If You Did Not Like Bright You Are Missing The Gospel

So I watched Bright recently and was stunned. Firstly, if you are thinking of sitting down with your kids for a family movie night to watch Bright after seeing that the title of this article had the word Gospel in it I do not recommend it, unless your kids are mature teenagers to young adults or unless you have no problem with pervasive mature language and brief nudity. But if you want to have a great discussion about how society looks, works, and what Jesus would look like entering into a broken, ignorantly secular, and oppressive world then you have a lot of fodder when you watch Bright. Secondly, if you missed Will Smith being just Will Smith over the years then you will get a treat in this movie too. Smith is Smith and he is the reason why you fell in love with him as a kid watching shows and movies ranging from Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, Independence Day to Bad Boys. But anyway, the reason why Bright is so good is that it smartly and creatively forces you into the fantasy genre yet in this film it is one you do not want to be in.

A fantasy genre film is one that (if done well) you are drawn away into a world that looks and feels like nothing you are used to. It is a better world or an imaginative world with more possibilities and richness than the one we currently live. But furthermore, the best and most authentic types of fantasy genre films are merely a reflection of the real world we live in but in very stark or grandiose depiction. Basically, when you watch a fantasy film you should see something that oddly reminds you of what you know and feel  about the world we live in. This is why films like the Star Wars franchise and even Avatar were/are very popular. We cannot put our hand on it but we feel  a connection with reality and living things in a deep way, deeper than just flesh level. In the Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies we are drawn to the reality we know and feel that there is more depth, more forces, and more at stake in this world than we readily see. Basically, again, a fantasy should show us the world we already know exists but think it is too foolish or childish to believe. Maybe this is why so many great fantasy genres came from or were originally made for children? Children question this reality less than adults or not at all. Bright makes us embrace a world we do not readily recognize but know is real but instead of making it happy, it makes it difficult and the desire to reject it is at the edge of our hearts the whole time.

So, what is this world that the makers of Bright want us to accept?

Bright wants you to accept that the every day world is a world where classes exist. With that acceptance comes a few fundamental truths that the movie proposes. Those truths are as follows: 1) That classes of people (or species in the case of Bright) oppress other classes. 2) Oppression has broken and is breaking everyone. 3) Oppression is a foundational entity of this fallen world that we live. 4) This oppression started long ago. 5) We have educated ourselves to not believe in ancient archaic truths that have caused the forces of oppression that are present today. 6) We participate in this as we are the ones that are oppressing others and being oppressed by others due to this dark force. 7) This is all at times too hard to accept psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually. 8) We are also so absorbed in our own world that we have no idea of how to consider the realities of another person's socioeconomic, gender, or ethnic reality and oppression and how our life and experience of being oppressed and oppressing others may affect other's directly or indirectly. In short, we have lost faith in the truth of our past and are self absorbed in the things of the present. Bright seeks to have us wake up by shining light into what is being missed, hence the title. Bright extremely and creatively constructs this dynamic by using mythical beings that are household staples in fantasy films yet layering them in a reality that makes us either identify and or hate them. The Elves are what we know elves to be. They are logical, intelligent, physically superior to humans, and basically run the world. And this is for better and worse. Because of this the Elves seem to be conveniently placed in positions of social and economic advantage to all the other races, which includes Humans, Orcs, and even fairies. Orcs are also super strong in relation to humans, but for some reason their advantages are not allowed to take fruition in this world and they are routinely held back, harassed, and limited by simply being who they are in the world the Elves (and some humans) have constructed. Bright asks the viewer to see a world where racism and systemic oppression exists by making mythical beings replace the real ethnicities and social classes that exist in the real world. These beings are basically just mirrors to the real world. This is played out well with Will Smith aka Scott Ward  and his police partner Nick Jackoby who is an Orc played by actor Joel Edgerton. It is genius how the pairing works together. Humans in this world have a implied social advantage to Orcs, who are on the lowest rung of the social ladder. Ward, a black cop, treats Jackoby with a social contempt yet it is obvious that his partner is his mirror in how blacks are perceived and treated in certain socio economic circles in the real world. Again, it is genius and worth watching. Essentially, in the entire film Smith is telling us to not be who he is being and that we can all be that or not be that if we just become Bright. With this said, the theme that is the most gripping in the film is the spiritual one, to me. There is a strong social commentary in the film that centers on what I have already mentioned but the spiritual theme of faith, secularism, and "social progress" to a dystopian level is also strong.

There is a reason why there are multiple races and why they are at odds with each other in one way or another and it is due to a dark force that was defeated by for lack of a better word a messiah two thousand years ago via prophesy and magic and the only way to defeat the darkness in the world that is vividly portrayed in Bright in current time Los Angeles is to believe in magic and a messiah again. Like you might expect, hardly anyone believes yet everyone desperately needs too; the humans, orcs, elves, everyone, before the world goes too dark. In a way that I found most profound and well done is who the film portrays as the believers. The believers are those who have not gotten the good pieces of pie that this world has to offer. Most of the believers are Orcs and consequently the messiah comes from the Orc race; Ward's partner Jackoby and he is a blessing to behold when it comes together.

"This is not a prophesy, this is a stolen Toyota Corolla." - Ward

Like the Gospel story, only the ones that are oppressed by a culture that is tiered and stacked to benefit some over others care, believe, and recognize the messiah. Only those that feel the effects of a broken world and dark evil that has drawn them to sin and others to sin upon them look and long for a messiah, and that is the case with Bright. The film makes this so obvious that it basically fell short of just quoting biblical verses. Jackoby literally raises from the dead and upon doing so gains followers, which are mostly other Orcs. There are many times in this film where Will Smith's character resists the signs and truths to believe. In one well timed line Smith's character Ward says, "This is not a prophesy, this is a stolen Toyota Corolla" to his partner who is beginning to see his destiny and why he desires to help people, even though his is constantly mis-treated and disrespected by society and his co-workers at the LAPD while the two are fleeing a near death experience in a car they stole. Yet, due to great writing, the more that Ward steps outside of himself and begins to consider that things are not the way he perceives them to be everywhere, that a story started way before he was born, and that he needs to wake up, Ward finds himself believing and having a critical role in this story that is thousands of years old. Ward takes the journey that the writers of Bright hopes that we all do; walk outside, look around, get outside of our world, and look in the mirror and see that this world is broken, we are broken, we are being oppressed or oppressing others, and that the answer is to something we have long forgotten or considered old and archaic or that we think no longer applies to us; The Gospel.

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

    my chosen one in whom I delight;

I will put my Spirit on him,

    and he will bring justice to the nations.

2 He will not shout or cry out,

    or raise his voice in the streets.

3 A bruised reed he will not break,

    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

4     he will not falter or be discouraged

till he establishes justice on earth.

    In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

5 This is what God the Lord says—

the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,

    who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,

    who gives breath to its people,

    and life to those who walk on it:

6 “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;

    I will take hold of your hand.

I will keep you and will make you

    to be a covenant for the people

    and a light for the Gentiles, 

Isaiah 42:1-6

Howard Thomas is a creative writer and communicator currently ministering and residing in inner city Houston, TX.