The Witch Movie Review

As a first time feature film maker, Robert Egger demonstrates a skilled and assured hand at how to handle material that is delicate on several fronts. The Witch, which he wrote and directed, deals with puritanical religious dogma of the seventeenth century, witchcraft, and also the conventions of horror and psychological thrillers. So much could have gone wrong in setting a tone and a pace, but Eggers gets most of it right.

For starters, he set his film nearly four centuries ago in New England. As such the dialogue, much of which is taken from contemporaneous transcripts and texts, contains a style that, to the ears of a 21^st century American, sounds like something out of a restoration village where actors pretend they know nothing about modern technology. Also the family at the center of the movie, who have been banished from the village for “prideful conceit”, exercise such deep religious conviction that we might feel uncomfortable laughter coming on. But the events that transpire are no laughing matter.

Bill Maher on Freedom of Speech and Islamic Extremists

I'm not really a big fan of Bill Maher. I think he's a bit of a self-righteous blowhard. But his recent closing rant on free speech in response to Comedy Central's censorship of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "South Park" episode depicting Mohammed and the resulting death threat had some choice lines worth quoting:

"[U]nlike the Qur'an, no one hear seriously considers following The Bible literally. Guys don't look over their fence on Sunday morning and see a neighbor mowing the lawn and think, 'I really should kill him.' Now Christianity of course went through a period like that, where religion had too much influence. It was called the Dark Ages."

And referring to the desire of the majority of Muslims in America and Europe to be assimilated better:

"The western world needs to make it clear that some things about our culture are not negotiable and can't change. And one of them is freedom of speech. Separation of church and state is another - not negotiable."

That last point he may want to direct at the Christian right as well.