Saturday Night at the Movies: When Greek Tragedy Meets Resurrection Hope

Good Riddance, Mr. Chips?

An unintentional historical first for our movie feature this week: tonight’s choice is brought to you by the same two chaps behind last week’s selection. You can forgive me for not realizing until after I’d chosen the lineup that both of these back-to-school movies were made by the same team. While The Winslow Boy is a stirring underdog story for the whole family, tonight’s selection is anything but a feel-good movie, and certainly not appropriate for children.

The Browning Version is Anthony Asquith’s 1951 adaptation of Terrence Ratigan’s play. While it came out only three years after their previous collaboration and is also a story of school troubles, the movie to compare it with is not their work on The Winslow Boy, but 1939’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips. You may recall that the story of Mr. Chips is one of a rather incompetent teacher drifting dangerously towards inhumanity until he is rescued, and profoundly humanized, by the love of a good woman. Consider The Browning Version as its companion piece, as it answers this question: what if, instead of marrying a wonderful, loving woman, Mr. Chips had instead gotten hitched to a terrible match? The answer is found in Michael Redgrave’s unforgettable performance as the failed classics professor in this movie.

With his teaching career coming to an end, Redgrave is despised and ridiculed by students, colleagues, and wife. Did I mention it’s not a feel-good movie? But wait, that’s just the beginning, the story isn’t over yet. One sympathetic student, and one seemingly small act of kindness - the gift of the great poet Robert Browning’s translation of Aeschylus’s Agamemnon to a professor who long ago gave up on his own passion project of translating the work - kicks off a series of events that will lead Redgrave, and the audience, to a very unexpected conclusion.

I’m no expert in ancient Greek tragedies, but I think it’s fair to generalize that their endings are known for being, like, total bummers. I don’t blame the Greeks, either; if I lived in a world of warring, capricious gods with a hankering for human sacrifice, I wouldn’t have too much hope for a happy ending, either. How grateful, how blessed, I am not to be a pagan! One God - the only real one - and one sacrificial death - His own - put an end to all that tragedy, once and for all, and gives us all everlasting hope. There need be no more unhappy endings. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, or how badly you may have treated your students, the resurrection grace that saved the thief on the cross can save you, too.

The movie ends with a scene that was not in Rattigan’s original play, a scene that I don’t think you will find in any Greek tragedy, for in its emphasis on forgiveness and redemption, it highlights something alien to the ancient world: true hope for a happy ending.

I know it’s not an uplifting film as a whole, but it’s certainly a captivating one, and I hope the atonement it points to will stick with you. There is much beauty and wisdom to be found in the ancient world, but praise the Lord that there is no more any need to translate the depths of Greek despair into your life!

I hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful weekend - and if you encounter any particularly crotchety teachers this fall, don’t lose hope, for as I think the film will remind you, one small act of sympathy may yet save their souls!