At the beginning of the film, Jack questions why God allowed a number one bus to kill 24 marine cadets, using his theory on evil and suffering, when he says:
‘Where was God on that December night?
Why didn’t he stop it?
Isn’t God supposed to be good?
Isn’t he supposed to love us?
This meant that in order to grow up, we must experience things through our lives that cause us to suffer as well as to be happy. It makes us grow into our own individual person and different from everyone else. At first he questions whether God loves us and whether he wants us to suffer but towards the end of his speech, he says that the only reason God provides us with the ‘gift of suffering’ is because he loves us.
You see we are like blocks of stone out of which the sculptor carves forms of man.
Blows of the chisel which hurt us so much, what makes us perfect.’
Jack begins to change his views about his theory on evil and suffering when Joy is diagnosed with cancer. He asks ‘Why? See, if you love someone you don’t want them to suffer. You can’t let them. You want to take on their suffering yourself. Even I feel like that. Why doesn’t God?’ This tells us that he is beginning to go against his original theory on evil and suffering and asking why God doesn’t prevent it or take on their suffering. He compares his feelings to God when he says if he feels that way, then why doesn’t God if he’s such a loving and caring person? Here we see the Christian dilemma being personally forced.
Jack refers back to his original theory on evil and suffering and concludes that evil and suffering is a part of growing from a boy to a man. He says ‘Why love if loosing hurts so much. I have no answers anymore, only the life I lead. Twice in that life I have been given the choice, as a boy and as a man. The boy chose safety, the man chooses suffering. The pain now is part of the happiness then. That’s the deal.’ This is basically saying that evil and suffering has to occur and God cannot just step in and stop it when he wants to and just because he doesn’t take on all of the suffering, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love us. It is a man’s role to love and cherish someone he loves for as long as he can but to be prepared for the suffering that comes along with it after. He says a man would do this and put up with the pain afterwards, rather than to be safe and lose something straight away. It was Joy who made him realise this when she taught him ‘The happiness now is part of the pain then’, which means in his accepting the happiness that he would have whilst she was alive, he’ll have to accept the pain after her death, therefore it is our duty to choose to suffer.
I feel Shadowlands dealt with this issue very well, as Jack kept contradicting himself and changing his mind. This gives the viewer more time to think and considers more than one perspective, which makes it appealing to everyone and not just Christians. Also, it dealt with a very sensitive theme of evil and suffering, which meant that they could not approach it in a very cynical way and they didn’t. It was approached with a lot of awareness and in a way that was very appealing to viewers of all ages.
