Warning: There are some
major spoilers in this.
My wife and I went to see
the Disney movie Maleficent with
some friends a few days ago. There
were some things that bothered me about the movie so at first I didn’t really
like it. Like many people that saw it, I really wanted them to be a little more
true to the romantic theme of Sleeping Beauty and I didn’t like that there wasn’t one strong,
positive male character in the whole movie. There were also some plot holes that bothered me. But over the past few days I’ve come to
realize there is actually an incredible lesson in this movie that I nearly
missed because I watched the movie through the wrong lens. See, I had on my romantic lenses and
was ready to watch a different version of Sleeping Beauty. But
the movie is not Sleeping Beauty, it
is Maleficent, the tale of an
evil woman. This was not a love
story but a lesson in the nature of evil.
So what was the lesson? The lesson was never return evil for
evil. It is the natural reaction
of every human to seek revenge when we are wronged. But what this movie showed is evil is like a cancer and when
we give into it we only cause it to spread further. Seeking revenge may cause those we hate to become even
darker, we damage our lives, and we may even harm those who have nothing to do
with the circumstances.
Maleficent was tragically
betrayed by the one she loved.
Having encountered betrayal myself (though not from a lover) I’ve seen
that there is nothing more emotionally painful than this. That being the case, betrayal has the
potential to bring out the absolute worst in us beyond any other life event. I
never tasted of such pain and anger until I was betrayed. As a follower of Christ I firmly
believe in what Jesus taught, that we are to love our enemies and pray for
those who persecute us. But let me
tell you, after my betrayal, it was MONTHS before I could even SQUEEK OUT a
prayer for my enemies. It took a
very long time for me to be able to comfortably pray for them, the hurt was so
deep. But Maleficent chose to give
into her anger and foster hatred in her heart. In doing so she ended up having the very thing for which yearned;
a chance for revenge. She stood
before her scumbag betrayer and humiliated him for all to see and had the
wicked pleasure of taking from him what was most dear to him just as he had
done to her.
However, Maleficent didn’t
realize in that one fleeting moment of sick pleasure she made the world even
darker and complicated her future.
After that encounter the king became even more evil. Driven by fear and the rage of having
what was most precious to him threatened, he was now seeking revenge. The movie, in its course of showing
Maleficent’s journey out of darkness didn’t really highlight the damage SHE had
done. The king became more evil
BECAUSE OF HER. Maleficent’s
satisfying moment of revenge poured fuel on the fire and caused the King to go
deeper down the hole of evil to place where he couldn’t get out. The evil tyrant she had to fight at the
end of the movie was not some villain that just sprang out of a pit to attack
the now repentant fairy; it was the monster of her own making. Not only did she turn the King from a
shady man into a monster (remember, he didn’t have the heart to kill her when
his selfish ambition drove him to become king – it was only after she cursed
his daughter which upped the ante that he was driven to kill), she also robbed
a child from having any kind of a relationship with either of her parents. Then
as she started to love the child she came to realize she had stolen the future
of one who was innocent. She had
damaged herself by cursing one she would one day love. It was fortunate that at least she had
a way to undo part of what she had done, the king didn’t have the same
fortune.
Maleficent reveals that there was a very practical reason why
Jesus said to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us and
spitefully use us. Paul the
Apostle even straight out told us to bless others and not curse them. When we give into hatred it’s like
punching a hole in a dam. It’s
only a matter of time before we’re all swimming in it.
How would the story have
played out if Maleficent had forgiven the King and blessed the child in spite
of the evil that was done to her? Would she have ended the tensions between the
two kingdoms? Would she have grown
to be loved by the humans? Would
the king have given her back her wings?
We’ll never know.
Loren Rosser
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