Reviewed by Ian Maher

Monster's Ball
Director: Marc Forster (2001)
Distributor: Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd.  Certificate: 15

Brought into the spotlight following Halle Berry's Oscar-winning performance (and also her emotional acceptance speech!), Monster's Ball is a powerful film that is worthy of its wide acclaim. Set in contemporary Georgia, the film's main characters are Leticia Musgrove (Halle Berry) and Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton). Leticia's husband Lawrence (Sean Combs) is on death row where Hank is a prison officer, as his son Sonny (Heath Ledger). Hank's ailing father Buck (Peter Boyle) had also been a prison officer.

Following Lawrence's execution in which Hank and Sonny were involved, Monster's Ball explores lives that are falling apart. Leticia faces eviction being unable to maintain payments on her home, while struggling to care for her young and grossly overweight son. Sonny plunges into despair and kills himself through being unable to cope with a legal system that executes people. Hank is also haunted by his job having felt obliged to carry on in the footsteps of his racist and opinionated father. For Hank, the death of Sonny is the final straw and he resigns from his job at the prison.

As the film draws to a close, Leticia finds out that Hank was one of the officers on duty at her husband's execution. She is shocked and disturbed but does not let on to Hank about her discovery and it seems that they will survive as a couple.

Monster's Ball is, in many ways, a dark and harrowing film. The pain of human loss and the struggle for survival is never far from the surface. The devastating way in which destructive attitudes and relationships carry across the generations is evident in the Grotowski family, and the evil of racism is clearly portrayed through Leticia's experience. But there is also hope in the film. Despite the struggle and turmoil of their own lives and the cards being stacked against them, Leticia and Hank are rescued by each other. Their love proves strong enough to pull them through and give them a chance of a new beginning.

There are some steamy moments in the film, and the execution scene is disturbing ~ so be warned that Monster's Ball does not make for easy viewing. That said, it is a film that deserves to be seen. Halle Berry's Oscar was well-deserved and it is simply astonishing that Billy Bob Thornton did not at least receive a best actor nomination. He is surely one of the best actors of our day. Overall, you will probably not see a better film this year and if you miss it at the cinema Monster’s Ball is well worth catching when it is released on video.

(You might just be wondering why the film is called Monster's Ball. If so, here is the reason. In medieval times there was a custom called the monster's ball of throwing a drunken, final-night party for a condemned man.)

THROUGH THE LENS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH 

Some key themes: the need for forgiveness and reconciliation; racism

It is not unusual to come across comments in relation to suffering such as: ‘What have I done to deserve this?’ or ‘Why has God inflicted this on us?’ The idea that God inflicts payback on those who displease him, or upon their families, is not uncommon. Some people also point to Biblical texts to support this view. For example:

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20.4 ~ italics mine).

Verses like this leave us with a picture of a scary God who takes out his anger on people for the wrongdoing of their ancestors. Such belief was still around in New Testament times, with Jesus himself being questioned by his followers as to whose fault it was that a man was born blind (John 9.1-6). Jesus’ reply shows that God does not inflict pay-back suffering on people for the wrongdoings of those who went before. In fact, Jesus fills out our understanding of God’s love, revealing it as something unconditional ~ something still poured out on us even when we turn away from him. 

In an imperfect world it is a fact that bad things happen to good people, sometimes for no apparent reason and certainly not because God vindictively sends suffering. It is the way of the world. Yet there are many occasions when the consequences of human wrong-doing and of turning away from the things of God (i.e. sin) affect others, even across the generations. It is not something inflicted by God but, rather, the inescapable result of human wickedness being transmitted like ripples from a stone dropped in a pond.

Monster’s Ball provides a striking example of this. Hank Grotowski suffered at the hands of his racist father and inherited some of his attitudes, although carrying on in his father’s ways as much out of fear as from choice. In turn, Hank expected the same loyalty from his son. Only when Sonny took his own life was the abusive pattern interrupted. Eventually, the unlikely love between Hank and Leticia begins to heal the infection of hatred that had scarred the Grotowskis for generations. In their different ways they each make a choice to put down the bitterness and hurt with which their lives have been afflicted.

Whatever harm has been inflicted on us by others, knowingly or unknowingly, there is always the opportunity to acknowledge it, to forgive (or at least to move towards forgiveness), and to move on. We do not have to perpetuate the cycle of pain. God certainly does not want a continuation of suffering. To the contrary, he longs for what is best for us, and that we will make the right choices in letting go of the things that cripple us.

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