When Does “Portraying Evil” Become “Celebrating Evil”?

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When Does “Portraying Evil” Become “Celebrating Evil”?

Mike Duran

During Christmas break, my wife and I took in a couple movies. Being that I’m a big Martin Scorcese fan, we considered seeing The Wolf of Wall Street. But after hearing the reactions of viewers and critics, I was conflicted. While the movie was included on many year-end Best Of Lists, some of my Christian friends were terribly offended. One couple left the theater only twenty minutes in. Another said the movie should have been rated X. Still another described it as a cinematic orgy that celebrated debauchery and sin.

And then there were those Christian reviewers who said it was one of the best movies of the year.

Take for instance Jeffrey Overstreet’s detailed piece, Respect The Wolf of Wall Street (The Movie, Not the Man). Overstreet sees the film as a profound exposition of evil. He writes,

Every year, there’s at least one movie that stirs a lot of evangelical Christians into condemning that movie as evil when, in fact, the filmmakers’ intentions were to zoom in and expose evil… the way doctors enlarge X-rays to expose cancer… so that we will be shocked by the reality of it, live in greater awareness about it, avoid it, and avoid contributing to the conditions that make it possible.

That seems like a fairly big divide, doesn’t it? Exposing evil or celebrating evil. But discerning an artist’s or filmmaker’s intention to do one or the other is not always that easy. In the case of The Wolf of Wall Street, that’s not the case.

The director tells us his intentions.

Overstreet links to a fascinating interview with Martin Scorcese about his film. Among other things, the director notes how audiences have become inured to morality tales. Wall Street guy goes bad, goes to jail, and gets what’s coming to him. Problem solved. Crime never pays. The End. That formula has left audiences jaded. Scorcese, however, intends to show that the real crime is that, often, crime DOES pay. Scorcese:

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