Indiana Jones and the Decline of the Traditional Family
The film, which hits theaters nationwide on Tuesday, May 6, is a production of the Colorado-based Christian non-profit Focus on the Family, which devoted resources to produce a feature-length documentary that examines what “family” means from a faith-centered perspective.
Tim Sisarich, executive director of Focus on the Family New Zealand, uses his exploration of his father’s moral failings and his desire to set a solid example for his children as a narrative device for an Indiana Jones-like adventure, interviewing a veritable Who’s Who of experts on marriage and the family in locales from Greece to New York City to Seattle.
Notable scholars and authors such as Jonathan Last, Roger Scruton, Eric Metaxas, Ashley McGuire, Michael Medved, and Helen Alvaré appear on screen to share a top-line perspective of threats to the family. The first two-thirds of the documentary are a strong exposition of current analysis by traditionally-minded scholars of the current state of the family.
Throughout the exposition section, “Irreplaceable” is divided into five parts, each examining a key, inter-related element accelerating the breakdown of the traditional family: Cheap Sexuality, Marriage, Parenthood, Children, and Fathers. The film logically walks through the sections, connecting the dots between the hook-up culture to no-fault divorce, from extreme feminism to sex-selective abortion, and ending with a powerful statement about the impact a positive father figure can have by interviewing inmates in Folsom State Prison.
“When you devalue sex, you devalue marriage,” summarizes Sisarich in one of a number of direct-to-camera reflections. “When you devalue marriage, you devalue the role of being a parent. And when you devalue being a parent, you devalue children.” “Irreplaceable” is convincing when it draws a line from the historical roots of individualism found in Rousseau and setting up a choice between an unachievable utopia based entirely on personal choice and the historical understanding of family with its attendant responsibilities.
Driven by his personal experience, Sisarich concludes with an extended look at fatherhood, calling the absence of supportive fathers in the home at “the very root of the problems our society faces today.” At this point, about two-thirds of the way through the film, the documentary shifts from examining societal trends and changes to a more personal tale of finding forgiveness in the story of the Prodigal Son, a more conventional testimony about the power of God’s grace that feels slightly out-of-place compared to the more academic analysis presented to that point.
But in its eagerness to stress the necessity of marriage, the film glosses over some of the most potent challenges that marriage, as defined by one man and woman, faces. Notably, “Irreplaceable” steers clear of the often-fraught waters of the battle over same-sex marriage, pointedly avoiding explicit mention of that hot-button battle in the culture wars. The film attempts to address the fraying link between sex, marriage, and procreation without including even a passing mention of that controversy, much less briefly exploring the impact of new communications and reproductive technologies or the modern ubiquity of pornography. This avoids offending any of its target audience but falls short of a full accounting of the causes and effects of the breakdown of the family.
Sisarich’s globalized view also gives short shrift to economic factors putting pressure on families in developed nations, where rising education, health care, and child care costs often put pressure on parents to sacrifice time spent on homework or simply being an example to children. The lack of positive role models is especially felt among poor families, who spend a greater share of their income on child care than families above the poverty line, and do not have the ability to invest in better schools or extra-curricular programs to provide structure, and is not specifically addressed in the film.
The documentary starts with a montage of Kodachrome, over-exposed footage of families from the 1950s, looking for all the world like extras on “Leave it to Beaver” (a stereotype referred to by an interview subject regretting a similar lack of stability in his own upbringing.) “Irreplaceable” packages strong arguments that the nuclear family is not a remnant of the past, but is a vital and necessary building block of society that can only be reformed by personal decision-making. Ultimately, Sisarich’s closing message of faith-filled repentance and redemption ends the film with a distinct flavor of apologetics - it may not hit home beyond its intended target audience, but its message of accepting the things one cannot change and developing the strength to change the things one can may indeed help moviegoers develop the wisdom to know the difference between them.