11/88—How to Choose Your Videos! DO 2497

1. Do you know what made the difference between that "Meteor" movie we saw the other night & a movie like "E.T."? E.T. was a masterpiece‚ what I call a good movie! And I really thought about this, "Now, Lord, what was the difference? What made the difference?" And do you know what answer I got?—Love! Love was the difference. I was so touched several times watching E.T., I almost cried, & Techi did too. So that's the difference. There were some very touching scenes that really brought tears to your eyes.

2. It was a moving picture & it really touched your heart, made you have feelings for different ones & how they felt. Those kids in E.T. did a marvellous piece of acting. They really threw their hearts into it & made you really feel it, & what you felt was love.

3. Did you feel any love in that other picture we saw?—Not one iota. The guy kissed the girl once, so what? You can kiss thousands of girls without necessarily having any real love! He just grabbed her & smackerooed her real hard one time. That's love?—Humph! And then she takes off & goes back to Russia with her master. That's love? It was just all chaos, absolute chaos!—No rhyme nor reason nor purpose nor feeling nor love nor compassion nor anything! There was no point to the whole movie. So that's the difference!

4. Now if you see a movie & you feel love in that movie—I mean real love, not just sex, but love—you're touched, you're moved almost to weep, that's what I call a real movie! When I was a singer I felt that if I didn't move my audience to tears at least once during my singing, if I didn't see some of those old ladies crying a little bit or something, if I wasn't moved to tears myself, then I wasn't really getting through. Sometimes I actually broke while I was singing & I had a hard time finishing‚ & when I was moved‚ they were moved. That's the difference—love makes the difference—in everything in the World!

5. I wasn't planning on giving you that sermon this morning but I was just thinking about it during the night‚ "Lord, what was the difference between those movies?" Both were a little funny & crazy &, of course‚ there was a lot more humour in E.T., & there was a lot more natural human interest, things you could understand people doing, you could believe. If a movie is so far out that it doesn't even relate to human experience, it doesn't even relate to reality, it's no good! Why see it? I like to watch movies about people & their actual experiences & reality that I can identify with.

6. People like to identify with somebody in a movie, you know? And that's what E.T. had. It was real, you could feel that this could really happen. But that other movie, you couldn't feel once in the whole movie that it could happen! E.T. was typical of the faith of children, & it was a blast at the unbelief of the System! None of the adults in the movie would believe. Even the older teenagers wouldn't believe at first, but the children believed, they had faith & they had love & they had compassion. They felt sorry for the little fellow, right? Right! It had love, lots of love!

7. I don't know what in the World has happened to Spielberg, but he hasn't made a picture like that since then! I don't know, maybe the money changed him or something. But E.T. is a classic, a picture like that will last until the Lord comes!—We might even find it interesting in the Millennium. (In fact, I just read that Melissa Matheson, who wrote E.T., which has so far been the most popular movie & biggest success & biggest money-maker of any movie ever made, deliberately made it to parallel the life of Christ, like a parody on Jesus' life.)

8. Excuse me for digressing, but that is the difference.—Love! That's the ingredient that that picture had throughout. Love & faith. It had faith. It even talked about "you've got to believe", remember? And it was almost like the little boy's faith finally pulled E.T. through. Because finally he was really moved & was virtually praying over his casket, what amounted to his casket‚ remember, & all of a sudden the guy began to come to life again.

9. The implication or insinuation was that he was just so desperate & he'd almost given up all hope & he flung himself on that casket. You can imagine whatever you want to, but it looked to me like he was praying‚ didn't it? He was weeping & I'd say he was praying, & when he did that, it was just like God brought E.T. back to life. I don't see anything else that it could've meant, do you? So faith was another very important ingredient.

10. And another thing about that movie, everything turned out all right in the end, right? It all turned out all right in the end. That other movie & all those crazy things, it was a mess! The Earth was half wrecked & you never see any restoration or actually any good news. All that happens is that a handful of them survived but then the Russian girl took off for Russia & the romance was over. There was just no meaning to it all, no love, no faith, no reality!

11. But E.T.'s got it all! It's interesting, it's got sci–fi, it's funny, really funny! We just almost split our sides laughing. Now something has got to be really human to be funny, right? It's got to really be human‚ believable. The funniest jokes of all are the ones that are the most normal, natural & akin to normal human experience.

12. E.T.'s got it all!—It's got reality, it's got believability, it's got faith, it's got love & it's got a happy ending. It's got real compassion in there. I think when they were acting‚ those kids really felt it. You couldn't act like that unless you felt it. Right? It's a moving picture. Think of all the money they wasted on that other stupid film! There was no faith, no love, no reality in that "Meteor" picture. It was ridiculous, it was catastrophic. It was a disaster as far as I'm concerned. I mean‚ the picture was a disaster, not only what happened in it! But E.T.'s got it all‚ what a movie ought to have.

13. Sci-fi doesn't do it‚ that's not enough. There are sci-fi's & sci-fi's. Now Star Trek, for example, a series seen worldwide, has love, compassion, lessons & even some believability! Each one teaches some kind of lesson. They're not just cold, hard-hearted, mechanical, strange & unusual.

14. But Star Trek has love, compassion, reality, some humanness related to one's own experiences etc., & it almost always teaches you a lesson.—But they're not for small children.

15. Top stars don't necessarily make a top movie either. "Meteor" had some top stars, & it didn't do it. I bet those stars were absolutely ashamed to have ever made that picture! It's a fairly old picture too because Henry Fonda was in it, & he's dead. Think of that, it was made a long time ago & yet you never heard of it. I never heard of it before.—Which shows you it never made a hit. I bet it fell like a lump of lead, like the meteor!

16. Thank God for movies that relate & make you feel like it could've happened, it's real, like, "Well‚ that's been my experience!" It's believable, it's got faith, it's got love‚ it's got humanness, it's got a lesson. That's the kind of movies we're looking for!—Movies that teach something, show something good like faith & love & all that. For God's sake, don't give us any of that other garbage! I don't want to waste my time, not a minute, looking at that other junk!

17. You may have to watch it a little bit. The previewer should be someone who is sensitive along those lines, who can feel, have a spiritual sense of discernment about whether the thing has really got it or not. The Holy Spirit's able to witness to you & show you even by the first few scenes what it's all about.

18. And please, I don't care for cowboy movies, either! The cowboy industry is built on the gun, the quick shot, killing people. The gun is the law—not love, but violence! People loved cowboy movies when they were the most popular because they were violent. Now they've got stuff more violent & more wrecking & more horrendous! Horror's become popular! Horror movies have become the most popular movies. Did you know that a horror series is the most popular series in the U.S. now?

19. Maybe it was worth this little chat if it'll help guide you to the right kind of movies. I especially like historical movies. Of course, I've seen some that were just comedies & actually the silliest things I ever saw, of guys messing around & doing stunts & all kinds of things even though they were dressed up like Henry the VIII or somebody. Just because they're dressed up historically & it's put back in the 1700's doesn't make it a good movie! It's got to be true history, serious history, not silly history.

20. Movies based on current events really teach us something as well. Good spy stories in particular teach us quite a bit because we live like that. I consider the British ones the best. I don't think the Americans know hardly anything about spying. —And they don't know much about acting either!

21. Frankly, I prefer British movies over almost every kind of American movie! You can't even understand the Americans, they mumble & mutter & use a lot of words we don't even understand any more because they're new words. A lot of Jewish words I catch, but maybe you don't. I just don't like most American movies. Their whole theme & their whole ethics & everything just rubs me the wrong way. They're mostly violent, mostly "action" movies, you don't have to think, you don't have to figure out anything. They just dash‚ crash, mash & bash!

22. But serious historical British movies are usually tops. They love their history, for one thing, & they love their language, & they speak it well & you can understand it. I'm getting to where I can understand English better than American! Anyhow, those are a few thoughts to remember when you're picking out movies, PTL!—Happy video selecting & viewing! GBY! ILY!—Choose prayerfully!