CURRENTLY IN MOVIES

Theological reflections on a pig
Maureen Klassen

It's a rare phenomenon: box-office success, several Academy Award nominations, widespread acclaim from critics and public . . . and all this for a film with no explicit sex, no coarse language and no extreme violence, a film, in fact, about a talking pig!

Before we write Babe off as another Disney nursery tale, perhaps a closer look is warranted. Our enjoyment of this simple fable has, for once, a deeper foundation. Babe, the hero (heroine?) is gentle, cutely sincere and consistently polite. She teaches us that training sheep can be accomplished not only by the conventional roughness of sheep-dog authority but by the more excellent way of gentleness and politeness, affirmation and respect, the way of love. Seen here too is an alternative response to the enemy's malicious put-downs and rumour mongering, Babe meeting the feline hiss with a saintly "Bless you!"

In the usual scheme of things in the farmyard world, creatures are valued for their function, narrowly defined by the breakfast table (bacon), the dinner table (beef) or the parlour (feline). The noble calling of sheep-dog is reserved exclusively for canines. But Babe manages to transcend all this, her calling transforming skin colour and overruling shortcomings such as a deficiency in barking.

The story unfolds in the growing relationship of Babe and her master, a flowering of trust and caring. Babe's gentle and heroic desire to please the master strikes a fine note, crowned by a paraphrase of the familiar "well done, good and faithful servant" in the final climax: "That'll do, Babe, that'll do!" Yet Babe's role is no simple road to success. Like human pilgrims, she suffers setbacks and discouragement--seeds planted by the enemy (ugly feline)--till the master takes on the role of encourager. Can one perhaps detect echoes here of the Master Creator and Friend who delights over His children, rejoicing over their tests and empowering them for victory? And Babe's final success is anticipated by a victory "dance" before the event (Good theology here).

So, accolades to this pig who gives us a tale that lives up to its song: "Make a day for us golden and true."

Maureen Klassen is a member of South Abbotsford MB Church in Abbotsford, B.C.

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