Where Adam Stood (1976)

directed by Brian Gibson
UK
77 minutes
4 stars out of 5
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Where Adam Stood came out at a point in time where arguments in favor of creationism were beginning to become more vocal in the face of scientific advancements. There has always been a battle fought between the two factions, but I suppose that as more time passes and more discoveries about the natural world are made, those who still cling to creationism seem more and more illogical. This particular edition of Play for Today seems to be- from what I've seen- on the intimate (though all relationships it portrays are thoroughly detached and stiff) and personal side, and it's about a father whose staunch belief in the existence of an all-knowing, all-seeing God informs every avenue of his life including, unfortunately, the way he treats- or does not treat- his ailing young son.

Now this does seem to be a scenario that provides ample fuel for strawmanning- other films might set up their own agenda and render the creationist character into a buffoonish caricature with no dignity, but instead Where Adam Stood somewhat sympathetically presents a misguided figure. As it goes on and the trouble with the main character's son develops, it becomes apparent that no small measure of the man's faith is due to a refusal to believe in a universe that would turn its back on his suffering child. At first he may seem selfish with his belief system, but when he insists with unshakeable clarity that "It must be so"- after a while that feels less like what the bible is telling him to say and more like a personal insistence on the existence of a higher power that he holds onto for dear life because of the implications that the alternative would mean for his son. This is a story that looks at the way that fear of death, whether ours or of the ones we love, drives every single aspect of our personal worldview.

I don't like the way it reads that this program included a mentally disabled woman to make some sort of point (though I'm not wholly sure what that point is), because I feel like a lot of the time in things that deal with topics like these there will be a physically or mentally disabled person and the narrative will present them as some kind of proof of God's absence.

This caricature of mental issues is a dark spot on an otherwise great episode of an otherwise great series, and the monologuing and philosophical tangents included in the script are typical of Play for Today. You feel like it's building to this depressing finale, but in its final moments there's just a sliver of hopefulness and it seems almost coy- putting its faith in the level-headedness and flexible beliefs of the younger generation.