Two Summer Movies— Downton Abbey. A New Era, and the Professor and the Madman

Last updated on: June 15, 2022 at 4:50 pm by Ben Witherington

Two Summer Movies— Downton Abbey. A New Era, and the Professor and the Madman 2022-06-15T16:50:40-04:00 Ben Witherington

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We’ve already had occasion to laud the new Top Gun movie which came out last month, and so far is the best summer action movie of all those on offer. This blog post will focus on Downton Abbey and the Professor and the Madman. The latter was doomed by Covid to not show up in the theaters in 2020-21, and so I saw it on the plane coming home from Istanbul. It involves a true story about how the OED, the Oxford English Dictionary came to be compiled, and has a clear Christian message. The former has already had a good month’s long run in the theaters, and is a fun period piece. Let’s deal with Downton first.

As we catch up with the Crawleys (who are not creepy crawlies) we have gotten all the way to the cusp of 1930. The conceit of the film is that ‘Granny’ (Maggie Smith) has somehow inherited a villa in the south of France…. and as she asks her family ‘do I look like a person who would turn down a villa in the south of France?’ Obviously not, as she’s to the manor born. The other plot line is that a silent film is going to be made at Downton, which before it’s done turns into a talky, one of the early ones. The movie begins with a wedding and ends with a funeral, and in between we have two marriage proposals. The movie is two hours long and a bit, and has the usual charming dialogue from Julian Fellowes as usual, though I have to admit that the quips were coming so fast near the beginning of the movie that it seemed a little contrived. Never mind, if you like these people and are interested in their next adventures, you will overlook the small flaws and enjoy the scenes that make you laugh and those that might make you tear up. At the very heart of the story is of course Mary aka Michelle Dockery, now the mistress of Downton, whose husband is gadding about, and does not make an appearance in this film. All the other familiar faces and a few new ones are present and accounted for. If this is the last hurrah of the Downton gang, they certainly go out in style, and I mean amazing clothes, scenes, houses, furniture, and estates. One interesting development is that Lord Granville has lost considerable weight. He looks good. I enjoyed this film a lot, and thankfully there is no violence, profanity or anything really objectionable in the film. It’s a good family film.

Then there is the high drama of the Professor and the Madman starring Sean Penn and Mel Gibson, who should have been nominated for an Oscar for this film. He plays the central figure, James Murray a Scottish scholar who did the heavy lifting of creating the dictionary. This is absolutely a true story. In desperation he enlists an incarcerated and somewhat crazed American who suffered from what we would call PTSD from the American Civil War, and in the end was diagnosed with a bipolar condition. This film is also just over two hours long, and it is one of the best dramas I’ve seen in a long time, especially if one narrows it down to those that have a Christian theme, in this case about forgiveness and God’s grace. The acting is superb, the snobbishness of the Oxford professors is believable, since Murray has no college degree, he’s simply a brilliant linguist, and the ongoing effect of trying to produce this dictionary on Murray’s wife and family, not to mention on Dr. William a surgeon who mistakenly shot a man he thought was pursuing him and landed in the gaol, but was given books to research word origins and use.

In many ways this movie is compelling, heart-rending, and in the end a story of achievement and release and even love against all odds. It is a great pity this film, based on an excellent book, was not released in the U.S. this year, but I guess they figured that since 2019 was its original planned release date there was too much water under the bridge. It is miles better, as a serious and true life drama, than any other similar film released this year. Though painful to watch the deterioration of Dr. William who is subject to the abuses of quack medicine and experiments of that era, there is still a story of overcoming and redemption to be told as well. I intend to use scenes from this film in teaching, especially the scene about God’s prevenient grace and the need to believe in forgiveness as a Christian. I ended up in tears at the end of this one.

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