the tindog coffeehouse

I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.

After that I liked jazz music.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.

I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened.

– Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

Author Donald Miller has announced on his blog that the movie adaptation of Blue Like Jazz has been put on hold indefinitely. Believe it or not, I’m really sad to hear it.

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post reacting to a review of the screenplay. I felt that the review (by unChristian author Gabe Lyons) made the movie sound like an attack on conservative Christians, and I wasn’t at all happy about that. The post even caught the attention of Steve Taylor, who co-wrote the screenplay and was the movie’s producer.

Judging by my earlier statements, you’d think I would be thrilled to hear that the movie has been shelved, but that’s the furthest from the truth. In reality, I would love to see the movie be produced, albeit without the kind of liberal agenda Lyons portends. Could that be done? Could you write a screenplay about a young Christian coming of age at an extremely liberal school like Reed College without causing conservatives “necessary affliction” (as Lyons puts it)? I’m sure you can, although Miller and Taylor may disagree.

Regardless, I still greatly admire Donald Miller’s writing. Like many Christians, I was both challenged and inspired by Blue Like Jazz, and I’ve come to be a huge fan of his other books as well.

Who knows, maybe the movie will eventually be made, and Miller will finally get that resolution he was hoping for.

Then again, maybe it was never supposed to resolve in the first place.

Update, Sept. 28:
A couple of guys in Franklin, Tennessee, have started a “Save Blue Like Jazz” campaign to raise $125,000 in order to save the movie. As they put it, “since the book itself is so unique, why should the funding come traditionally?” I really hope they succeed. Click here to donate.

Previously:
Concern over movie version of ‘Blue Like Jazz’
Politics, the emerging church, and Donald Miller
‘Lord, Save Us From Your Followers’