“Spotlight,” “Concussion,” and Iconoclasm

At the center of Spotlight is a corrupt institution that proceeds to act immorally under the guise of sacred religion, and at the center of Concussion is a corrupt institution that proceeds to profit under the guise of sacred sport. One institution is unmasked through the truth-telling doctrine of journalistic rigor; the other is unmasked, ironically enough, through the moral guidance of the Catholic faith. Both of these films are about iconoclasm, that is, the destruction of worshipped images or institutions.

The cities in which both of these films take place contribute to the weight of its protagonist’s iconoclastic gestures. Boston is the locus of Roman Catholic idolatry, while Pittsburgh, due to its winning history and loyal fans, is presented as the locus of football fandom. It takes the perspective of an outsider to expose the violent underpinnings of both systems. Having moved from Nigeria to realize his version of the American Dream, forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu finds himself confronted with the moral obligation to undermine one of the stanchions of American culture.

In the opening scenes of Concussion Dr. Bennet Omalu discovers a neurological disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in the brain of former NFL player Mike Webster. Despite the fact that many doctors in the NFL knew that constant injuries to the head caused this early form of Alzheimer’s, they chose not to publish research or question the long-term dangers of playing football fearing that it would tarnish the reputation of the NFL. The film suggests it was Omalu’s faith in God that urged him to continue publishing his research and to actively change the NFL’s approach to head injuries. The NFL is presented as a false idol that robs its constituents of a moral compass. In one scene NFL Disability Board Member Dave Duerson chooses not to provide former teammate and CTE victim Andre Waters with funds for treatment so that he can save the organization money. The moral code of Catholicism orients Omalu to determine that given the facts of his scientific research specific action should be taken.

Journalist Martin Baron is the newly appointed editor of The Boston Globe when he decides the newspaper’s Spotlight team ought to investigate the history of the Boston Catholic Church’s child abuse scandals. Baron is not from Boston, and he is not Catholic. He has the impartial perspective required to critique a heavily influential and unquestioned religious institution. Uncovering the underlying moral derangement and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church devastated many members of its community, but it fostered a healthy moment of self-reflexivity and critical thinking.

While both films deal with the critique of worshipped institutions, Spotlight better expresses the moral justification of its iconoclastic gestures. This is due in part to its weightier subject matter. Religious institutions inform our entire ethical framework. The NFL may be a powerful corporation but it sells a product that is just as subservient to the laws of supply and demand as any other product. The NFL is not duping anybody – big hits to the head sell more tickets and raise viewership. The child abuse scandals, meanwhile, questions the efficacy of the Church’s own teaching: Whose job is it to grant absolution or judgment on the conduct of the Catholic Church? How are we then supposed to proceed once judgment is passed?

In Twilight of the Idols Friedrich Nietzsche turns upside down the iconoclast/idolatry dialectic. Idols are not to be smashed but to be “touched with a hammer as with a tuning fork.” They are to be “sounded with the delicate precise touch that reveals their hollowness.” Criticism is meant to re-tune rather than destroy; it is a nonviolent, musical practice. Some people may be completely turned off from the NFL after watching Concussion, and it is known that many people lost faith in the Catholic Church after the publication of Spotlight’s Pulitzer Prize winning article. Neither film, however, seeks to destroy its subject. In Spotlight, for example, former priest turned psychiatrist Richard Sipe says he still considers himself Catholic because faith ought to be placed in the eternal and not in the men that make up the Church as an institution. The film embraces the subject matter in its manifold complexity through opting out of assigning ideological correctness: Each character deals with the story in their own way, and no reaction is presented as right or wrong. Spotlight is considerably better made than Concussion, but both allow us to consider how films can invoke iconoclastic gestures and spur criticism through re-tuning, or rather, reframing idols of the age.