Tag: film

Man-made Global Warming: A Convenient Lie?

As I begin writing this blog post, it’s 94°F and partly cloudy here in Yalaha, Florida on the 4th of July, which only goes to prove the validity of man-made global warming. Maybe if I hadn’t driven my Dodge Durango as much or even better, if no one was allowed to drive a Dodge Durango the planet would be cooler and the glaciers wouldn’t be melting.

If you’re one of those unfortunates who’ve been propagandized your whole life beginning in school and then later in life by the mainstream media, then you probably already worship at the altar of climatism and your patron saint is Al Gore. If so, then give me a loud “Amen!” You might have even been a disciple sitting at Gore’s feet during one of his “Come to Climatism” revival meetings held somewhere in the world. Yes, climatism is the new religion of the political Left.

I referred to Al Gore and his film: An Inconvenient Truth in my previous post on Climatism but now I’m going to provide my impressions of the film after having watched the DVD just a few days ago. The film is a 96 minute [pseudo] documentary that [Green] fueled the current climate alarmism craze. As I’ve already mentioned, the film’s star is none other than Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States and former presidential candidate who lost the 2000 general election to George W. Bush.

Let’s start with the DVD packaging.

DVD Front Cover
Figure 1. An Inconvenient Truth, DVD Front Cover Image.

The really clever cover image in Figure 1 says it all. You don’t even have to watch the DVD to see the clear implication that natural weather events, such as Hurricane Katrina (not so subtly derived from an image shown on the DVD back cover), are being directly caused by industrial activity, that is, human activity. Notice the stark image of the factory, or worse yet a coal fired power plant, in the foreground spewing pollution into the air—reminds me of the 1910 London scenes from the movie Mary Poppins. Because of humans indiscriminately pumping tons of pollution (i.e., CO2, but we’ll get to that later) into the atmosphere, Mother Nature had no choice but to take her revenge out on the immoral, unsuspecting citizens of New Orleans by punishing them with a devastating storm. Ironically, Katrina caused more harm to poor folks and black folks than to high-income, white folks according to a 2005 Gallup poll,1 Seems that Mother Nature has a warped sense of justice. Why is that?

The title of the film, An Inconvenient Truth, leaves no doubt that the theory of man-made climate change is not just a theory but a fact, an immutable fact no less. And, it’s also a call for immediate action, as indicated by the emphasis placed on the word “Inconvenient” in the title printed in red font indicating alarm or urgency as enforced by the subtitle: A Global Warning.

To add a touch of credibility and to discount any notion of political influences, the cover contains a very emphatic quote by Roger Friedman—from Foxnews.com of all places. By the way, when has any Democrat or liberal ever considered Fox News as a legitimate news source? Also, in case you haven’t checked, Roger Friedman is not a scientist or weather authority, but a film critic and entertainment news journalist who created the FOX411 news column on Foxnews.com.

Now, on to the film…

An Inconvenient Truth. DVD. Directed by Davis Guggenheim. Hollywood, CA: Paramount Home Entertainment, 2006.

Early in the film, Gore presents a cartoon of a child stepping out of a store front eating and ice cream cone which then immediately melts into a pool of liquid on the ground in front of him. The child is confused, but then along comes an enlightened adult who explains to him why his ice cream melted, it was global warming! Yea, that explanation really convinced me…not. Don’t most people go out for an ice cream in the summer when it’s hot? Didn’t you ever have to hurry up and lick the ice cream to prevent it from dripping down the cone in the hot weather? Global warming, really?

My overall impression after watching the entire DVD was that the film seemed to place almost as much emphasis on Al Gore’s life and his failed attempt to be President of the United States than with the global warming issue. The film even went so far as to include video segments from the 2000 contested election including the scenes of the Florida recount and the infamous dangling chads.

In addition, let me say that the film left me a little bit confused. I expected it to contain a certain degree of dramatization and there was, but what I wasn’t necessarily expecting to see was the obvious bias and propagandizing throughout. I understand that I’m making a strong accusation but unlike many of the “true believers” shown in the film who accept the false notion of man-made global warming unconditionally, I did a little bit of homework before watching the film. So, wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that if the theory of man-made global warming is really a solid scientific fact shouldn’t it be able to stand up to strict scientific scrutiny? Of course, in the film, everyone in Gore’s audience is right on board, as the saying goes, he [Gore] “was preaching to the choir.”

Because I had already done some research into the topic before viewing the DVD, I approached the film from a different perspective. Therefore, it was difficult for me to take seriously Gore’s thesis that climate change or global warming is being caused by human CO2 emissions, since I would have expected to see a serious debate between Gore and one of the so-called “deniers” like S. Fred Singer or Roy W. Spencer. But since this film is about propaganda and not science, there would have been no point in presenting opposing positions. On the other hand, when Gore did allude to some of his opponents it was in a mocking, condescending manner. Gore is no stranger to Alinsky’s teaching that “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”2

Since Gore passionately presents only one side of the debate, it’s as if to say that if you don’t believe in man-made global warming then you’re like one of those “Flat Earthers” who are either unaware, unenlightened or just plain stupid. Or, to put a twist on an old saying: “Stupid is as stupid believes.”

So, are we to accept the proposition that this film is not political as Roger Friedman seems to imply in his quote from the DVD front cover? Well, maybe not if you consider the following quotes from the film:

I’m Al Gore, I used to be the next President of the United States of America.

I had a grade school teacher who taught geography by pulling a map of the world down in front of the blackboard. I had a classmate in the sixth grade who raised his hand and he pointed to the outline of the east coast of South America and he pointed to the west coast of Africa and he asked, “Did they ever fit together?” And the teacher said, “Of course not that the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” That student went on to become a drug addict and a ne’er-do-well. The teacher went on to become science advisor to the current [Bush] administration.

Went to Kyoto in 1997 to help get a treaty that’s so controversial, in the US at least. In 2000, my opponent [Bush] pledged to regulate CO2 and then…That was not a pledge that was kept.

You may be inclined to say that just three references to the Bush Administration doesn’t necessarily indicate he is politicizing the issue, but how about the liberal sprinkling of scenes from the 2001 Bush Presidential Inauguration and the SCOTUS decision handing the election to Bush; soundbites from George H. W. Bush and Ronald Regan; an article on a computer screen with the headline: “Bush Aide Edited Climate Reports;” comparisons made between CO2 and tobacco to global warming and cancer; and insinuations that man-made climate change deniers are immoral because of their belief that climate change is natural. Gore effectively drives home his point by saying, “Ultimately this [global warming] is really not a political issue so much as a moral issue. If we allow that to happen, it is deeply unethical.” Who wants to be called unethical? Politics or propaganda? You decide.

During our trip to Europe in 2014, we saw many wind turbines in Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands. I don’t recall ever seeing any of them actually turning, but when they do turn, they kill birds and bats. According to a study, originally published by The ECO Report, wind farms in the United States kill between 13 and 39 million birds and bats per year.3 For humans wind farms are just an eyesore, but to birds and bats they’re death traps.

In addition to killing birds and bats, building wind farms contributes to deforestation—I guess that’s one of the reasons why planting trees is listed as one of “the ten things to do” to help stop global warming printed on the inside of the DVD cover. Speaking of deforestation…according to projections, the U.S. will need another 30 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity per year to meet the power demands in 2050. If wind power were to account for 10 trillion of those kilowatt hours, it would require the conversion of 600,000 square kilometers of land from forest to farm.4 So much for conservation. In order to save the forest we had to destroy it.

A fair amount of the film highlights Gore’s travels all over the world in his quest to become enlightened and to enlighten others on the dangers of global warming. However, he’s shown tooling around or being driven around in CO2 emitting vehicles—none of them a Prius as far as I can tell. And what about all those airline flights?

Throughout the film, Gore refers to CO2 as a pollutant. Can someone please explain to me how CO2 can be both a pollutant and a beneficial greenhouse gas at the same time? Wouldn’t sane people consider these concepts to be mutually exclusive? It’s one thing to say that too much CO2 in the atmosphere could influence earth’s climate but to say that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, in the same category as say, carbon monoxide (CO), is just plain ridiculous in my opinion.

On the positive side, I have to commend Gore’s commitment to preserving the environment, however misguided his methods may be. I do believe we all need to be conscious of wasteful habits and we all should try to conserve natural resources. I recycle and have been recycling for many years even before it was the “green” thing to do. Although many won’t believe this, we never set the thermostats in our home lower than 87 degrees in the summer, and we live in Florida! Can Al Gore say that?

I’m under no misconception that this short analysis of Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth will necessarily convince you otherwise if you’re already a member of the alarmist crowd. However, I would encourage you to do your own research by reading some of the books written by highly qualified authors who present an opposing viewpoint. That’s what I did and that’s why I believe man-made global warming is “A Convenient Lie.”

  1. “Katrina Hurt Blacks and Poor Victims Most,” David W. Moore, October 25, 2005, http://www.gallup.com/poll/19405/katrina-hurt-blacks-poor-victims-most.aspx. ↩

  2. Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals (Vintage), (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Kindle Edition), 128. ↩

  3. “HOW MUCH WILDLIFE CAN USA AFFORD TO KILL?” Mark Duchamp, Save the Eagles International, April 2014, http://savetheeaglesinternational.org/new/us-windfarms-kill-10-20-times-more-than-previously-thought.html. ↩

  4. S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery, Unstoppable Global Warming – Every 1,500 Years, updated and expanded edition (Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2008), 247. ↩

Movie Analysis: Leap of Faith

Film Credits

Cercone, Janus. Leap of Faith. Widescreen Collection DVD. Directed by: Richard Pearce. Hollywood: Paramount Pictures, 1992.

Cast Overview

Steve Martin as Jonas Nightengale

Debra Winger as Jane Larson

Lolita Davidovitch as Marva

Liam Neeson as Sheriff Will Braverman

Lukas Haas as Boyd

Meat Loaf as Hoover

Spoiler Warning

Caution! Many aspects of the plot are divulged in this writing which could ruin the experience for first time viewers.

Plot Summary

The story revolves around Jack Newton, alias Jonas Nightengale, a former petty criminal, drug user, and con man turned itinerant preacher and faith healer. On the surface, Jonas appears to be a true man of faith but in reality he’s a slick religious huckster. Nevertheless, when his Miracles and Wonders convoy of trucks and buses is forced to pull into the fictional town of Rustwater, Kansas for repairs, he has an encounter with true faith.

Analysis

While most would say that the movie Leap of Faith is a story about the rehabilitation of a career con man, it also happens to be a very accurate portrayal of biblical salvation.

Right from the start, we immediately see that Jonas Nightengale is a man on top of his game. Jonas is confident that he can always get the upper hand in any situation. For example, at the beginning of the movie when Hoover is pulled over for speeding in the bus Jonas is also riding in, Jonas decides to double as the driver since Hoover was previously convicted of drunk driving. Before getting out of the bus, Jonas wires himself up so that his conversation with the officer could be heard by everyone in his entourage—he never lets a good performance go to waste. Most of the conversation between Jonas and the officer takes place in the back of the patrol car since Jonas couldn’t produce his license and registration, the officer decided to arrest him. While in the patrol car, Jonas notices a violin case by the front passenger seat. In the end, Jonas not only talks his way out of the ticket, but he gets the officer to give him a donation for the ministry! After getting back on the bus, Jane asks him how he knew the officer played the violin and Jonas answers, “Red mark on the jaw from the chin rest…you know me Janie, I know people.”

While Jonas Nightengale had intended to take his traveling salvation show to Topeka, Kansas, God had other plans. Almost immediately after the incident with the police officer, one of the trucks in Nightengale’s Wonders and Miracles convoy develops a mechanical problem which forces them to take the next exit which just happens to be Rustwater, Kansas. Rustwater is a town going through tough times with the high unemployment rate and extended drought. Rustwater is not the type of town that can “afford” a huckster like Jonas Nightengale, but it sure is a town where the people could use “a little hope in their lives” and maybe just a few miracles…

Was it just coincidence that one of the trucks in Jonas’ convoy breaks down just in time for the driver to take the very next exit into Rustwater? God caused just the right part to fail at just the right time so that Jonas would be diverted to Rustwater instead Topeka as he had planned. God has a way of arranging circumstances to accomplish his purposes.

Without a doubt, Jonas Nightengale is a people person who knows how to work a crowd, but what I didn’t mention up to this point is that Jonas is also something of a womanizer. After pulling in to Rustwater, Jonas, Jane, and some members of Nightengale’s all black Angels of Mercy gospel choir stop by a local eatery for lunch. Before Jonas even sits down, he immediately tries to hit on Marva, one of the waitresses. She does an excellent job of deflecting all of Jonas’ advances which only seems to encourage him. Unknown to Jonas at the time is that Marva has a brother, Boyd, who was crippled in a car accident with a drunk truck driver.

Later that evening on their first night in town, Jane stops by Jonas’ room at the Golden Spread Motel and starts picking through Jonas’ personal belongings and finds the ruby ring that she has always wanted Jonas to give her but he refuses saying, “You’ll get it when I die…”

Every good story needs to have an antagonist to add some drama and in Leap of Faith the antagonist is provided in the character of Sheriff Will Braverman. Strangely enough, Will Braverman also happens to be Jane’s love interest in the story.

Jonas may be successful in deceiving most of the locals but not Sheriff Braverman. The Sheriff has Jonas pegged as a con man and he will do anything to expose him. Later when Sheriff Braverman confronts Jonas and accuses him of running a con, the only defense Jonas gives for his actions is that he “gives his people a good show…plenty of music…worthwhile sentiments.” While it’s true that Jonas is a dyed-in-the-wool con artist and religious huckster, he doesn’t harbor any phony preconceived notions about being a real man of faith. It’s almost hard not to like him.

After Jane cuts through the Sheriff’s red tape and acquires the necessary permits, the crew begins to set up the meeting tents. Even though Jonas is a fake healer, the Nightengale revival meetings are a wonder to behold—a well-oiled machine to be sure. The ushers do a good job of setting up the shills in the audience so Jonas can perform his healing miracles without a hitch while Jane operates the computer console and communications system in the background. Before each service, the ushers gather personal information from the crowd and relay them to Jane, who then communicates the information including the row/seat number where each person is sitting in the audience directly to Jonas in real-time during the service. This elaborate scheme gives the impression that God is giving Jonas special revelation about each person.

Jonas may be a huckster and a con man, but during his services (or shows if you prefer) he quotes a lot of Scripture verses and he quotes them accurately, for example, Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 11. He also refrains from making heretical statements or phony claims about himself. Even though Jonas didn’t believe the verses he was giving out to his audience, God’s Word has power and God won’t let it be used in vain.

Up to this point, Jonas and Boyd haven’t met. Their first meeting takes place at the Quick Lunch diner where Marva is waitressing. Jonas asks Boyd for a game of chess and then Boyd asks him if he believes in miracles. Jonas answers with, “Never underestimate the power of belief boy.” Marva doesn’t want to hear any of Jonas’ viewpoints so she leaves the diner. Boyd then says to Jonas, “My sister thinks you’re a fake” and Jonas replies with, “Well maybe I am and maybe I’m not. If I get the job done, what difference does it make?” Boyd seems to be disappointed with Jonas’ answers but he doesn’t get discouraged.

The second meeting between Jonas and Boyd takes place the following morning while Jonas is out for his daily run. Boyd is lifting weights behind a baseball diamond fence. Jonas interrupts his run to chat with Boyd and after some initial banter, the conversation returns again to the subject of faith. Jonas asks Boyd about his medical diagnosis and Boyd responds with, “I’ll walk again if it’s God’s will,” and Jonas responds with the sarcastic remark, “Listen kid, God doesn’t have a trucker’s license,” implying that Boyd’s injury was caused by a drunk truck driver and not by God. Jonas then asks another question, “What do you think, you were chosen to suffer?” Boyd refuses to accept what Jonas says so he finally responds with, “I believe things happen for a reason.” The next time Boyd and Jonas meet, it will be life-changing for both of them.

Later that evening, Sheriff Braverman attends Jonas’ revival meeting and interrupts the proceedings by declaring, “I want to testify.” Jonas has no choice but to let him speak, so Sheriff Braverman proceeds to expose Jonas’ somewhat sordid background. Jonas knows he’s been made. However, even after being exposed as someone pretending to be someone he’s not, he handily recovers from the attack by admitting that everything the Sheriff said was true. He doesn’t try to defend himself. He turns the situation around in his own favor by reasoning that since he is the “king of sin,” he can understand and therefore empathize with the weaknesses and shortcomings all the lesser sinners in the audience are struggling with. After all, “if you want to give up womanizing, who you gonna talk to, some pale skinned virgin priest?” The audience responds with a resounding “No!”

Nevertheless, Jonas still has plans for one final elaborate hoax and that is to sneak in the meeting tent late at night and rig the figurine of Jesus on the cross so that it appears to be weeping. The next morning the news gets out about the weeping figurine which causes quite a stir at the meeting tent. Jonas pretends to be unaware of what’s going on and it isn’t until after he’s had a chance to check out the figurine in front of all the spectators, including the Sheriff, that he declares, “Praise the Lord it’s a miracle!”

The news about the “alleged” miracle spreads like wild fire throughout the area resulting in thousands of visitors flocking to Rustwater, Kansas to witness this supernatural occurrence. Since many, if not most, of the faithful drawn to the attraction are more affluent than the locals, the town experiences a sudden and much needed infusion of cash…and maybe a little hope. While Jonas intended to use the fake miracle to take money from people, God used it to help provide money for the people who were going through hard times.

In the meantime, while Will Braverman was attempting to expose Jonas as a fake, he was also developing a serious relationship with Jane. Will so much as proposed while he was spending time with Jane one afternoon after knowing her for only three days.

Since so many new visitors were in town that day, Jonas planned to stage a major healing event at his evening’s service. Jonas and Jane had planned for every contingency; if a real sick person wasn’t healed, they would invoke their malpractice insurance, “only if your faith is strong enough.” What they didn’t plan on was a genuinely sick person showing up with a genuine faith.

During the service while Jonas is pretending to heal people with all kinds of ailments, Boyd shows up and calls out, “Hey Rev’…what about me?” Jonas immediately tries to shut down the service by exiting the stage, but while speaking with Jane in the back, the crowd starts chanting, “One more! One more! One more…” Jonas has no choice but to go back out and face Boyd. After Jonas helps Boyd up on the stage, he looks Boyd in the eyes with disdain. Even so, Boyd walks over to the weeping Jesus crucifix and lays his hands on Jesus’ feet in a symbolic gesture of faith. After a moment, Boyd loses his balance and falls back dropping one of his crutches in the process. Immediately an Angel of Mercy choir member reaches out and prevents him from falling. Boyd steadies himself and then as he starts walking away, he finally lets go of his other crutch. Now, as Jonas witnesses Boyd’s miraculous healing, instead of looking at Boyd with scorn, as he did moments before, Jonas’ demeanor is changed as he accedes to the fact that Boyd’s beliefs were true and that his beliefs, were false.

I submit that God ordained Boyd’s physical condition so that He could demonstrate His power through Boyd by healing him right in front of Jonas, Marva, Jane, Will Braverman, and all the others in attendance that evening (John 9:1-3).

Instead of reveling in the accolades bestowed on him by the crowd of onlookers, Jonas leaves cursing in a fit of anger. When Jane follows him to their bus, he complains that he’s been hustled by the “waitress and Tiny Tim.” Jane refuses to accept Jonas’ explanation and after he agrees to continue using Boyd in his fake healing services she decides to leave him. Even though Jonas realizes now that his fake healing ministry is over, he still is unable to completely let it go, his pride and self-reliance won’t let him.

Jonas then makes his way back into the tent and approaches the cross where he begins to question God but this time he comes using his real name, Jack Newton. Jonas is interrupted by Boyd who stops by to thank Jonas for healing him. Jonas refuses to take credit for his healing but Boyd presses the issue so Jonas admits that he is a fake and that Boyd is “the genuine article.” Still, Boyd fells a certain amount of gratitude towards Jonas so he asks if he could join his ministry. Jonas agrees, even though he knows that that will never happen. God used Boyd’s faith to convict Jonas of his transgressions and to bring him to faith, the faith that leads to belief and repentance.

After Jonas’ fourth meeting with Boyd in the tent, Jonas goes out and surveys the mass of people surrounding his revival tent. Some are huddled in the open around campfires; some reading the Bible; and some providing food for those that are hungry. Maybe Jonas sees them as people of faith and maybe he doesn’t, but he certainly doesn’t see them as just suckers anymore.

Jonas quickly goes back to his motel room where he lays out his glitter jacket on the bed, the one that he used during his fake healing shows, along with an envelope. He then hitches a ride with a trucker who’s heading for Pensacola, Florida. Almost as soon as Jonas gets in the truck, it starts to rain…

In an act of true repentance, Jonas leaves all the remnants of his former life behind. And then, in an act of pure reliance on God, he hitches a ride with a passing trucker not knowing where he was going.

Meanwhile, Jane decides to stay with Will and later that evening Will drives Jane back to Jonas’ hotel room where they find the jacket on the bed with the envelope on top. Jane opens the envelope only to find ring that she has always wanted. Just a few days earlier, Jonas said he wouldn’t give up the ring until he died. Well, in a sense he did die; he died to his old way of life…

Jonas Nightengale’s salvation story closely parallels that of the biblical character Saul. As recorded in Acts chapter 9, Saul had absolutely no desire or will to believe in Jesus—quite the opposite! Saul was converted on the road to Damascus while he had every intention to arrest and persecute those who believed in Jesus. As the Scripture says in Romans 3:10-11 (NASB), “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD…” Likewise, neither was Jonas seeking salvation; he was on the road to Topeka so that he could take advantage of more people with his fake healing services. It wasn’t Saul’s nor Jonas’ will to be saved, but it was God’s will. While Saul received the gift of spiritual regeneration in a flash of bright light on the road to Damascus, Jonas’ received spiritual regeneration in the presence of a genuine miracle of God.

As Jonas and the trucker are making their way out of town, Jonas yells out, “Come on baby! Come on baby, rain… rain…Thank ya Jesus!”

Movie Analysis: Drag Me To Hell

Film Credits

Raimi, Sam, Ivan Raimi. Drag Me To Hell. Unrated Director’s Cut, DVD. Directed by: Sam Raimi. Universal City: Universal, 2009.

Cast Overview

Alison Lohman as Christine Brown

Justin Long as Clay Dalton

Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush

Dileep Rao as Rham Jas

David Paymer as Mr. Jacks

Adriana Barraza as Shaun San Dena

Reggie Lee as Stu Rubin

Bojana Novakovic as Ilenka Ganush

Spoiler Warning

Caution! Many aspects of the plot are divulged in this writing which could ruin the experience for first time viewers.

Plot Summary

The story centers on Christine Brown, a young and up-and-coming bank loan officer who through unforeseen circumstances becomes the victim of a powerful demonic curse.

Analysis

Christine Brown is a young woman who is trying to do everything right. Despite her humble background, she has worked her way into a good job as a loan officer at Wilshire Pacific Bank—a far cry from the farm where she was raised. She is very into self-improvement, so in order to overcome the country twang in her speech, she listens to self-help tapes and practices in her car on the way to work. After all, there’s no room for country bumpkins in sophisticated LA. She has flashbacks in her mind to the time when she struggled with her weight all through childhood, so she bypasses the pastry shop for breakfast on the way to the bank. She maintains her self-discipline; she has no desire to go back to the fat girl she once was. Above all, she constantly needs to suppress her feelings of inadequacy.

You could say that Christine is just a normal person trying to survive in the world. But it’s not easy to achieve success when you’ve been marginalized and ignored for most of your life, particularly your adolescent years. But Christine is trying hard to put all that behind her. She now has decent looks and a promising career. Not only that, she is involved in a serious relationship with her boyfriend Clay.

The day starts out like any other day. After helping a young couple with their loan request, she glances at the vacant assistant manager’s cube. Christine has been anxiously awaiting the bank’s decision on who will be awarded the position. She approaches her boss Mr. Jacks and asks if a decision has been made on the assistant manager’s position. Her boss tells her that both she and a co-worker, the new guy Stu, are being considered for the position. Mr. Jacks tells Christine that Stu is aggressive and is able to make the “tough decisions.” That last comment from her boss immediately puts Christine on the defensive. She anxiously rises to her defense by saying, “I’m perfectly capable of making the tough decisions.” But Mr. Jacks ends the conversation by suggesting that she take lunch and asks her to bring him back a turkey club. Stu chimes in and asks her to bring him one also. While probably not intentional, her boss succeeds in humiliating her. Stu, on the other hand, would like nothing better than to see Christine’s self-esteem take a nose dive, after all she is competing with him for the assistant manager’s job. By this time, Christine is disheartened and disappointed that her boss seems to be favoring Stu and not her for the promotion. But for now, she looks forward to having lunch with her professor boyfriend Clay.

At this point in her life what Christine needs is to be accepted and Clay not only accepts her, he admires and respects her. Christine’s spirits really get an uplift while having lunch with Clay. To celebrate Clay becoming a professor, Christine gives Clay a rare coin she found at the bank. Clay collects coins so he immediately puts the coin in an envelope and seals it for safe keeping. She then follows up her gift by impressing Clay again by fixing his printer problem by removing a paper clip from the mechanism. Clay complements her by saying that she is cocky, sexy, and unbelievable. Not bad for an ex-farm girl. Now Christine is really feeling good about herself. Unfortunately, not everyone shares Clay’s feelings. The phone rings while Christine is making her way out of Clay’s office and it turns out to be Clay’s mother. Clay puts the phone on speaker. Clay’s mother sharply asks what he is doing and he responds by saying that Christine stopped by and brought over some lunch. Clay’s mother responds with “Oh, the one from the farm.” Clay’s parents, particularly his mother, don’t approve of Christine. Christine overhears the conversation while she pauses to take a drink from the water fountain. Instead of returning to work on an up note, she feels worse than before. Sad and dejected, Christine returns to her office at Wilshire Pacific Bank.

You can never really change who you are inside. No matter what you try to do, you will always be that person you hate. Christine was once the fat farm girl, now she is a thin attractive woman. But somehow she is always reminded of her past. The past she would like to forget. The past she has worked so hard to put behind her.

As it is with many of us, Christine seems to have a lot of things going for her. Even though she can’t control what others may think of her, she would like to think that she is, for the most part, in control of her own life. Little does she realize that she is about to be proven very wrong.

After Christine returns to the bank from her lunch with Clay, she is distracted when she hears Stu offering Mr. Jacks tickets to a Lakers game—Mr. Jacks happens to be a big Lakers fan. She now feels like she doesn’t have a chance at that promotion. However, she is brought back to reality by the impatient tapping of finger nails on her desk, specifically, Mrs. Ganush’s ugly, split and yellowing finger nails. Mrs. Ganush happens to have her mortgage with Wilshire Pacific Bank and is in default. Mrs. Ganush has come to the bank to request an extension on her loan since she has been given notice that the bank intends to repossess her home. At first, Christine seems to empathize with Mrs. Ganush’s circumstances and offers to try and help resolve Mrs. Ganush’s predicament. Christine takes Mrs. Ganush’s paperwork into Mr. Jacks’ office and asks if the bank would extend Mrs. Ganush more credit. Mr. Jacks reminds Christine that the bank has already given Mrs. Ganush two extensions on her loan already and says that the bank stands to make a lot of money in fees from the foreclosure. Mr. Jacks leaves the decision to Christine, “Your call.” As Christine walks out of her boss’ office, she looks over at the empty assistance manager’s cubicle, and then looks over at Stu and remembers all those years of struggling to raise herself up from the farm. Christine turns to Mr. Jacks and says, “I’ll take care of it.” Christine returns to her desk and informs Mrs. Ganush that the bank will not extend her additional credit. Mrs. Ganush then begs Christine to reconsider. Christine refuses causing Mrs. Ganush to make an awful scene. Finally, security removes Mrs. Ganush from the bank. Mr. Jacks endorses Christine’s actions by saying, “You handled that just right you know.” Later, while the bank is getting ready to close, Mr. Jacks approaches Christine and tells her how impressed he is with her work and that she is at the top of the list for the assistant manager’s position. Christine is elated, convinced that she made the right call.

Christine’s life has been a series of ups and downs, of mountain tops and valleys. She’s weary of living in the valleys; she longs for a mountain top experience. Her current circumstances and the memories of all her past experiences and disappointments have come together like a perfect storm so that the only decision she could make was the one she did make. Was it chance that caused all these events to perfectly converge like the alignment of the planets? Or, was Christine simply unlucky enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time? Was her decision an act of free will or was it her fate? If fate, then a curse is fate’s nearest relative.

What happens in the parking garage after Christine leaves the bank for the evening is an over-the-top confrontation between Christine and Mrs. Ganush—one of the most intense I’ve ever seen. It turns out that Mrs. Ganush is not the weak, sickly old lady she appears to be, but a vicious, evil woman who seems to possess inhuman strength. Mrs. Ganush is not about to let Christine get off easily. She pulls a button off Christine’s coat and proceeds to recite an incantation over the button. The spell is sealed when she gives the button back to Christine by placing it in her hand and closing her fingers around it.

Later that evening with Clay, Christine expresses second thoughts about her decision to deny Mrs. Ganush’s loan extension request. Clay tries to convince her that she made the right decision, but Christine still feels that something is wrong. So, while passing a spiritual advisor’s storefront, Christine decides to have her fortune told. Clay tries to discourage her, but Christine is dead serious about having it done. After entering the establishment, Christine is greeting by Rham Jas, the seer, and she asks if she could have her fortune read. During the reading, Rham tells Christine that something has been taken from her. Christine responds that it was a button from her coat. Then, while gazing into Christine’s face, Rham sees a terrifying apparition and is immediately taken aback and tries to end the session. Christine insists that he tell her what he saw. Rham says, “A dark spirit has come upon you.” Rham follows up by questioning Christine as to whether she had any involvement with the occult. Christine responds that she hasn’t. Rham then says, “Perhaps someone has cursed you.” Clay drives Christine home and sees her to her door. Christine assures him that she will be okay; but she will not be okay, not at all.

Christine wasn’t exactly accurate when she said a button was taken from her. Mrs. Ganush only borrowed the button long enough to pronounce a curse upon the owner of it. What was really taken from her was something much more; what was taken was her hopes and dreams. A curse is personal in that it torments the victim by exposing their deepest fears and by exploiting their weaknesses. What a curse imparts to the one cursed is torment, humiliation, disappointment, and regret. For Christine, her curse will only last three days, but for others it could be lifetime.

The dark spirit torments Christine day and night. She hears strange noises and sees disturbing images her first night alone at home. Sleep provides no relief—she has horrible nightmares.

While at work the next day, she suddenly develops a nose bleed. There’s something humiliating about bleeding in public—more than mere embarrassment.

Now convinced of the curse upon her, she visits Mrs. Ganush’s home with the intention of promising her she will reverse the loan decision. Christine is met at the door by Ilenka Ganush who isn’t at all happy to see her. Christine says that she tried to help Mrs. Ganush and that she wants to make things right. Ilenka accuses Christine of lying and then mocks her by telling her that she must have been a real fat girl. Anyway, Christine is too late; Mrs. Ganush has died.

Christine’s dinner engagement with Clay and his parents doesn’t go well either. While eating dinner, Christine again sees visions and hears strange noises causing her to have a violent outburst. She decides to leave and Clay’s mother tries to convince Clay to just let her go.

Clay however, has no intention of letting Christine go. He remains steadfast through all her trials and tribulations even though he is skeptical of fortune telling, curses, mediums, and the like. You could say that Clay is the real hero in the movie.

Christine, now becoming more desperate, agrees to follow Ram’s suggestion to try to communicate with the dark spirit through a séance. Ram makes the arrangements with spiritualist Shaun San Dena, who is probably also a Santera. Shaun San Dena unsuccessfully tried to help another person afflicted by the dark spirit many years before. The séance doesn’t go well; the evil spirit is powerful and isn’t deterred by Shaun San Dena’s rituals and as a result, she dies in her attempt to undo the curse.

While Christine and Ram are leaving Shaun San Dena’s residence, Ram informs Christine that the curse was not lifted and that in order to avoid the inevitable consequences, Christine must gift the button to another person. Christine gives Ram the accursed button and Ram puts it in an envelope, seals it and returns it to Christine.

While driving home that night in Clay’s car, Christine screams aloud after seeing another vision of Mrs. Ganush causing Clay to hit the brakes. Christine’s envelope and all of Clay’s papers get scattered all over the front of the car. As they are parked in front of Christine’s home, she scrambles to find her envelope before getting out of the car. She is relieved when she locates it and reassures Clay that she is alright. Christine insists that they both meet at the train station the next morning for a trip they had planned earlier.

At a diner later that evening, Christine looks around at the various patrons trying to decide who she should give the button to. She then decides to give it to Stu, but after he shows up at the diner and begs her not to expose his theft of the McPherson loan file to Mr. Jacks, she feels compassion on him and tells him to leave.

After consulting again with Ram, Christine decides to make a gift of the button to the deceased Mrs. Ganush. What follows is an outrageous attempt by Christine to dig up Mrs. Ganush’s grave and give the button to her as a gift. Finally, after a long night at the graveyard, Christine succeeds in gifting her envelope to Mrs. Ganush’s corpse.

That morning while Christine is cleaning up and getting ready to meet Clay at the train station, she gets a message on her answering machine from Mr. Jacks informing her that he discovered Stu’s theft of the McPherson file and that Stu made a full confession after Mr. Jacks exposed holes in his story. Mr. Jacks congratulates Christine on being awarded the assistant manager’s position.

It’s a bright and sunny morning and Christine is now feeling on top of the world. She has defeated the curse that was put upon her and has finally achieved the promotion she so desperately wanted. She is now on her way to meet her boyfriend for a weekend getaway. On her way to the platform, she stops to buy a new coat. Her buying the new coat is symbolic of her putting off the old life and putting on the new. Christine believes she has succeeded in working out her own salvation. She is now a new person; she even confesses to Clay that she made the wrong decision in denying Mrs. Ganush’s loan extension. True repentance?

But fate and circumstances have a way of derailing our best laid plans. On this day Clay planned to give Christine an engagement ring, but instead he gave her an envelope… Drag Me To Hell.