Today My 20 year old daughter, Jo, and I watched the movie “Blue Like Jazz” on DVD. This movie, based loosely on Donald Miller’s book by the same title, came out in theatres last spring. Although it is an indie film with limited distribution, it got outstanding reviews by the secular press. Among the Christian media, it got mixed reviews.
The movie deviated from the book quite a bit. While the book reads like journal entries, the movie tells the story of 19 year old Don leaving the security of his Southern Baptist home and church outside of Houston to start college at the most liberal of schools in Portland, Oregon. These changes from the book were written by Miller and former “bad boy of Christian rock”, Steve Taylor.( http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19880421&id=IK9RAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9W0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6904,6381421) I’ve always been a huge fan of Taylor’s intellect, anger, truth-telling and imagination. If this is an indication of his movie making talents (Besides the screenplay, he also directed the film) he is continuing right where he left off in the music field. The man who sung that the American Christian culture was “On the Fritz”, mocked religious conformity with “I Want to be a Clone”, and lamented that “This Disco Used to be a Cute Cathedral” makes American believers squirm again with this movie.
As expected if you know Taylor’s work, “BLJ” was quirky, surprising, honest, and demanding as it reminded us to forget our neighbor’s splinters for a while so we can examine our eyes for the inevitable log that needs to be removed. While I don’t want to spoil anything in this movie for those who may watch it (And every high school senior, churched or otherwise needs to) I will share this one line of dialogue. While confessing - on behalf of Christians throughout all history - to an atheist college friend and victim of molestation at the hands of a clergyman, Don tells him, “I think I’ll start (apologizing) with the Crusades and keep going right through U.S. foreign policy.” Taylor continues to tell us the truth even when it is unpopular and convicting. Good for him!
There are a few movies that all middle class, suburban Chirstians need to see: “End of the Spear”, “Saved”, “Juno”, "Blindside", "Brother Sun, Sister Moon", "Amazing Grace", and I can now add “Blue Like Jazz” to this list.