Movie article

Good versus evil is presented as another worldview that competes with other cosmologies, yet there is something intrinsically true to life about good versus evil.

Humans tend to understand it implicitly as if ingrained on conscience and morality.

A moral person knows the difference between right and wrong. Repentant people know they have done evil and begin to recover their lost sense of right and wrong.

In many movies there is good versus evil. It is better that way for a movie. There is no ambiguity, so the stakes are set for a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. That makes a better, more exciting movie.

Sometimes I think that life is about good versus evil.

When we see a news story about poverty or an unjust war we may be outraged. When people are hurt, we want to right the wrong.

Young people may not care. Good versus evil never occurred to me as I watched Star Wars and Krull. Those films drew me in like they were invisibly pulling me closer, and like a colorful sound through the atmosphere calling me to come, I came.

Krull became one of my favorite movies. It is not as famous as many other fantasy tales around that time, but when it was advertised in 1983, it seemed to be the best thing since sliced bread. But it was really about good versus evil, with a princess, a prince in love with her, and a greedy, merciless beast who captured her.

There was a tangible sense of suspense as the countdown began to save her. The audience does not how she will get saved, but they almost certainly know she will.

In the end, I wanted good to win.

In movies, evil is usually obliterated in a blast, in a blow up, in a single act that eradicates evil’s core power. What some movies do is put a rescue plan in place, to save others from the darkness. Sometimes, saving the world takes the ultimate rescue mission.

In our hearts, we love a good versus evil fantasy to end well. It is almost a given of human nature. Good should win, and if it does not, that should be qualified with a why didn’t it?

Good defeating evil is, as always, intrinsic.