Documentary
2018 / 83 minutes
Rating: 8/10
Biologist Gordon Wilson is excited about God’s creation, and it’s catching! In The Riot and the Dance, Wilson explores locations both exotic and familiar, showing us how amazingly the Lord has made his creatures in his awesome world.
Nature films are most often spoiled by the Darwinian approach of their makers; we’re accustomed to using the “pause” button while we remind our children and ourselves that it’s God who made all the beauty we are watching, not random chance. How refreshing to hear Scripture quoted, and God’s creative hand praised, in these beautifully filmed scenes.
Wilson starts in ponds near his home in the northwestern US, finding the familiar in water striders dancing across the water’s surface, and the less familiar in giant water bugs. He pauses in Montana for bison, in Manitoba for a snake den, and in California for comical but dangerous elephant seals. He dives across gravel paths in the Sonoran desert of Mexico, catching snakes and lizards to bring their beauty right up to the camera, and ends his world tour in Sri Lanka, marveling at elephants and water buffalo.
Wilson believes Christians can and should find out more about the Creator by exploring what he made.
“If we wanted to study someone like Michelangelo, we would want to study all his works, his art. The way you get to know God, you study everything He wrote, and made, His living creation, His creatures. They are not only paintings but sculptures!”
Wilson does not ignore the brokenness of creation: “Life is not a basket of kittens… and there’s all this death, and predator-prey relationships, and parasite hosts. But even in the midst of a fallen creation, the glories of God are still very present. Man needs redemption, and so does creation.” Thus he includes some brief moments of gore – as a water buffalo is devoured by warthog and other scavengers – though there are not a lot.
There is much to commend in this beautiful film. Give this one a viewing; you’ll find yourself ready to dive into that field or pond, eager to explore your own corner of God’s handiwork.
Americans with Amazon Prime will be able to watch this there.
