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Mark Sutton’s “Matrix”
I was attending a church growth conference at Saddleback Church in California in the year of our Lord, 2000. Most of my church staff was present and I was invited along as the head of our drama ministry. Most of my breakout sessions involved using drama in church ministries and I was headed for a session when Mark Sutton, my pastor, stopped me.
“Bruce, we’re going back to the hotel.”
“Who?”
“You and me.”
“Why?”
“Because they have The Matrix on pay per view.”
I remember my mouth falling open in shock. My pastor, the man who insisted his entire staff spend four days in California for a church growth conference wanted to to back to the hotel and watch “The Matrix”. But, I have always respected the authority of my senior pastor so I joined him. We watched the move and he loved every second of it.
Mark passed away in January of this year from a failing lung transplant. Mark was the best communicator I have ever met. His imagination was endless as the many dramas we wrote together testified.
But despite his seeming gentle nature, he loved movies. Gory movies. Violent movies. And he was very glib about it. “The more violent and gory, the better!” And the only person he could get to go with him was me. I don’t like ultra-violence. But neither of our wives liked movies. And our children were too young for theses type of movies.
I recall one time, he wanted to go see “Starship Troopers”, the ultra violent science fiction movie made by Paul Verhoeven. We arrived at the theater and realized we were the only ones there. Mark insisted on sitting in the third or fourth row. Closer to the action, he said. There we sat as the credits rolled and the first violent scene appears. To my shock, Mark began talking to the movie!
“Really! Come on. You can do better than that!”
Now, I insist on silence in the movies. Sean, my son, would talk constantly during a movie making sure I just saw the scene we had just seen. His mantra was:
“Hey, Dad.”
“What Sean?”
“Did you see that robot?”
“Yes, Sean.”
“Hey, Dad.”
“What, Sean?”
“Did you see who that robot shot?”
“Yes, Sean.”
“Hey, Dad.”
I called these the “Hey Dad what Seans.” By the time he was in middle school he grew out of it. Thank you God! Now, he has a son who, well you can guess.
By the time we were thirty minutes into the movie, we were both loudly commenting on each scene. It was like some weird episode of Mystery Theater 3000! At times I was certain blood, body fluids, or water from the infamous co-ed shower scene splattered on us.
When all was done, Mark smiled and laughed. These movies were cathartic for him. Having to constantly be on his best behavior as a pastor, deprived him of moments when he could just let down for a bit. But with me, he was in a safe zone.
In 2001, we took our two daughters to see “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” We both had read the book in our teenage years. Our daughters were around 14 at the time. They loved the movie. They sat between me and Mark and I remember leaning over and looking at Mark with this silly grin and he would give me a thumbs up. Not because the movie was too violent but because it was such a beautiful and well done testimony to the book. After that movie, we both transitioned into attending movies with our daughters. No more Starship Troopers.
Mark has gone on to his eternal reward now. But before he passed away, he had the joy of writing two fiction books. Pitfall is a story about the war in heaven that leads to Lucifer’s downfall. And Demon Undertow is a murder mystery set in a mythical city based on Daytona Beach, Florida. In both books, he used violence but to a much muted degree than what we saw in the movies.
This weekend, I will be at GeekD Con with my books and Mark’s two books. I have a few print versions and I will also have a special ebook bundle for both books. Come celebrate Mark’s love of writing, and fiction, and books like “Lord of the Rings.”
No blood. No body fluid. No co-ed showers! Just good, clean fun!
I hope to see you there.
It’s Clobberin’ Time!
I’m stepping away from posting on my most recent book, “Merchant of Justice” for a movie review.
Saline, Louisiana is a small community in north central Louisiana best known for its watermelons and the birthplace of my ancestors. My grandparents lived in a house right out of the Addams family neighborhood. Fifteen foot ceilings inside with a bare light bulb dangling on a wire from the center. Aging, sagging stairs leading up to two front porches on either side of a bay window. The house sat five feet off the ground on piers. No air conditioning. My parents would travel to Saline during the summer months to help my aunts and uncles shell black-eyed peas, shuck corn, and harvest watermelons and we would stay at my grandparents’ house. An enclosed porch on the backside of the house had a small bed pushed up against a window and the only air came through that screened window.
I was bored. There was nothing for a twelve year old to do in Saline. I could walk a couple of blocks to the playground of Saline School (first through twelfth grade!). Or, I could walk four blocks to downtown Saline, a picture perfect Main Street of a small town.
The grocery store was small and most of the candy bars were so old, they had been invaded by worms. The meat in the cooler had a green sheen! The Calico Cafe across the street served blue plate specials for lunch. My one dollar allowance would only go so far. I wandered into the hardware store filled with aging furniture and light bulbs and musty towels. Nothing there for me!
Finally, across the street from the hardware store, I entered Baber’s Drug Store. No prescriptions were filled here. The old fashioned ice cream soda counter had no ice cream. Shelves were stacked with home remedies. It was here I found a box of sulfur and a box of saltpeter I would take them home in the coming months and make gunpowder. A story for another time!
At this time in my life, I was growing beyond childish stories. Just the year before, in September 1966, my life had been changed forever when I watched the first episode of a new show called Star Trek. I would never go back to Lost in Space! The stories and character were different, interesting, complex. Later as I matured, I would realize these characters were “mature”. The comic books I read at that time in my life were DC Comics: Superman, Batman, Justice League. Maybe I could find a new comic book to read.
I found the comic book stand and realized the DC comics available I had already seen. But there was something in front of me that would change my life must as much as Star Trek had. Here is the cover of that comic:
The Fantastic Four? Never heard of them. But I decided to take a chance and part with my 12 cents and try it. I took that comic back to my grandparents’ house in a misting rain. I laid across the bed in that back porch with my face pressed close to the cool breeze coming in the window from the rain filled air. And I read about Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch and the Thing. The Thing, a hideously deformed human had a blind girlfriend who was not horrified by his appearance. She had disappeared into the “Beehive” and the Fantastic Four had to find and rescue her. In the process they encountered a “cocoon” containing a highly advanced human life-form, the product of scientific experimentation. Called simply “Him” the humanoid emerged and fought the Fantastic Four. This creature would later be called Adam Warlock!
I was blown away! The character development was powerful, and, yes, mature. The story of the Thing being rejected by those around him because of his outward appearance resonated with this poor, chubby, bullied boy! And, he still managed to have a girlfriend!
After the rain stopped, I ran back downtown and spent the rest of my allowance on the comic book before the one I had just read along with three new comics: Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Avengers. Sorry, DC. I never went back until Christopher Reeves brought Superman to life in 1978.
I share this because I have survived four theatrical versions of The Fantastic Four. The 1994 Roger Corman production, produced so Fox would not lose the franchise rights never appeared in public but you can find it on a distant corner of the Internet. The two early 2000 movies were much better and almost captured the feel of the Fantastic Four. The 2015 version should not be discussed. I rank it right along with Alien Resurrection, the third Alien movie that undid all the second movie earned with Ripley, Newt, and Hicks.
Last week, I went to the new movie with my adult daughter and son. Together we watched the definitive, authentic version of the Fantastic Four I first encountered in that comic book back in 1967. Go see it! The story of family, of unity, of good versus evil, of a mother’s love for her child is so powerful! And throughout the entire movie, the characters were spot on! I was back on that bed in my grandparents’ house meeting the Fantastic Four again! Take someone you love and enjoy one of the most uplifting and inspiring movies this year. Set in a 1960’s alternate world, the setting resonated with my own childhood memories of a country flourishing with hope and the promise of a great future. The space program dominated the news with exciting images of spaceships, astronauts, and space walks culminating in a man walking on the moon. Optimism still reigned in this world and that hope and optimism can still be discovered if we learn to look beyond our differences and strive to make this world a better place by being a part of the human family.
Help the movie beat out the competition (haven’t seen Superman yet) because for the Fantastic Four, it’s Clobberin’ Time!
Bruce Hennigan 
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