Dying holy on camera

BY PETER FEUERHERD
CONTRIBUTOR

Perhaps no sacrament has been more shaped by pop culture than the sacrament of the sick.

The priest administering the sacrament to a soon-to-die character is a stock figure used to dramatic effect in condemned prisoner movies from Jimmy Cagney — “Angels with Dirty Faces,” among others — to Sean Penn in “Dead Man Walking.”

That Hollywood image may well get in the way of the Church’s move from a focus on “last rites” to the sacrament of the sick, noted Dr. Jeffrey Marlett, professor of religious studies at The College of Saint Rose in Albany and a frequent writer on the impact of Cathol-icism on popular culture.

Even a pest extermination company, as one example, uses the image of last rites for household pests in its advertising.

The rich sacramental symbolism of Catholicism is often used as a sure-fire way to set an emotional death scene. In the Hollywood vision, Dr. Marlett pointed out, “Regardless of religious persuasion, suddenly in death Americans become Catholics because only a Catholic priest — in collar, usually — is the only acceptable stereotype to understand end-of-life situations.”

Some critically-acclaimed films offer a critique of the sacrament.
“In ‘Million Dollar Baby’ the Clint Eastwood character visits a priest,” said Dr. Marlett, “and then does exactly what the priest tells him not to do” regarding another character who is facing death.

On the other hand, Clint Eastwood’s latest film, “Gran Torino,” involves a central Catholic character who struggles with his own bigotry and bitterness, only to emerge via a Christ-like sacrifice of self to save others. The film has a message for Catholics about death, even if it does not include a formal scene of the administering of the sacrament of the sick.

“There’s no ‘sacrament’ there but it does involve the meaning of one’s death for others,” said Dr. Marlett.

Still, the healing aspect of the sacrament of the sick is often lost in the Hollywood translation. Healing is often seen as the sole purview of Pentecostal Christians.
Catholics, said Dr. Marlett, are often relegated to death scenes. Despite all the massive catechesis over the years about the sacrament of the sick, focusing on its healing aspects, in pop culture the sacrament is still seen as a scary harbinger of death.
The concept of “last rites,” while not the theme of Church teaching any more, continues to thrive in that other popular classroom, the world of movies and television.

(10/29/09)