Is it irresponsible for Hillsdale students to drive to Ann Arbor in the middle of the week to watch a movie?
Maybe. But “Surprised by Oxford” fully justified the excursion. And everyone in our guilty party came away from the film academically motivated, sharing a determination to get to the University of Oxford.
The movie was stunning. Its visuals alone were enough to make the laziest of students want to join the world of prestigious academia, which was partly its point.
In the beauty of the Oxford campus, the strongest themes of the film emerge: the emptiness of knowledge pursued for its own sake,and beauty as an end rather than a path.
Based on Carlolyn Weber’s memoir by the same name, the movie retells her story of finding faith at Oxford. She enters the school as a cynical, driven young woman, hell-bent on earning her doctorate. But once there, she meets Kent Weber, who is charming, intelligent, TDH (tall, dark, and handsome) – but also a Christian. Through her relationship with him, Caro, the lead’s nickname, becomes less emotionally distant and more open to faith.
After a turbulent hour and a half of emotional breakdowns, hesitations, gorgeous cinematography, and C.S. Lewis quotes, Caro accepts the fact that fulfillment cannot be found in knowledge alone but that it points to something greater. The movie ends with her having reached both her academic goals and having found something deeper, without which none of her academic goals had any meaning.
While the movie is not without moments of overt sentimentality, this is likely because writer-director, Ryan Whitaker said he purposefully worked to keep it accessible to a broader audience. “I wanted to make a film that was more authentic and messy than many of the ‘faith-based’ films I had seen,” he told The Collegian. “With the film, I wanted to make something that a secular audience would enjoy as well, so I jettisoned some of the conversations about, say, the reliability of the biblical manuscripts and leaned more into the idea of beauty and longing as something that can point us to God.”
In this, Whitaker did an excellent job. While the movie is very clearly centralized around faith, the concept of longing for something eternal is much more original than found in most of the faith film world.
The danger of knowledge when pursued for its own sake is an interesting and uncommon theme, as well as especially relevant to Hillsdale students.
As students of a “classical education,” we can lock in on performance or enjoy being in our own heads, thinking deep thoughts about old books.
I know I’m not the only one who has heard students brag about the quality of Saga conversations.
But maybe next time a deep discussion about Plato’s trifold soul comes up, the meaning of Milton’s acrostic poetry is questioned, or anything else arises that provides that self-satisfied feeling, avoid taking an intellectual selfie at that moment. Ask why. What gives this journey of learning real meaning?
“Discern the real from the bullsh*t.”
That was Caro’s professor’s advice to her, and it’s good advice. Recognize valuable knowledge and distinguish it from the junk. However, even worthwhile learning becomes useless if it is separatedfrom its purpose.
“There’s great irony in the fact that Caro, in her ruthless pursuit of knowledge, has shut down emotionally, but still opts to study the Romantic poets,” Whitaker said. “As Kent tells Caro in the film, ‘you pore over the words of dead people, but you don’t allow yourself to feel those same things.’”
The film should remind Hillsdale students about the importance of intentionality.
Don’t philosophize without the desire to reach the truth.
Don’t memorize facts just to recite them or notch a sufficient grade.
Don’t read the great books and ignore every lesson they teach.
“Knowledge pursued for its own sake will betray us,” Whitaker said. “Beauty pursued for its own sake will betray us. The spires of Oxford, stunning as they are, point upwards.”