Davey June 13th, 2009

I tried downloading this a couple of times, but both times it cut out at the same place, a little after you talk about Scorsese doing the voice-over for Charlie's thoughts in the film. It may just be a problem with my computer, but I'd like to hear the full episode.

Watching Theology June 17th, 2009

Davey,

Hopefully, this is working for you now. It seems to be working fine on the SBE player. I've tried downloading and adjusting the program, but can't seem to get it to repeat the problem you're having.

Davey June 19th, 2009

I'll try it out again and see if I can get it to work. Thanks for looking into it, and thanks for linking my interview with Dutcher and review of "Falling"! Incidentally, I just rewatched "Brigham City" the other day (it's been awhile since I watched it–I really love the film–and I've worked with a couple people who have some smaller parts in the film in the intervening years). Looking forward to listening to "Breaking the Waves" (one of the most difficult movie-watching experiences I've had–also, you may want to change the "'Passion of Joan of Arc' for the 1970s" to "'Passion of Joan of Arc' for the 1990s"), as well as the upcoming episode on "In Bruges". Keep up the great work!

Davey June 25th, 2009

Good episode, great film (the episode inspired me to watch the first half again last night before bed). To me, though, it seems that Charlie actually has a point about making up for your sins in the streets, and I'm not sure I'd agree that he's telling God to shut up–I think the God of "Mean Streets" is a silent one, and Charlie's left trying to figure out the paradoxes of life and the church in His absence. Perhaps this is my Mormonism speaking, the belief in both grace and works, but every Christian (and every religious or ethical person) believes in living a just and right life, and that there's more to being a good person than saying "Ten Hail Marys and ten Our Fathers"; Charlie doesn't understand the idea of grace because it seems like an easy out, especially as a boy and man in the mean streets of New York City, and I think "Mean Streets" is partially a tragedy of the lack of reconciliation between these aspects of grace and righteous day-to-day living (particularly in a fallen world–and particularly within the fallen world within a fallen world that the film occupies). Certainly there's a brash kind of arrogance about the way Charlie says, "I wanna do it my way"–but don't we all do it our way? Religion is a communal, institutional thing, but it's also private and personal, and within each religion there are people who believe a thousand-and-one different things. In the absence of a God that speaks directly to him, Charlie has to figure things out for himself–it seems to me in the film that God is distant, above humanity, but we still have a yearning for Him, and especially a yearning to believe that he yearns for us too, like the statue of Christ, His arms outstretched, hidden away on a rooftop.

On a different subject about the film, I've also heard people make the connection between Charlie and Johnny Boy and Judas and Christ, with Charlie's unwitting and well-intentioned betrayal a shadow of Scorsese's and Keitel's (and Schrader's and Kazantzakis') Judas in "The Last Temptation of Christ." I think it's an interesting parallel, if not by any means a complete or thorough reading of the film.