Tell me the old, old story

The War of the Worlds was my favourite book as a kid in Elementary (or as we called it in England, Primary) School. I read it about seven times before I hit eleven years old. At such a young age I didn't get all the deeper critique of human inactivity in the face of threat, of watching the world burn, of the words of the introduction containing the eventual downfall of the invaders. I just loved the book and I read and re-read it, and though I am a voracious reader there are very very few books I read more than once. 

I also, thanks to my buddy Gary, discovered Jeff Wayne's musical version of the War of the Worlds, which I still love - I even like the remake that came out a decade or so ago, and whilst researching links for this post I discovered that the grand, spectacle-filled, high-tech musical is still on tour (not at the moment it seems, but it has been performed in the Netherlands at a couple of venues this year) so I will keep an eye out for that as I still love it!  

I remember being disappointed by the 1953 movie version with the flying laser beam alien ships rather than the terrifying tripods of my imagination, somehow as a retelling it didn't work for me. When I saw the remake with Tom Cruise in the lead, however, I enjoyed the adaptations which had been made and it felt like a story that was remaining true to the original whilst seeking to help it speak to a contemporary audience. 

Which brings me to last night, when my beloved and I watched a new movie that arrived on our streaming service - a remake of the War of the Worlds with Ice Cube as the lead. As a WoW obsessive (I think that's a fair way to describe myself) I was happy to watch another adaptation of this much loved story - and, though we haven't finished watching the movie, it gave me a lot of thinks - both in terms of the nostalgic lookback we have here and in the way in which it was adapted, again, for the current world.

Now, this is not a movie review for the latest movie, I've not been paid by 'Big Alien' to do this review - nor am I going to give a full reflection on the whole picture. I'm not going to go into much detail, as I don't want to offer any spoilers. I couldn't offer a full review if I wanted to, as I said above, I've not even watched the whole thing yet. There are plenty of reviews online if reading those kind of things is your jam, what I wanted to reflect on is how a story from a hundred and forty or so years ago is adapted for now - and how I think the premise of the adaptation actually worked, no matter what shortcomings the movie may have!

The premise - that the movie is around one person who finds themselves caught up in this fantastical invasion and is linking various parts of the story using various individual encounters - is true to the original story. The way it's adapted to make the central character a data/threat analyst connected to various people in his personal and professional life - constantly switching between common communication apps, secret analays programs, secure comms etc is an effective method which feels very 'now'. It plays into contemporary paranoia about survelliance society, along with expressing the justification that this is all 'to keep people safe'. There are lots of touches that, to me, make the movie feel like it is speaking to where we are now in the Western world - anxious, paranoid, yet complacent - as well as staying faithful to much of the idea of the original story, even though a core premise is changed about two thirds of the way through (no spoilers on that though). 

As a story telling method, it works. As a piece of art, we'll all have differing opinions, as always. 

This got me thinking - and everything up to this point has just been preamble - about this whole 'telling the story afresh' thing. In our Ordination we are reminded of the duty of ourselves and the Church at large to 'proclaim afresh the Good News', and the Church is called to radically retell the story of faith and live the life of Christ out loud in ways which connect and enliven, hour by hour, day by day. We have an age-old story of divine love, of a calling to wholeness and healing in community, of justice and equity for all people. We have good news which changes lives, draws us together, and can transform the world for the better, our calling is to tell that story in ways that people can hear. 

The narrative has, in many ways, been dominated by a particular way of interpreting the Christian message - a way which excludes rather than includes, that judges rather than embraces, that creates certainty instead of mystery. Those of us who believe that this old, old story is worth telling - holding on to the core and telling it again and again, not just in words but in the way we live our lives, in the way we love, in the way we share, in the way we bring the deep peace of Christ to all we do, we are the ones retelling the story as it should be told. 

So, what new ways do you have for telling an old story?