Tonight we had some good friends over for dinner. Afterwards we sat down and watched the musical Chicago. I’ve watched the film a few times and have some thoughts. To the casual observer the film is depravity, greed and blatant sexuality mixed with music and scantily clad dancers writhing out the story line. But – you don’t have to dig too deep before you realize that this film is about far more. The sexuality and depravity presented are vehicles to carry along a well written, incredibly choreographed story designed to hold a mirror to the face of the audience. A mirror which shows us for who we really are.

 

Who are we? We are 21st century western culture. We are the post WW2, post Korean War, post Vietnam War, post Gulf War, post OJ Simpson, post 9/11, post Iraq, post Afghanistan, post God culture. We are soaked in disillusion. Immersed in cynicism, hopeless and fatally fatalistic.

 

To watch Chicago is to watch ourselves and laugh. It is as though we, the crowd, were put into the midst of the colliseum, cheering in gleeful blissful ignorance as the lions tear us to pieces. It is no accident that turn of the century Chicago is chosen to present a modern audience with a view of itself as it stands at the turn of another century. In some ways it is a warning – "this is what you are becoming" it seems to shout. "You are becoming cynical. You no longer believe in justice, except that which you can buy." The movie tells us through music and dance that we laugh at the good guys. The man who stupidly sticks to a an "outdated" morality is viewed as a moron and ultimately dismissed – invisible as cellophane. The one innocent in a crowd of guilty is executed as the rest purchase and lie their way to freedom.

 

We suspect, as we are laughing at Richard Gere’s character the corrupt, money-hungry defense attorney Billy Flynn describe how simple it is to manipulate the press, that the writers and directors are laughing at how easy it is to manipulate the audience. That they can make us laugh unknowingly at a caricature of ourselves. At one point Flynn (who has never lost a case) cuts straight to the heart of what is wrong with our culture – he says that if Jesus Christ Himself had his fee of $5,000 things would have turned out differently.

 

The point? Sacrifice is to be laughed at. There is no value in it and it is to be avoided at all costs. But without sacrifice what do we have? We have damnation, we have death, we have hedonistic humanism, we have – Chicago.

 

I love this movie because it reminds me of how easily corrupted we are. I love it because it reminds me of how desparately we need a value beyond ourselves. It’s a fantastic movie – but not for the reasons most people think.