Church and "The Place Beyond the Pines"

            A few posts ago I described the scene in “The Place Beyond the Pines” where Luke Glanton is sitting in the rear of a Catholic church watching the baptism of his son Jason. Since I am Catholic and have witnessed many baptisms, I watched the scene with sharp attention. Movies often take a light-fingered approach to Catholic rituals and images, appropriating them willy-nilly to serve the needs of fiction. This scene was remarkably authentic, as far as I could tell. The only liberty the filmmakers took was to place the baptismal font directly in front of the altar. Usually the font is in a fixed position to the left of the sanctuary, the raised area that contains the altar, tabernacle and podium; or it is near the door of the church, where it is a sign of welcome to the new Christian.

            The third book I’m reading for the theology-and-movies course examines the interactions that take place between church and culture where movies are concerned. It is Theology Goes to the Movies: An Introduction to Critical Christian Thinking (2007), by Clive Marsh. The body of the book looks at twenty-three popular movies under seven headings. I’ve listed the headings (slightly reworded) in the sidebar, under Themes in Systematic Theology. “The Place Beyond the Pines” appears too recently to have been included in the book. My guess is that, if Professor Marsh were to comment on it, he would do so under the category of redemption. I want to look at it under the heading of church.

            In the movie, neither the baptism scene nor the idea of church has echoes later on. Romina and her mother are Hispanic and so there is a cultural expectation that they are Catholic, but we aren’t shown more scenes of how being Catholic affects their daily lives. Yet the baptism scene is crucial in the movie’s portrayal of Luke Glanton’s life. It emphasizes his status as an outsider.

            For a Catholic and probably all Christians, there are many resonances. For example, the church building and the sacrament of Baptism symbolize, among other things, the vibrant community life of practicing Christians. The sacrament welcomes the new baby into a community of faith, a community whose ideas and beliefs about the nature of God and man’s purpose on earth are, as Marsh says, embodied in practices. In the sad case of Luke, the practice that comes to mind is forgiveness. The movie depicts him as an outsider to the family that includes his baby. But, if he chose to, he could be part of a Christian community that would encourage him to forgive himself for abandoning Romina, seek her forgiveness, and be confident that God has forgiven him. A church community would teach him the value of sacrifice: he must let Jason go for the baby’s own good. It would teach him to trust God and to trust in the goodness of life. There is a good life possible for him without Romina and Jason. The community of faith would support his search for it.

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