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The New York Times
Movie REVIEW
For the Bible Tells
Me So (2007)
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First Run Features
V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal
bishop. |
Bible Lesson in Gay
Rights
By MATT ZOLLER SEITZ,
nytimes.com on the Web, October 5, 2007
Daniel Karslake’s documentary “For
the Bible Tells Me So” won’t win any prizes for technique, but innovation surely
ranks very low on this filmmaker’s to-do list. Mr. Karslake has said that
the movie is mainly intended as a feature-length primer that can be deployed in
arguments with homophobes.
Directorially, the movie is unremarkable, with one conspicuous and unfortunate
exception: when Mr. Karslake apes the supercharged empathy of an episode
of “Dateline” on NBC, right down to the verging-on-schmaltzy music.
Otherwise, the interviews with scholars parsing the Old and New Testaments are
paired with the expected archival photographs and illustrations of biblical
scenes. “For the Bible Tells Me So” is, strictly speaking, an educational
film, with the artlessness that that phrase implies.
The movie’s ensemble portrait of parents (many of them ministers) with adult gay
or lesbian children strives to demonstrate that homosexuality is a genetic
predisposition, not a lifestyle choice, and that those who quote Leviticus to
justify their animosity are guilty not just of intolerance but also of selective
piety, an inability to understand historical context and poor reading
comprehension. (Abomination, for example, does not mean against God, but
against a civilization’s cultural norms.)
“For the Bible Tells Me So” moves through its stories of coming out, detailing
how individuals adjusted (or failed to adjust) to their new reality and how
parents reacted (usually poorly).
Mary Lou Wallner, one of the staunchest advocates of gay rights in the movie,
became a political activist after her daughter, Anna, committed suicide — the
result, Ms. Wallner believes, of the letter she wrote to Anna rejecting her
after she came out. Brenda and David Poteat, married ministers, struggle
to accept their daughter Tonia’s lesbian identity, and judging from Mr. Poteat’s
statements, he’s not there yet.
Chrissy Gephardt, a daughter of the former House minority leader Richard A.
Gephardt and his wife, Jane, talks about enduring a sexless marriage to a man
before falling in love with a lesbian friend, admitting the truth about herself,
coming out and eventually joining her father on the campaign trail, with his
support and encouragement. Another profile subject is Bishop V. Gene
Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church,
who also survived a disastrous marriage before coming out.
Filmgoers and critics who are mainly interested in aesthetics will have little
tolerance for this secular sermon. Viewers who got this particular memo
long ago will likely deem it condescending, a word embodied by this movie’s most
unfortunate sequence, a smart-alecky animated short in which a gay man, a
lesbian and a booming Voice of God (Don LaFontaine) disabuse a homophobe of his
ignorance. The dummy’s name? Christian.
But there is no denying that the film, however inelegant, fills a need.
The inevitable DVD should be packaged in a plain cardboard sleeve, so that
viewers can carry it in their pockets and, if confronted by a homophobe, hand it
over and say, “Watch this, then get back to me.”
FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO
Opens today in Manhattan.
Produced and directed by Daniel Karslake; edited by Nancy Kennedy; music by
Scott Anderson and Mark Suozzo; released by First Run Features. At the
Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 97
minutes. This film is not rated.
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