others’. Committing to something ‘bigger than yourself’. All of these phrases are in the script. It sounds so plausible and yet it is all so evil. It is a classic example of how the making of ‘belonging’ to be the highest value in community, which many churches have fallen for over the past generation (it takes me back to the believe-behave-belong discussion), is just so flawed. Once again I hear the critics as the features of belonging in the African-American community are not probed much at all. And yet that community provides the characters which lead the way to the sense-of-belonging celebrated right there in the final scenes of the movie. [NB: in real life, Ann spoke at CP’s funeral].


I love following the process that produces a resolution.
A mediator enters the highly-charged situation and instigates a process called a charette. I’d never heard of it before – but the idea is simple. Get the protagonists in a room together. Get them listening to each other. Get them eating together. Give time for friendships and empathy to develop. Air the issues. Select a ‘senate’ that reflects both sides evenly and then let them vote on the resolutions that are developed … and abide by the outcome.

I love the characters lurking in the background.
CP’s wife, the owner of the local hardware store, the facilitator of the charette are three of the ones I enjoyed watching more closely with my repeat-viewings.

I love the way it shows nominalism to be a sham.
This is such a major issue wherever Christianity has become established for a few generations. It weakens the church and makes it a joke in the wider society. Listening to the Klu Klux Klan close a meeting with heart-felt prayer was horrible. A bit like when one of the Fast & Furious movies closed in prayer, or when Crazy Rich Asians included those women having a bible study. Ugh! What they all need to do is spend a year with the prophet Malachi in one hand … and a mirror in the other.

I love the ending.
Here’s hoping you watch the movie and love the ending as well.

nice chatting

Paul