Concerning Suicide Squad

This is a transcript of a conversation I had with my friend, Cody DeFount, in a Youtube video. You can find the video at the end of this article.

Me: "Hey, everyone! I'm here with my friend and fellow Youtuber Cody DeFount, and we're here to talk about the new movie - or relatively new at this point - Suicide Squad, which as we all know is about supervillains. And the question that we're specifically here to answer today is whether or not Christians should watch movies with those kinds of characters as the protagonists. Should Christians watch movies where they are being asked to root for villainous characters? So, Cody, what's your first impression of Suicide Squad based off of things you've read and trailers and such?"

Cody: "Yeah, so I haven't seen the movie, but I do think that first off that a Christian should be Suicide Squad - like I said I haven't seen it - but..."
discerning. That's kind of obvious. But I think when you watch it, you shouldn't just be enjoying it, obviously, you should be discerning; really evaluating the characters. And with

Me: "We were just reading on Plugged In Online from Focus on the Family about some of the characters."

Cody: "Yeah. You could see inner struggles within certain characters and regret."

Me: "Which is a good thing."

Cody: "But at the end the characters just continued on their troubled way."

Me: "Yeah."

Cody: "But you see a struggle for... inner contemplation or dialogue of the characters to kind of show human nature either through ambition or false motives, you know? They may struggle with that. That's my initial impression."

Me: "Yeah. I mean, it's interesting when you look at Suicide Squad because, like you said, you do have those conflicted characters, and you do get kind of a study into what makes these characters these characters and why they're bad. But on the other hand this movie is also asking us to root for these characters, and throughout the movie - I'm assuming based off of the trailers - that they are doing things that aren't necessarily moral. I mean, just between the trailers and the fact that they're villains, I'm assuming there would be actions on their part that probably aren't the most moral. You know, one of the catchphrases in the trailer was Harley Quinn saying 'We're bad guys, this is what we do.' So I think that's a big part, and one of the biggest concerns I have with that - despite the look into man's total depravity, which is an important aspect of our theology - I'm just not sure as far as being expected to root for those kinds of characters..."

Cody: "Yeah. And obviously I don't think we should, and I think you don't."

Me: "Yeah. One thing I think is helpful when discussing this kind of thing - as I was telling you before we started filming this - is to look at the standard set in Scripture. And one of the standards that we find in Scripture is in Paul's epistle to the Philippians in chapter four, verse eight, where it says, 'Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.' And it's a question that we need to ask about movies. Not necessarily, 'What's the movie rated?' Instead we need we need to think about that once we let it enter our minds, it doesn't go away. We may forget about it, but it's still there and it could rise back up to the surface at any time. And movies are powerful things. They have the ability to change the way we think about things. So, what do you think?"

Cody: "So, that verse - I really like that verse. It's just a good verse for anything as far as books or movies or..."

Me: "TV shows or music."

Cody: "Yeah. And so for a movie like The Dark Knight - it's another superhero movie - and Batman is a vigilante, and obviously that's against the law and none of us should go out and do that. But when I see, for instance, in the third one where he sacrifices his life..."

Me: "Spoiler alert!" (both of us laugh) "You all have probably already seen it, so never mind."

Cody: "I just won't say, but he... you know there's that verse that says, 'Greater love has no one than this, then he that lays down his life for his brother.' And when I see that I just... I want to do something like that - not to be noticed, but just to do that for someone. You know, we all strive to do good things, to love one another, to make a difference in people's lives. And so, that's what I think of when I think about such things. There's a lot of violence in superhero movies, and..."

Me: "One of the key things in making a hero relatable that I've learned just from learning about storytelling is that you have to make your characters flawed, but still relatable. So there is a point to which your character needs to have some kind of character flaw. But the question is do they overcome that flaw, or do they embrace it and say, 'This is who I am, this is what I'm going to do, and I don't care what anyone else thinks.'? I think how they handle that flaw is very telling for whether or not it's an edifying piece of entertainment. Yeah, so, any further thoughts on that?"

Cody: "Yeah, I guess in Suicide Squad it'll be more of they don't learn from... they probably continue on their way."

Me: "Yeah, like the Plugged In Online review said, you know, that it's commendable that they go to save the world, however - they didn't say this in the article, I just know this part from the plot synopsis - they're being coerced into doing it first of all. But they're also doing it - as Plugged In Online pointed out - so that they have a place to store their loot."

Cody: "Yeah, we see people doing good things, but really just for an ulterior motive."

Me: "Yeah, for the wrong reasons, for personal gain."

Cody: "Which... like when we read the Bible, we see characters who do vile things and have ulterior motives like the Pharisees, and we think, 'Oh, those bad people.' What we should actually be doing is realizing, 'Do I do that?' And we don't know."

Me: "And I think it's good when we see characters like that to self-evaluate, and think, 'Could this be me? Could I do that?' And if we see some of that sin in ourselves, we should repent of that and ask God for forgiveness. But I think there's also a difference between what the Bible does where it doesn't glorify sin - it shows it in a way that is very negative, and that's the point to convict you of that sin - whereas if you have something like Suicide Squad, or for another example, National Treasure where they're just doing these bad things and there's no call to repent of such behavior - it's in many ways glorifying that action. I was telling one of my roommates before you came here today that in National Treasure you have two characters, both of whom are seeking after this treasure and both of them, in order to do so, need the Declaration of Independence. So they're racing to get a hold of the Declaration of Independence and steal it, and my question is, watching that, 'What's the difference between the two characters? Why aren't we rooting for the character who's depicted as the villain and not the one who's depicted as the hero? What's the difference?' That's a movie that glorifies the sin, it doesn't depict it in a way that says, 'This is wrong.' You don't have one character trying to steal the Declaration of Independence and the other character saying, 'No, that's wrong, I can't let you do that.' Is that edifying? And to some extent, I think that that's a question that different Christians need to answer because for some Christians, I think it is a way for them to self-evaluate, to wonder, 'Do I see that sin in myself? Is this something that I need to repent of?' But on the other hand, if you're being asked to root for a character, you don't necessarily have to do it. But if you do what most people do when they watch a movie and just shut your brain off and stop evaluating what you see in front of you, you're prone to start rooting for those characters without thinking about it, and then before you know it, it's impacted your thinking. You know, I wrote a blog article recently - actually it wasn't recently, it was a couple months ago - about the X-Men movies, and how influential those movies were to people's thinking about tolerance and inclusion. And they didn't do it by telling, they did it by showing. And sometimes you start agreeing with them. I can't watch those movies without going, 'Yeah, you're right! Go!" and all of a sudden I'm like, "Wait a minute, that's not right. That's not what the Bible says,' or, 'That's not practical.' So that's my main concern with a movie like Suicide Squad, that people are prone to turn their brains off while watching movies and just kind of passively view them. And then on some level you start rooting for the characters, and then maybe in the real world you don't see that sin as sin, per se, because you become used to characters doing things like this."

Cody: "Hm. Yeah. I can see how that is."

Me: "So, what do you think? Should Christians go see Suicide Squad? Obviously, neither of us have seen it, so..."

Cody: "Yeah. I don't plan on seeing it any time soon."

Me: "Same here."

Cody: "That's hard. I think we should be discerning."

Me: "Yes, being discerning is very important. You should use the principles laid out in Philippians. If you don't think watching a movie like Suicide Squad is going to allow you to think about what is true, lovely, commendable, and worthy of praise, then you shouldn't go see it. But if it's going to cause you to think about, 'Wow, I'm such a sinner and I need to repent,' and it causes you to glorify God in that way, then maybe you should. Just be careful that you're not shutting brain off and subconsciously rooting for immoral behavior. Yeah, so I think that's the bottom line."

Cody: "I do too. That's good."

At this point, we concluded the video with typical Youtuber talk. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Special thanks to Cody for his contribution to this. Please take some time to check out our Youtube channels, and stay tuned on this blog because I am currently working on a review that I hope to have posted soon. Thanks again for your time.