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"JESUS AT THE MOVIES: The Emperor's Club" | Ephesians 4.1-4 | August 3, 2003 |
Our story begins at the end as Mr. Hundert, now retired from teaching, is persuaded to moderate a rematch of a contest from high school days, this rematch sponsored by the young man who lost the context back then. Now a wealthy businessman, and influence in politics, this former student has invited all of his classmates to a rematch with the express purpose of winning.
As the story unfolds, we learn that this contest is a tradition at St. Benedict’s school for boys, an academic contest on the Greek and Roman classics to crown an annual Julius Caesar, through a series of history tests that determine the final three candidates who must compete in a public forum. Mr. Hundert spends the year grooming the young men for the contest, and moderates the public contest by posing questions relating to classic Greek and Roman culture, in increasing difficulty, to the three finalists.
The young Mr. Sedgewick Bell is a rabble-rouser but with significant potential to be at the top of his class. He is an underachiever and perpetrates mischief that is most vexing to the administration. Sedgewick Bell’s father is an influential U.S. Senator, assuring his son’s enrollment at St. Benedicts and entrance into Yale. Mr. Hundert has taken upon himself the task of influencing Sedgewick Bell to a life of academia and honest achievement.
Mr. Hundert is a man of impeccable moral standards and tries to instill in the boys at the school the same. Sedgewick Bell scoffs such standards but eventually begins to show improvement in his academic life. Mr. Hundert sees this as a personal major achievement, and when it comes time to select the three finalists for the Mr. Julius Caesar contest, Mr. Hundert, much against his character to do so, manipulates the test scores in favor of Sedgewick Bell. The three finalists are announced, and the die is cast for Mr. Hundert to live with a lifetime of disappointment in himself for having done this and for the young Sedgewick Bell to live a life of untruth and arrogant accomplishments at the expense of others.
During the final public contest, Mr. Hundert realizes that Sedgewick Bell is cheating. The dean advises Mr. Hundert to just ignore it, wanting to avoid a public scandal involving the Senator’s son. This goes against Mr. Hundert’s principals who poses an impromptu question to the young man, a question the young Mr. Bell can’t answer and who ultimately is humiliated in his defeat.
When we finally learn about the rematch some years later, there is a glimmer of hope that we will see the now-influential and powerful businessman Sedgewick Bell wanting to sponsor an honest rematch. But alas, we are disappointed when at the rematch we learn that Sedgewick Bell cheats again in order to win the rematch. A sharp and profoundly disappointed Mr. Hundert realizes the scam and poses a simple question to Sedgewick Bell who cannot answer and once again is forced to a humiliated defeat.
We learn, too, that the rematch is a ruse for Sedgewick Bell to announce his candidacy to follow in his father’s footsteps for the Senate seat, and the event becomes a political campaign. When Mr. Hundert confronts the newly-announced Senate candidate privately about cheating in the contest, we realize that Sedgewick Bell has not changed in the least. He is still as arrogant, and as interested in getting ahead regardless of those he hurts along the way. He tells Hundert that whatever cheating, whatever lying, whatever conniving it takes, he will do it to get the Senate seat.
A disappointed Mr. Hundert realizes that his lifetime efforts to influence Sedgewick Bell have been in vain, and when we realize that Sedgewick Bell’s young son has overheard this conversation, we hope again the Bell will come clean and mend his ways. His remorse at having been overheard by his son is short-lived, and in a few minutes we see Bell and his wife interviewing with the press, telling the public that his senatorial platform will be based on honest, truth-telling principals and high moral standards to set good examples for our children. “Most of our stories can be written before we die,” Mr. Hundert reflects as he comments on the situation. One’s character is one’s fate.
Throughout the movie we keep hoping that the decisions that are made are the right ones. We see the successful Sedgewick Bell rising to the top of his class and society and politics but without a shred of integrity. No one else around him knows of his cheating except the viewing audience, and it gives us pause to realize once again that things aren’t as they seem, that what we see on the surface is not always what is real. We are reminded again that what is real to all of us is our perception of reality, not reality itself.
One of Mr. Hundert’s abiding principles is the notion that effort and conquest without contribution are without consequence. One may be a great person, but without some contribution to society that person is ultimately forgotten. The learned Mr. Hundert and the deceptive Mr. Sedgewick Bell are juxtaposed with one another in this story, the former a humble teacher who makes a contribution and the latter a well-known political leader who makes little contribution to the society he is supposed to be serving. “Wisdom,” says Mr. Hundert “should be used for others as well as for oneself.”
Mr. Hundert must live with an error in judgment that is betrayed at several points. He invested his heart and soul into Sedgewick Bell believing him to have unlimited potential, but that trust is betrayed by the unscrupulous Bell. Mr. Hundert spends a lifetime pondering the merits of that decision to promote Bell to the final three over the student who ultimately earned it but who was eliminated by the stroke of Mr. Hundert’s red pencil. He realizes that we cannot step into the same river twice, for the river is forever changing. An opportunity that is lost is lost forever. One’s character is one’s fate.
At the end of the movie, as the handsome and debonair Sedgewick Bell and his beautiful wife set forth what we know to be a sham political platform for the press, we see a surprised Mr. Hundert being hailed and applauded by the rest of his former students, including the forgiving Martin Blythe, the student who was eliminated from the contest unfairly. It is a moment of truth for Mr. Hundert who comments that success in life is not based on a single success or failure but on the whole of one’s accomplishments. One’s character is one’s fate, and for the humble Mr. Hundert his mistake ultimately is redeemed in the larger character of his lifetime of integrity and contribution to society. And even though we see a glimmer of hope here and there in Sedgewick Bell, his unprincipled character is ultimately his fate for a lifetime of deception. It is a lesson of faith to be learned by all of us.
Do we not all have misperceptions about who is right and who is wrong, of what is right and what is wrong in any given situation? Do we not all make value judgments that affect the lives of many others as the consequence of those decisions ripple out on the waters of time? Do we not all have daily successes and failures that could make or break us, but which ultimately can also give us strength we didn’t know we had or nurture a faith deep inside we didn’t know existed? Our faith is found more in story than in correct doctrine and each story we encounter– whether truth or fiction, whether in novel, or biography, or the bible, or on the silver screen–each story encourages us toward hope for our own.
In the Tao Te Ching we hear these words:
Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else
There is no end to the blame
Therefore the Master
Fulfills her own obligations
And corrects her own mistakes.
She does what she needs to do
And demands nothing of others.
(translated by Stephen Mitchell)
Paul’s words to the church at Ephesus reminds us to be humble, bearing with one another in love, being patient with each other and with life. We are challenged to live lives worthy of the calling we have received to be co-creators with God in the evolution of the world and humanity. There is one body of humanity, one universe, one hope for which we all strive. We are called to spend our lives seeking wisdom that can be used for others as well as for ourselves. We will fail, we will make mistakes, we will invest in things that will ultimately disappoint us, but there is a larger Power at work , a veritable antibody against the viruses that would destroy our best efforts, that can be trusted. So we live in hope. And we trust that in the larger picture, our single failures or successes will not determine the value of life because God is at work communing with us in the daily routine to fashion a world of joy and delight. Amen.
–Gary L. McCann
EPHESIANS 4.1-4
I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope through the one God who is over all and through all and in all.
| Copyright © 2003 by Gary L. McCann. All rights reserved. |