Drop Shadow Drop Shadow

WSJ: “‘The Giver’ and the Totalitarian Instinct”

2014-08-15

“Watching the movie, I thought about another utopia-gone-wrong and about the power of faith.”

Raymond Flynn of the Wall Street Journal shares some chilling reflections on The Giver‘s echo of Totalitarian Poland in the 1980s.

WSJ opinion logo 2

“Watching the cast that includes Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep and Katie Holmes in this powerful, dystopian story, I kept thinking of a real-life tale populated with actors on the world stage: communist Poland in the 1980s, when men such as Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa changed history.”

“In this setting the human spirit is almost extinguished, and yet—well, you’ll have to see the movie. But I was reminded that the Poles, with their unconquerable religious faith, proved to be more powerful than a fearsome military power.”

“I saw the movie with John Sununu, the former New Hampshire governor and chief of staff for President George H.W. Bush. John too had been prompted to think of communist totalitarianism and the resilience of faith.”

Mr. Flynn is a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, mayor of Boston and the author of “John Paul II: A Personal Portrait of the Pope and the Man” (St. Martin’s , 2001).

Please click here to read the full article.