Slumdog Millionaire; the fairytale

Slumdog Millionaire (UK 2008 Tony Boyle) is a fairytale. It is as gritty as the classic tales, with its deprived motherless children, bitter sibling rivalry, a cruel bandit, or in this case a cruel beggar king. There is deception, mutilation, adventures and escapes, the quest for a beautiful princess. There are tests that have to be met, and questions that have to be answered correctly by the hero, and the answers he needs are embedded, like jewels, in the story, in the experience of the hero, rather than learnt from books. Of course it is also a fantasy, an unrealistic tale of romance and danger and the triumph of love. But it is no more a ‘feel good movie’ than the time tested fairy tales of Grimm and Perieau were ‘feel-good stories’. These tales included fearful monsters – or worse, fearful relatives – so that their hearers could learn to face and manage their anxieties in childhood playtime before they had to do so in adult reality, as Eric Erikson said. Bruno Bettleheim analysed their content for therapeutic purposes, understanding that Fairy tales are to be told and heard, so that children and adults share the knowledge that even parents are not perfect. The wicked Step-Mother or step-Father may be at one remove from blood-line parents, but they are still parents. And the world is a dangerous place, but victory awaits those who do not succumb to their fears. Tales are made to be told, to be shared, and films are also made to be shared, seen primarily in public, and so inform our consensus. The contribution of Slumdog to this public discoursed is to assert the victory of hope over despair, the triumph of good over evil, truth over deception and loyalty over betrayal. Of course it is a morality tale, and so it is not a feel-good movie but a be good-movie. Not be good in the goody-goody sense, but be part of the good, believe in the good, trust the good, and try to live it out, not in fear but in hope. It is also, of course, a love story, because love is the ground of hope and the vanquisher of fear. So, according to St John’s epistle, this is a theological movie; God is good, and God is love, and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.