Film review: Volition - A film that demands a radical choice

Film review: Volition - A film that demands a radical choice...

"Every man, woman, and child of the age of reason knows right from wrong, for he has been given an inborn conscience. At the moment of his conception life is within the womb, and at the moment of conception a life is forming, regardless of what the agents of hell now pollute the minds of mankind with, creating murders of the young! I say unto you, life begins at the moment of conception and all who extinguish this light are murderers, and without repentance shall be condemned to hell!” - Jesus, June 18, 1977

LifeSiteNews.com reported on November 25, 2008:

(To watch Volition, go to: http://www.thedoorpost.com/hope/film/?film=420351f1aefa2b42b...)

Tim and Matthew Morgan have somehow produced a first-class short film that masterfully deals with the taboo issue of abortion despite working with a budget that would pay for approximately thirty seconds of a Hollywood blockbuster. "Volition," first created for a short film competition, is as yet unknown, but will soon, I predict, become very well known indeed, as it very well should.

Indeed, Volition is an astonishing achievement. The film itself is not made any greater by the fact that Tim Morgan, who directed it, is only 23-years-old, and that his brother, who composed all of the music, is only 20-years-old, but the ages of the brothers does help put the scope of their accomplishment into even greater relief.

Volition places its central character, who goes unnamed, in the historical contexts of what the filmmakers clearly believe to be three of the greatest human rights violations in history: the holocaust, slavery, and abortion. In each of these situations the protagonist is placed in a position of some authority, with the promise of more to come: in the first, he is a Nazi who is being considered for a promotion; in the second, he is a respected American physician who has travelled to Africa and studied the blacks; and in the third, he is a promising medical student on scholarship whose girlfriend is pregnant.

The premise is as clever and well-executed as it is effective. It purpose is clear: by placing the same figure, presumably with the same sort of upbringing, and the same genetic and temperamental predispositions, into the crucible of extreme historical times that demand a response, we may observe his choices, or, in other words, we may try his “volition.”

As the synopsis of the film states, “Throughout history, men have been faced with difficult choices in a world that makes it easy for them to conform. This film explores the hope that lies behind every decision made in the face of adversity; the hope that is buried in the heart of those that look beyond themselves and see something bigger worth fighting for.”

The protagonist is scripted as the perfectly volatile figure, the man who walks on the razor’s edge: young, handsome, intelligent and capable, he is being embraced by the establishment in each historical age, invited by those who control the power and the prestige to climb the ranks and enjoy the benefits with them.

But in each vignette he is caught between two alternatives that are so dramatically mutually opposed that they demand a radical choice. He cannot not act. The times are too extreme, the choices too stark. When presented with the holocaust one must choose the holocaust, or rebel against it. And so too, the film argues, with slavery and abortion. Passivity is not only cowardly, but signals tacit acceptance and by default makes one a co-conspirator with the prevailing spirit of the age.

Luke Williams, the unknown actor who plays the lead, was a spectacular find; he has the perfect face for the role – haunting and deeply expressive - and he uses it well. It is a great credit to Tim Morgan, who wrote the script, that he provides the opportunity for Williams to do so by avoiding the commonest and most annoying error of the amateur screenwriter – to pack the script with dialogue.

In “Volition” dialogue is scarce, and what dialogue there is, is strictly necessary. Instead the carefully constructed and deeply moving visuals, undergirded by Matthew Morgan’s first-rate soundtrack, are what carries this short film through to its conclusion. The efficiency of the Morgan brothers is breathtaking - they expertly weave together and develop three separate story lines, while creating an intimate knowledge of the main characters, and all in a mere fifteen minutes or so.

A fascinating element of the film is that we are not shown the protagonist’s final choice either in Nazi Germany, or in the American, pre-Civil War South. It is made clear in both cases that he is deeply divided and dissatisfied with what he is being asked to participate in. And in each case he is brought to the breaking point, as the full cruelty and inhumanness of the age is suddenly brought to bear upon him. But that is where the viewer leaves him – in one case, as a Nazi soldier, suffering a heart-rending emotional breakdown, and in the other, looking on with clenched jaw as a black child is beaten outside his window. Where he goes from there, we do not know.

It is as if because Nazism and slavery are closed chapters in history, they can no longer be altered. Instead the protagonist is left in his state of tortured tension, unable to choose, unable to act, his will frozen in the immovable past.

It is different in the case of abortion, however. Because abortion is ongoing, because his choice is presented in the here and now, the protagonist can change the course of events. And, of course, in the end he does make such a choice, though I will not say what it is. In that sense the protagonist serves as a symbol for those who are watching the film: those who are alive now and cannot, therefore, do anything about either the holocaust or slavery, but who can still make a decision in regards to abortion.

The sheer beauty and artistry of “Volition,” the excruciating attention to detail evidenced in every shot, and the emphasis on the human story over its moral, ensures that those who watch the film must, like its protagonist, respond with a choice. They cannot, no matter how much they disagree with its message at first glance, write it off as a boring, or unbelievable, or crude attempt at making a piece of pro-life propaganda and leave it at that. The film demands that the viewer either choose to go along with the parallelism, to accept the similarity between the three great human rights violations, or either reject it - to watch passively is impossible. Either the current situation with abortion is like these past cruelties, in which case it must be vigorously opposed with the full powers of the mind and body, or it is an entirely new situation. But either way, Volition ensures that its viewers cannot ignore the question as unimportant.

(To watch Volition, go to: http://www.thedoorpost.com/hope/film/?film=420351f1aefa2b42b...)

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"Our hearts are torn because of the wanton murder of the young by evil man. Abortion, My children, is murder, the most foulest of deeds, that is punishable by death! And what is worse than death of the soul?
"I say unto you, as your Mother, that any man or woman who performs or takes part of this abomination of the murder of the unborn shall be given a heavy penance upon earth, or if this penance is not given upon earth, that person found guilty in the eyes of his God shall suffer eternal damnation in the fires of hell." - Our Lady of the Roses, December 28, 1976

The awesome Bayside Prophecies... https://www.tldm.org/Bayside/default.htm
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995:

SIN OF OMISSION
"The sin of omission shall condemn many to hell, be they layman or Hierarchy. I repeat: not the sin of commission, but the sin of omission will commit many to hell. Among them there will be also mitres." - Our Lady, October 6, 1980

U.S. SHALL BE FIRST STRUCK
"One of the reasons the Eternal Father chose your city and your state for My appearance was because of abortion, the murder of the holy innocents. Your nation, without repentance, shall be the first struck." - Our Lady, March 15, 1978

THE UNITED STATES SHALL FALL
"How can a great country like the United States fall, you say, My child? You ask Me in your heart. I read your heart. I will tell you why. Because they have given themselves over to satan. When a country has lost its morality and seeks the pleasures of the flesh, giving over, themselves over, to all manner of abominations, like homosexuality, and condoning this up the highest courts of the land, then that country shall fall." - Our Lady of the Roses, November 1, 1985

DOCTORS
"Doctors now are profaning their profession, those who have given themselves over to destroying human life in abortions." - Jesus, June 6, 1987

FOULEST OF DEEDS
"Our hearts are torn because of the wanton murder of the young by evil man. Abortion, My children, is murder, the most foulest of deeds, that is punishable by death! And what is worse than death of the soul?
"I say unto you, as your Mother, that any man or woman who performs or takes part of this abomination of the murder of the unborn shall be given a heavy penance upon earth, or if this penance is not given upon earth, that person found guilty in the eyes of his God shall suffer eternal damnation in the fires of hell." - Our Lady, December 28, 1976

DESTROYED
"All who become part of or condone abortion, the murder of the young, shall be destroyed!" - Jesus, June 2, 1979

HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED
"The Eternal Father command that you stop these murders at once! You will not destroy the lives of the unborn. Human life is sacred in the eyes of your God. No man has the right to destroy a life. The Father, He sends this life to you, and only He will decide when it will return back to the Kingdom.
"Do not, My children, be deceived by the words of the evil ones about you who cry to you of no space left for man. There is space, for My Father has a plan for every life He sends." - Our Lady, August 5, 1971

WILL NEVER BE CONDONED
"You will remember, My children and My child, to guard the young. Your clergy have fallen into darkness. Abortion will never be condoned. But We must have others who fervently will go forward and bring out to the minds of those who have actually seduced the country and the children--bring them the knowledge of Heaven, hell and purgatory. Then they will not have free license to sin." - Our Lady, May 28, 1983

GOVERNMENT
"For that one reason among many, the United States will suffer unless there is placed into your government a group that fears the Lord if they cannot love the Lord. They will fear Him and find measures to stop the slaughter of the unborn." - Our Lady, April 14, 1984

NUNS
"That is what makes My heart ache, My child. That is one of the reasons Theresa is crying constantly when she looks into the convents and sees what is going on. Many now believe in abortion, the murders of the children; and many have committed this act upon themselves." - Jesus, October 1, 1988

SIXTY MILLION
"I say this for this reason: the Eternal Father is much disturbed at the numbers of abortions being committed throughout your country and the world. These numbers go upwards to fifty to sixty million in one year throughout the world." - Our Lady, June 18, 1986

TREATED AS GARBAGE
"O My child, My tears fall upon you all when I see all of the innocent little babies being slaughtered . . . cast into garbage pails like nothing but dirt and scum. They are living human beings! And all murderers shall get their just recompense." - Our Lady, March 18, 1983

BOMBS IN THE UNITED STATES
"These interlopers upon the serenity of the United States have dark skins.... With their plans there will be bombs placed in strategic places and many shall die at the hands of these ruffians....
"One big reason for permitting this disaster in New York would be the abortion mills throughout the city and the country." - Jesus, October 1, 1988

HOLY SPIRIT
"At the time of conception, the Holy Spirit makes the child, and the breath of the Almighty gives it life." - Our Lady, June 18, 1991

LIMBO
"And what, My children, are We going to do with all the aborted babies? O My child, I know you feel as I do, for I can see the great distress on your face. What are We going to do, My child? Do you understand when they come to Us, they must go to Limbo? They are in Heaven, a happy place, but they cannot see God." - Our Lady, October 2, 1987

SORROWFULLY
"Sorrowfully, the penance that is to come upon the world for the murders of the unborn shall be a chastisement far greater in severity than man has ever witnessed in the past nor ever shall pass through again. Your world is plunging into a deep chasm of suffering and destruction." - Our Lady, May 20, 1978

OATH
"Your once loyal to the oath of a doctor, your once loyal doctors are now butchers! For money they kill the young!" - Our Lady, February 10, 1978

WOE TO THE WOMAN
"Know, My child, this simple lesson, that in these days of the latter times, women will seek to cast off their role as mother and a woman. Women will cast it off under the direction of satan, and murder her children. Woe to the woman who does not repent of this vile abomination! She has walked the road to eternal damnation and hell. Repent, O woman, or forever be lost!" - Our Lady, March 18, 1975

Directives from Heaven... https://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D23 - Abortion PDF
D142 - Sin of Omission PDF
D196 - Life Begins at Conception PDF

Articles...

Pope Benedict to bishops: Make everyone understand the "evil of the crime of abortion"
https://www.tldm.org/News8/PopeBenedictCrimeOfAbortion.htm

Pope Benedict: Abortion, divorce, homosexual unions "are evident signs of de-Christianization"
https://www.tldm.org/News9/PopeSignsOfDe-Christianization.htm

Sleep disorders increase after abortion, says new study
https://www.tldm.org/News9/AbortionSleepDisorders.htm

Pro-abortion scientist finds abortion causes, rather than prevents, serious mental disorders
https://www.tldm.org/News9/AbortionMentalDisorders.htm

Abortion: the ultimate exploitation of women
https://www.tldm.org/news6/exploitation.htm

Abortion and the contraceptive mentality
https://www.tldm.org/news4/contraception_abortion.htm

'Non-persons' in U.S. history
https://www.tldm.org/News9/AbortionNonPerson.htm

Archbishop Chaput says abortion is "central social issue of this moment" in U.S. history
https://www.tldm.org/news6/Chaput3.htm

Archbishop Chaput says those who support abortion "rights" cannot be Catholic
https://www.tldm.org/News7/Chaput.htm

Catholics who vote pro-abortion commit a mortal sin
https://www.tldm.org/News6/VotingPro-ChoiceJohnKerry.htm

Separation of Church and State: "a fatal theory"
https://www.tldm.org/News6/separation.htm

Full text of Cardinal Ratzinger's letter to U.S. bishops, that they must refuse Communion to pro-abort politicians
https://www.tldm.org/News7/Ratzinger.htm

Cardinal Ratzinger says that refusing Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians is a "doctrine of the Church"
https://www.tldm.org/News7/Ratzinger3.htm

Your names have been written in Heaven… "It is not by accident that you are called by My Mother, for your names have been written in Heaven.... But with this great grace you have great responsibility to send this Message from Heaven throughout the world, for if you are able to recover just one more for Heaven, an additional star shall be placed in your crown." - Jesus, August 5, 1975

A great obligation to go forward... "It is not by accident that you are called by My Mother, for it is by merit and the prayers that have risen to Heaven for your salvation. For those who have received the grace to hear the Message from Heaven, you have a great obligation to go forward and bring this Message to your brothers and sisters. Do not expect a rest upon your earth, for you will have eternal rest very soon." - Jesus, June 12, 1976

The sin of omission... "The sin of omission shall condemn many to hell, be they layman or Hierarchy. I repeat: not the sin of commission, but the sin of omission will commit many to hell." Our Lady of the Roses, October 6, 1980

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Abortion: the ultimate exploitation of women https://www.tldm.org/news6/exploitation.htm

Abortion: the ultimate exploitation of women
https://www.tldm.org/news6/exploitation.htm