Our older girls have expressed interest in watching more movies, and I've been hunting through the pluggedin.com reviews trying to find suitable, healthy movies for them to watch. Pluggedin.com, for those who don't know, is part of Focus on the Family's ministry. Heroic individuals on staff watch movies and write very detailed reviews about sexual content, violence, alcohol and drug use, positive elements, negative elements, etc. I say heroic because some movies are so awful that I cannot imagine having to watch them. Ugh ugh ugh.
Anyway, PluggedIn had good things to say about Soul Surfer, which is based on the real life story of Bethany Hamilton. Hamilton was living a relatively normal life in Hawaii with her family, with the exception that she was a rising star in the surfing community with dreams of becoming a professional surfer. In 2003, she was 13 years old when she was attacked by a shark and nearly lost her life. She did lose her left arm.
I watched about 90% of the movie. I was concerned that the shark attack scene and subsequent medical crisis might be too intense, so I wanted to screen that. I ended up liking the movie enough that I found time to watch MOST of it. As you can imagine, it isn't always easy to find time to watch movies around here, especially movies that I want to screen ahead of time so I need to watch them when little eyes aren't with me.
So, I like the movie. A lot. It is inspirational, it is encouraging, it is authentic, it is openly Christian. The Hamiltons are all devout Christians and it was their faith that helped them walk through this intense and difficult crisis. They were firm with the filmmakers that the movie needed to reflect their faith, and it does.
I appreciated that while the Hamilton family was very bonded, they weren't perfect. There are a couple of scenes showing conflict and anger and grief over the situation. There are open discussions by the parents that they don't know all the answers for their daughter. It wasn't Pollyannish. This was a tragic and difficult experience, and it marked them all.
The shark attack was, I thought, handled well. Unlike Jaws, which has lots of ominous music and drawn out suspense, the attack happens quickly. There is a lot of blood and the following scene is very intense as there was a good chance she'd die right in the water or on the beach. Her best friend's father almost certainly saved her life as he reacted quickly to put on a tourniquet. He stayed calm in a situation that would have panicked many people, including me.
I will mention the one caveat, and that is the issue of modesty. There are a lot of people showing skin in the movie. In fact, in one early scene (before the attack), Bethany and her best friend are looking at swimwear and make a snarky comment about a modest one piece swimsuit. That comment is followed by another comment about how bikinis shouldn't be too tiny. I am not a fan of bikinis as I think they show too much in our American culture, but Hamilton did and does wear bikinis, as do many female surfers.
I am perhaps somewhat unusual in my view of modesty in that I believe that modesty is somewhat cultural. I spent 3 years of my childhood in South America, and I occasionally went into tribal groups where older women didn't wear shirts. When these ladies were young, it was incredibly hard to make clothing. And it was very very hot. So they didn't wear shirts, and it wasn't considered provocative. By the time I was there, western clothing was more readily available. But still, some of the older women wore traditional clothing.
There have been cultures where even showing ankles was considered immodest for a female.
So to some degree, I think that modesty depends on culture. In Hawaii, where it is very hot, perhaps it is considered fairly normal to wear bikinis. Nevertheless, my Midwest sensibilities were a bit uneasy about a lot of attractive girls in bikinis. I will say that there was no posing in the movie, and that helped. There are ways and WAYS to wear a garment. I've seen women in modest clothing who held themselves provocatively. In Soul Surfer, everyone is just going about doing his or her business. But still, if you are very concerned about bikinis, you probably won't like this movie.
Bethany Hamilton did become a professional surfer, a surfer with one arm. She got married 2 months ago. She says in her book that she is glad the attack happened, because she has been able to minister to many people. I find her a very inspirational young woman.
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