Theme: Merciful Savior
Released in 2024 Sony Pictures' The Penguin Lessons, a movie inspired by a true story, has been described with words like delightful, charming, funny, sad, poignant and heartwarming. Critics and audiences (99% on Rotten Tomatoes) find The Penguin Lessons an enjoyable film suitable for all ages with its PG-13 rating.
The story centers on a disillusioned Englishman who goes to teach in a boy’s school in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the turbulent years of the 1970’s. Reminiscent of Peter Weir’s beautiful film, Dead Poets Society, The Penguin Lessons is an inspiring movie in the truest and original meaning of that word. Divine truth fills the story being told and the audience is moved in soul and spirit.
The Poems
Tom Michell is an English teacher who enters into a chaotic classroom of wealthy boys with the assignment from the headmaster to raise their test scores. He is bored, the students are bored and it does not go well at first. Over the course of the movie Michell introduces three poems to the class. Poetry, not prose, has the power to transcend the intellect by invoking imagery, metaphor, and rhythm which goes straight to the heart. The three poems are a self-revelation of Tom Michell and form the outline of the movie.
Sea Fever by John Masefield describes the current state of Tom’s life. The poem is about escaping from societal constraints to a vagabond type of existence. A perfect description for those who like Michell are caught in difficult circumstances and want to be free. A Quoi Bon Dire by Charlotte Mew describes his wound, the death of his daughter 17 years ago. The three stanzas cover the past death, the present loss, and the future hope. The third and final poem The Masque of Anarchy encourages nonviolent resistance by the masses to tyranny who is personified as the figure Anarchy. Tom is overheard by the nonpolitical headmaster, Tim Butler, quoting to the boys Shelly’s famous last lines from the poem.
“Rise like lions after slumber in unvanquishable number. Shake your chains to earth like dew which in sleep had fallen on you. Ye are many they are few.”1
Confronting Tom, Butler asks “What happened to you? I had you figured as a head down sort of fellow”. Indeed, what has awakened the conscience of this transient, itinerant teacher? Michell’s reply is simply, “I met a penguin."
The Penguin Lessons
The penguin Tom has met is the star and hero of the movie. Having rescued the little guy from the ‘slaughter of the innocents’, a colony of penguins killed by a man-made oil slick, Tom has spent a great deal of time trying to get rid of his unwanted pet. Baptized in a hotel room bath tub in Uruguay the penguin has shown unwavering attachment to Tom and a powerful presence to every stranger he meets in the new alien world he inhabits.
Juan Salvador is only two feet tall and doesn’t speak and yet he elicits a response usually in the form of a confession which results in the person’s transformation:
- The woman who found him with Tom confesses she is married and departs
- Tom confesses why he did not go to Sofia’s aid
- The science teacher confesses his loss
- The soldiers are disarmed with one look
- Tom confesses the wound of his daughter’s death
- The headmaster confesses his failures to do right
The classroom of the boys is also transformed by Juan Salvador’s presence. Diego, the boy bullied by all the others, is given the responsibility to feed Juan. He willingly returns good for evil by sharing with the other boys. Some of the most beautiful scenes are of the once chaotic classroom now peaceful and at rest as the boys lay on the floor while being taught. Tom wants them to know what being two feet tall actually looks and feels like.
By the end of the movie the entire school and all the main characters have been completely renewed by the presence of a penguin. As if to showcase this utter miracle, the formal class photograph of St. George’s private school has Juan Salvador front and center as well he should be. The question that needs to be asked by the audience is just who is Juan Salvador?
Merciful Savior
Before Tom introduces poetry to the boys he teaches them about metaphors. Metaphors are literary devices of implied comparisons. One author describes them as texts in miniature which have a surplus of meaning.2 Metaphors also help to create vivid imagery.
There is extended use of metaphors in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. For example, Jesus himself uses metaphors such as door, light, bread, vine to describe himself with each one shedding new insights into his identity and his mission. His famous parables are simply extended metaphors.
As far as The Penguin Lessons go it is imperative to know that the name Juan Salvador translated into English is Merciful Savior. The entire movie thus becomes a parable about how the very least among them, a two-foot penguin, can in fact be symbolic of Jesus Christ.
Like Christ, Juan Salvador is a “brand plucked from the fire” at the slaughter of the innocents. After his baptism he too begins a mission of binding up the broken-hearted, liberating captives, giving freedom to prisoners and comforting all who mourn.3 He breaks down barriers of prejudice, injustice, and societal class distinction. At his burial there is nothing but love, hope and a new community formed. The resurrection of Sofia from the pit of hell is timed perfectly to tie her return to Juan Salvador.
Finally, the most heartbreaking scene which surely brings tears, is of Tom finding the now beloved penguin dead on his terrace. Going into the bathroom he slumps down by the sink next to Juan Salvador’s bar of soap/egg. This spot was symbolic of the penguin’s nest so it is no surprise that Tom discovers a hidden cache of trinkets behind the sink. Penguins are known to bring pebbles and tokens to their mate, thus these ordinary little items are signs of the love and affection Juan Salvador had for Tom.
One of Emily Dickinson’s most famous poems captures the heart of The Penguin Lessons:
“Tell all the truth but tell it slant---
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
As lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind----"
The beauty of Jesus Christ, merciful savior, is told slant in the beloved penguin Juan Salvador.
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Notes:
1. Percy Bysshe Shelley
2. Paul Ricoeur
3. Isaiah 61:1-3
