{"id":5634,"date":"2024-06-06T15:51:51","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T21:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?p=5634"},"modified":"2024-06-06T15:51:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T21:51:51","slug":"sight-reminds-us-that-we-can-all-be-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2024\/06\/sight-reminds-us-that-we-can-all-be-blind\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sight\u2019 Reminds Us That We Can All Be Blind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a>
Terry Chen and Mia Swami Nathan in Sight<\/em>, screen shot courtesy Angel Studios trailer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
The movie Sight<\/em> came out a couple of weeks ago. It was released alongside the more heralded Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga<\/em> and The Garfield Movie<\/em>. Directed by Andrew Hyatt and coming with a subtle-but-powerful foundation of faith, Sight<\/em>, based on a true story, is a gently inspiring, smartly crafted film.<\/p>\n
And honestly, it has stuck with me longer than I expected\u2014thanks to Flannery O\u2019Conner.<\/p>\n
Sight\u2019<\/em>s narrative come in two parts: One focused on a young, bright aspiring doctor named Ming Wang (played by Ben Wang), coming of age in China during the Cultural Revolution. The other introduced us to a mature Dr. Wang (Terry Chen)\u2014now one of the world\u2019s most renowned eye surgeons. And in the movie, he\u2019s faced with one of the most difficult challenges of his professional life.<\/p>\n
A young girl from India\u2014her name\u2019s Kajal (Mia Swami Nathan)\u2014is brought to Wang by a kindly nun, Sister Marie (Fionnula Flanagan). Kajal is blind, of course; knowing that truly blind beggars make more in the Indian slums than those just faking it, Kajal\u2019s stepmother poured acid into the little girl\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
Wang\u2014a doctor quite confident of his abilities and a bit hungry for fawning press pieces\u2014sizes up Kajal\u2019s case and nearly turns her away. Even with Wang\u2019s considerable skill, he knows that there\u2019s only a small chance that Kajal\u2019s sight will return. But Sister Marie convinces him to treat Kajal. \u201cShe has traveled across the world for a chance,\u201d she tells him. \u201cEven a slim chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rest of the film weaves Wang\u2019s backstory with this more modern medical drama. And\u2014in an interesting choice by Hyatt\u2014it steers clear of overt spirituality for most of its runtime. The younger Wang knew nothing of Christianity. And when he\u2019s older, everyone calls him the miracle worker: He doesn\u2019t need any help from God, thanks all the same.<\/p>\n
But as Wang works to restore Kajal\u2019s eyesight\u2014and in the aftermath\u2014Wang discovers that, whether blind or no, the little girl \u201csees\u201d better than Wang himself. The child loves God\u2014and she loves others with pure delight. Ultimately, she gives Wang a rosary and tells him that she\u2019ll be praying for him. And Wang, touched, realizes he needs that prayer.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blinded, In Spite of the Light<\/strong><\/h3>\n
While the real Dr. Ming Wang is a committed Christian, the one we see onscreen seems puzzled, and perhaps slightly amazed, when confronted with Kajal\u2019s childlike faith. He grapples with the upside-down universe of God. How weakness can be strength. How affliction can come with joy. How a world-renowned doctor can feel small next to a 6-year-old girl.<\/p>\n
I sometimes wonder how many Christians really understand that. I wonder if I do.<\/p>\n
I work for a Christian entertainment outlet for a Christian ministry, and I love my job. We tell our readers, the majority of whom are parents looking for appropriate entertainment for their kids, what to watch out for. Does this movie have profanity? Does that one have any sex scenes? What about the violence? Is that too extreme?<\/em><\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to see a movie tonight, in fact, and I\u2019ll be dutifully recording all the \u201cnegative content\u201d that I see. And again, I know that readers will appreciate it. I\u2019m certainly not saving anyone\u2019s eyesight. But for the families that read our reviews, we are providing a service that they think is important. And I think it\u2019s important, too.<\/p>\n
But God loves His paradoxes. And as I wait for this movie, I\u2019m reading Flannery O\u2019Connor: Spiritual Writings<\/em>, edited by Robert Ellsberg. I\u2019ve read a lot of O\u2019Connor\u2019s work before movie screenings, and I\u2019m keenly aware that many\u2014most\u2014of her stories would be filled with what I\u2019d term in my reviews \u201cnegative content.\u201d<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s the kicker: O\u2019Connor was a deeply committed Christian\u2014a writer for whom themes of sin and grace and redemption and God seemingly permeates every novel, every short story, every letter. Her work hits me in a way that few Christian movies do.<\/p>\n
And so much of her work is populated by characters who think they\u2019re so<\/em> good\u2014the apple of God\u2019s eye and ever<\/em>-so-much better than their neighbors or servants or relatives. Often they\u2019re rocked by cataclysm that forces them to see the nature of God more clearly. And perhaps still, in the end, run from that beautiful, terrible, awe-ful sight.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hard Stories<\/strong><\/h3>\n
In a 1955 letter, O\u2019Connor writes:<\/p>\n
"
I am mighty tired of reading reviews that call A Good Man<\/em> [Is Hard to Find<\/em>, a collection of short stories] brutal and sarcastic. The stories are hard but they are hard because there is nothing harder or less sentimental than Christian realism. I believe that there are many rough beasts slouching toward Bethlehem to be born and I have reported on the progress of a few of them, and when I see these stories described as horror stories I am always amused because the reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I think a lot of Christians like \u201cnice\u201d stories. Stories that don\u2019t have huge issues. Stories you can watch with your family. Stories that confirm, rather than challenge, what you think and feel and believe.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s nothing wrong with nice. Nice<\/em> is a warm blanket by the fire. Nice<\/em> is a well-kept English garden. \u00a0Nice<\/em> is a sweet, inoffensive movie to enjoy for a couple of hours that Christian reviewers like me can approve of.<\/p>\n
Nice<\/em> is being a doctor who can do things that few other doctors can and be praised and paid for it.<\/p>\n
But nice<\/em> can be a trap, too. The world, often, isn\u2019t nice, as Dr. Wang himself knew all too well growing up. And it\u2019s that world, more than the world of pretty pictures and cozy comforts, where we see God best. God goes places we\u2019re scared to go. And sometimes, He pushes in directions we\u2019d rather not turn. Our God is one of both comfort and cataclysm\u2014with us in both sickness and health. As O\u2019Connor, who suffered and died from lupus at the age of 39, knew full well.<\/p>\n
In the movie Sight<\/em>, Dr. Wang works relentlessly to bring Kajal\u2019s own sight back. To take away that burden of blindness, Wang believes, would mean success. Victory. Wouldn\u2019t that be \u2026 nice?<\/p>\n
Yes. Yes it would. Both Kajal and Sister Marie would love for that sight to be returned. But they understand that our God is one for whom success and victory looks very different. We can find beauty\u2014sometimes hard, painful beauty\u2014when we go beyond the nice. It\u2019s funny, because I\u2019d classify Sight as a pretty nice movie: It\u2019s not filled with language. The violence we see is fairly understated compared to what it could be. And yet, when we really think the characters here, we find a certain ferocious grace.<\/p>\n
At one point, Sister Marie reminds Dr. Wang that the miracle isn\u2019t Kajal\u2019s eyesight returning. The miracle is in front of Wang\u2019s own eyes\u2014Kajal herself. \u201cLook at what God uses when we refuse to believe there is no purpose,\u201d she says. \u201c[Kajal] has moved beyond the tragedy of the past and embraces the present with happiness and joy and love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kajal, in short, could be a hero in one of Flannery O\u2019Connor\u2019s stories.<\/p>\n
Me? I\u2019m not so sure.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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