Waterboy and the Antichrist

So TNT was doing its usual thing where it plays the same movie multiple times over the course of the weekend. Last weekend's movie was the Adam Sandler "classic," Waterboy -- a movie, that as I watched it, filled me with excitement and wonder; for throughout the first two thirds, I was sure it symbolized our struggle with temptation and relationship with God. I just knew that Mama, perfectly portrayed by Kathy Bates, was meant to symbolize God and the Waterboy mankind. How could they not? Mama is all-knowing and seeks only to protect the Waterboy from the Devil, from things like knowledge, women, and sports. She knows they would only lead him away from her, away from all that is right and good. She sees the hidden influence of the Devil where to most he would be invisible. And she is right. While the Waterboy, stupid and ignorant and unable to understand why his Mama keeps him from such sins, recognizes the power and brilliance of his Mama, he is constantly tempted into a life of sin by the likes of the evil temptress, Vicki Valencort, and the Satanic football team that mocks the Waterboy’s love of God/Mama. Mama tries to teach him about science (“Benjamin Franklin didn’t invent electricity! I did! Benjamin Franklin is the Devil!), about women (“That woman is the devil!), and about proper worship (“Come over here and brush Mama’s hair”), but that is not good enough for the Waterboy. He wants what, deep down, we all want – friends, adulation, women – and they pull him away from his Mama, just as we are pulled away from the Lord. And while he is embraced by all that tempts him, just as we, too, are embraced by Satan, one only need look at his newfound friends, fans, and women and see the embrace is not one of true love, a love that will bring the Waterboy eternal happiness. No, his fair-weather fans and friends are backwards and crazy, and all leave him as soon as they think he can no longer play football, just as Satan will abandon us in the depths of hell once we have totally turned from God. The Waterboy knows it; he just knows it, which is why he returns to his Mama/God, even ignoring the cult-like vigil his fans hold outside his Mama’s hospital window.

God, I was excited as I watched the movie. What better way to teach unbelievers about temptation and faith than an Adam Sandler movie? But then the inevitable talons of liberal Hollywood sink into what was once a perfect film. Mama sees the “light.” No longer is she a guiding force in the Waterboy’s life, keeping him from temptation, from sin. She embraces football and Vicki Valencort, giving her son her blessing to play in the big game and to marry the whore. Where once the movie symbolized human struggle with temptation and the glory of God, it becomes an ode to the antichrist. For that is the way the antichrist will rise. He will trick us into believing he righteous and good, into following him, when we should instead be following the Lord Jesus Christ. And he will bring misery upon this earth. If the movie properly reflected what is the inevitable and natural end for those that turn away from the Lord and follow the antichrist, perhaps by showing the Waterboy horribly crippled and disfigured in a game of football and then left to rot by Vicki Valencort as his Mama/the antichrist laugh, I could still appreciate the greatness of the movie. It would be a little too artsy, I think, if that were the turn it took; but at least it would not be the sympathetic portrayal of evil it is now.