BETWEEN THE LINES: Searching for a utopia
My wife and her girlfriends celebrated a birthday by taking a recent tour of the Hill Country, ending at the Canyon of the Eagles, and leaving me free for the day.
I decided it was a perfect time to check out Netflix to see if there was something worth watching. The movie "Seven Days in Utopia" starring Academy Award-winning actor Robert Duval as an eccentric rancher living in Utopia, Texas, caught my attention. The 2011 film didn’t win any awards and was generally panned by mainstream critics.
Other critics such as Ted Baehr found the Christian themes of redemption and forgiveness, coupled with a lack of profanity and sex, to be satisfying cinema and gave the film high ratings. The picture, rated G, was shot in Utopia and Fredericksburg.
The plot centers around a young professional golfer, Luke Chisholm, who self-destructs on the final hole of his first professional tournament, scoring a horrific 14 in the opening scene of the movie. Disenchanted, he vows to quit the game and gets in his car to escape. The Waco native has an accident trying to avoid hitting a cow on the road just outside of Utopia. This brings him into contact with Johnny Crawford, a former PGA player who now owns a ranch. Crawford is played by Duval.
The rancher uses a fishing trip, painting, a rodeo and a washer contest with ranch hands to teach his young protégé some important lessons about life.
At the end of his brief stay in Utopia, Crawford tells Chisholm he obtained a sponsor’s exemption, which allows him to play in the Valero San Antonio Open the very next week. With his newly acquired self-control, a repaired relationship with his father and a better grasp of what is really important in life, the rookie makes a playoff for the championship.
Winning in golf, as Crawford preaches, is not the ultimate objective. In one of the more memorable scenes, the wily rancher asks Chisholm to write down a list of lies he knows about himself. In a ceremonial gesture, Crawford takes the promising golfer to a cemetery to bury his list. Lies, it seems, have a way of destroying our souls.
As the movie draws to a conclusion, Chisholm is led to God by the efforts of the savvy rancher, who used the lessons he learned in golf specifically, and life in general, to teach his youthful, newfound friend.
There is no heaven on Earth. Webster’s dictionary defines utopia as an imagined or ideal place. Those who seek it in this world will be greatly disappointed, for they ignore mankind’s sinful nature.
The is not Oscar-worthy, nor does it rank very high as a golf movie such as "Bagger Vance" or “Caddyshack." The storyline is a tad unrealistic, and it has a predictable ending. However, over the years I have enjoyed scores of pictures that fit that same description. I think the transitioning of Hollywood into moral relativity has been harmful.
People, especially children, need to be constantly reminded about the importance of possessing strong moral values as there are few examples for them from which to learn.
Laughlin is a Christian Libertarian. He is an economist, teacher, father, husband and most recently a grandfather. He has written a weekly column for The Tribune for 13 years. He and his wife Gina reside in Meadowlakes. To contact him, email ablaughlin@nctv.com. He is an independent columnist, not a staff member, and his views do not necessarily reflect those of The Tribune or its parent company.