{"id":1697,"date":"2012-04-10T17:11:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T17:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/?p=1697"},"modified":"2018-07-20T20:33:24","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T20:33:24","slug":"life-is-not-a-running-game-in-touchback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/04\/life-is-not-a-running-game-in-touchback.html","title":{"rendered":"Life Is Not a Running Game in “Touchback”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Easter, everyone! Christ is risen, which is something I have some thoughts and even grumblings about- yes, you read that correctly- so stay tuned for another post about that. \u00a0In the meantime, the following review of “Touchback,” opening in theaters this week, is republished with permission of the Episcopal Digital Network’s online publication, “Sermons That Work.” If you haven’t visited, I invite you to check it out: http:\/\/episcopaldigitalnetwork.com\/stw\/<\/a>\u00a0I think you’ll find there a well of helpful resources for folks like you and me asking questions at the intersection between life and God:<\/em><\/p>\n

Movies about football are usually not my cup of tea.\u00a0 (I might watch the Super Bowl once a year, so long as nachos with all the works and some good company are part of the invitation.)\u00a0 Neither are explicitly \u201cChristian\u201d flicks, which often can seem trite, contrived and a bit schmaltzy.<\/p>\n

Touchback<\/em>, which opens in theaters on April 13 and stars Brian Presley (Home of the Brave<\/em>) and Melanie Lynskey (Up In the Air<\/em>, Sweet Home Alabama<\/em>, and CBS\u2019 \u201cTwo and a Half Men\u201d), with Kurt Russell as supporting actor, left me pleasantly surprised on both fronts: you don\u2019t have to know what a \u201ctouchback\u201d or \u201caudible\u201d is to find the plot engaging; and you don\u2019t have to be a proselyte for the genre of \u201cChristian movies\u201d to walk away having been touched by the film\u2019s message of redemption and second chances.<\/p>\n

Presley plays a washed-up, high school football star, Scott Murphy, who after permanently injuring his leg in a game-winning play during a state championship game, is obliged to trade in a college scholarship at Ohio State and hopes of a future in pro football for a small-town life as a farmer and family man.\u00a0 Murphy, resigned to an unhappy, claustrophobic life in his home town of Coldwater (population: 2,700), and forever haunted by regret and \u201cwhat-if\u2019s\u201d as a result of that fateful night, becomes depressed and suicidal when bank foreclosure and an unexpected frost threaten to wipe out his livelihood.<\/p>\n

Second chances come unexpectedly in the form of a dream that takes Murphy back to the days leading up to that night.\u00a0 The overall effect is that of a serious version of Back to the Future<\/em>.\u00a0 If there are no cool time machines or mad scientists here, some of the same questions present themselves- about free will, or the lack thereof, about the intersection between human possibility, chaos theory and God\u2019s \u201cprovidence,\u201d and, about the nature of redemption with respect to our past, present and future.<\/p>\n

This theme of redemption is one that Touchback<\/em> both enriches and problematizes.\u00a0 The possibility for Murphy\u2019s redemption comes when he is able to return to his past and view it through the lens of the present- when he, in essence, is offered through a dream the chance to choose with the gift of hindsight a different fate for himself.\u00a0 The college scholarship, pretty blonde girlfriend, and a ticket out of \u201cBackwater\u201d (the slang he uses to describe his home town), all present themselves once again for the taking- and these, in contrast, to the prospect that he will end up with his future wife (Lynskey), after lying injured in a hospital bed with a shattered knee.<\/p>\n

\u201cRedemption\u201d in the end is about staying<\/em>– \u201cblooming where you\u2019re planted,\u201d so to speak.\u00a0 \u201cSalvation\u201d is learning to find gratitude and community in hard, painful circumstances.\u00a0 And what that looks like at the end of the movie may bring you to tears.<\/p>\n

Still, the film leaves me frustrated in places with its subtle tone of judgment about Murphy\u2019s ambition to leave his trailer park neighborhood and the confines of \u201cBackwater\u201d for the larger world.\u00a0 In conversations between Murphy and his future wife, coach and mother, I am left to feel little sympathy for those who would choose a way out.\u00a0 Take, for instance, this dialogue between Murphy and his mother:<\/p>\n

Mom: \u201cThings don\u2019t make me happy\u2026you being happy makes me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy: \u201cI am going to be happy and things are going to be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mom: \u201cWhat is so wrong with right now?\u00a0 What if this is all you get, kid? What if this is it?\u00a0 It seems like nothing is ever enough with you, you know!\u00a0 If you can\u2019t be satisfied with what you got, then you\u2019re never going to be happy, no matter what you get\u2026If there was one thing I could change, that would be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this context, ambition itself seems unredeemable, and liberation in the form of an escape a cop-out.\u00a0 And, if this definition of redemption works for Murphy, it is left wanting in places where violence, oppression, and the trauma of ongoing abuse make staying and blooming downright impossible.\u00a0 In such places, be it an inner-city neighborhood riddled by gang violence, or war-torn Sudan, or a situation of domestic violence, redemption not only demands a way out but depends to a certain degree on both our ability to imagine that \u201cthings are going to be different\u201d and our determination to make it so.\u00a0 Murphy chooses to stay- (you\u2019ll have to watch the movie to find out what this really means)-but I am left wondering if there\u2019s any room here for those who don\u2019t have a choice, or choose differently.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Easter, everyone! Christ is risen, which is something I have some thoughts and even grumblings about- yes, you read that correctly- so stay tuned for another post about that. \u00a0In the meantime, the following review of “Touchback,” opening in theaters this week, is republished with permission of the Episcopal Digital Network’s online publication, “Sermons…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,20,130,122],"tags":[585,581,205,580,578],"class_list":["post-1697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-redemption","category-suffering","category-theology","tag-april-movies","tag-christian-redemption","tag-depression","tag-easter","tag-touchback"],"yoast_head":"\nLife Is Not a Running Game in "Touchback" - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/04\/life-is-not-a-running-game-in-touchback.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life Is Not a Running Game in "Touchback" - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Happy Easter, everyone! Christ is risen, which is something I have some thoughts and even grumblings about- yes, you read that correctly- so stay tuned for another post about that. \u00a0In the meantime, the following review of “Touchback,” opening in theaters this week, is republished with permission of the Episcopal Digital Network’s online publication, “Sermons…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/04\/life-is-not-a-running-game-in-touchback.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fellowship of Saints and Sinners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kristina.robbdover\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-10T17:11:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-20T20:33:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kristina Robb-Dover\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@saintplussinner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@saintplussinner\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Life Is Not a Running Game in \"Touchback\" - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/04\/life-is-not-a-running-game-in-touchback.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Life Is Not a Running Game in \"Touchback\" - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","og_description":"Happy Easter, everyone! 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