Amadeus is the best movie ever made. It’s not up for debate. Okay, maybe it’s almost as good as Jaws. We’ll throw in Star Wars, Raising Arizona, 300, Aliens and Raiders above it too.
There are good ideas rolling around in Amadeus but none more central than the idea that being a good artist has nothing to do with virtue. Hitler appreciated the arts, Maxfield Parrish screwed his models, and the best writers are drunk, emotional narcissists. I hope I didn’t miss anyone. Anyways, being correct on any position does jack for one’s artistic ability.
F. Murray Abraham plays Salieri, a jealous Vienese court composer convinced that by remaining chaste to God he should be able to write music that will transcend his own death. Salieri knows his own music is just acceptable so that when he hears the music of Mozart he assumes the composer must be a man of great portence and stature. To Salieri’s horror, his anger at God is doubled when he finds Mozart to be a foul twit.
I’ve been a religious man for a great deal of my life and an artist even longer. I get comments from some folks that my work is, “a great gift.” I don’t know exactly what we mean by that, but even as I study the great gifts in the Bible, art is never mentioned. Given the artists I’ve known it’s no wonder. Perhaps my desire to do art is a gift, because I can never explain why I’m compelled to draw every day. I draw no matter if there’s money in it or not. I just plain dig it. So my appetite may have been set by God, but my talent is not. It’s a skill that comes from a lot of friggin’ hard work.
If we’re using the phrase “gift” in the traditional context, supernatural gifts from God would arrive in a complete package. God doesn’t make junk, so why do I look at my sketchbooks from high school and see sucky art? Gifts can’t be earned. Crafts can only be earned. Gifts are free or they’re no gift at all. So if I got a gift to draw-act-write-sing-speak it should come as a complete, miraculous package…and it never does. Not a freebie. It’s a skill.
I could have saved Salieri a lot of anguish, but he’s dead. Luckily, we’re still alive to ponder the tie between our character and our creation. Nobody seems to be as confused as my fellow Christians, Republicans and the people behind those sucky Iraq movies. I know one hundred Christians in the arts, and many think that their correct position is the ticket to getting a project made. Wrong. Lefties assume that having the correct position allows them to make sloppy, lazy, caricatures of conservatives and their ideology. Finally, Republicans think having the right position gives them permission to remain unable to articulate an argument and sport hair-styles that look like motorcycle helmets.
One of President Bush’s clear faults was that he rarely made a public case for any of his administration’s positions. Bush and Cheney are two of my heroes (You hear that? That’s the sound of me losing three deals in Hollywood just now) but they aren’t my heroes of communication.
While we have a rich history of fine Christian content in the past, it’s the exception today. The rule is for Christian art to be mediocre. We have a high opinion of our correct position but place form a little too far down the ladder from function. There is beauty and truth to be found in a story well told and a position well argued. Look at President Obama. This is a man who won an election purely on form, eloquent sound bites, a snappy suit and backlit with a halo. I would never advocate emptying our heads to dance with Ellen, but charisma is a valuable tool in politics, and we’ll need access to every tool possible to defeat the Democrat party and their media juggernaut.
I don’t think art is just packaging either. It’s not a skin we stretch over an ideology. The artful package is also a kind of an end unto itself. It’s not just a sham or the beauty that is only skin deep. I didn’t spend most of my life drawing to make cute pictures. I draw because there is a wonder to providing an elegant vessel to carry our stories to each other. In fact, being a good artist is no different than being a good Christian or a good politician, since these are all communicative genres that benefit from compelling presentation.
The great artists I’ve known personally or studied with were consumed by their craft. They threw themselves into the study of form, presentation, manipulation of materials and practiced daily. I think my camp would do well in showing a little more respect for the art of presentation because it’s not a gift.
Since it’s not a gift we should continue to work on the craft or assume our role as the patron saint of mediocrity and bad hair.