Faith-Based Films: The Official Discussion Thread (not the theology thread)

[SLAM!]

Passion of the Christ. Hacksaw Ridge. Silence. These films all point towards the God who made their productions possible.

 

Since the early days of cinema, there have been a bevy of films strongly rooted in Christianity. And today, we still have such films- and I'd argue that the genre's future looks very bright.

 

This is an official discussion thread for all things faith-based films. You can discuss favorites, upcoming releases, box office numbers... anything that relates to faith-based filmmaking.

 

I should provide a few ground rules:

 

- This is not a thread for beating people over the head with Christian values; while I am a Christian myself, and I do cherish biblical values, I understand that this is not necessarily the place to evangelize. If you have any questions about my faith, please feel free to send me a Private message, and I'll talk to you there.

- This is not a thread for religious arguments, for or against. I'd love to provide arguments about why creationism is legit, I understand that this is not the thread for that. And I hope this is something that vehement atheists understand too; they can bash the films for being bad films, but this isn't the thread for them to bash the faith.

- It's okay to be who you are. This thread isn't exclusive to christians at all. If you have a different faith or no faith, you can still contribute to the conversation.

- We should stay on topic. Anything beyond how certain events may affect the film industry is kind of off limits; we should try our best to keep discussion strictly rooted in the films.

- Don't be afraid to bash a bad film. If you want to bash God's Not Dead, for example, then go ahead and bash it. As a Christian who aspires to make movies, I would love to receive your input, because I think Christians deserve better quality films.

 

In the meantime, thank you for stopping in! Please enjoy the discussions that come in the future.

Edited November 14, 2017 by slambros

[Ezen Baklattan]

Have you seen The Prince of Egypt, @slambros? It’s probably telling that I’m hardly religious and loved the heck out of it. Maybe the best movie of a biblical story I’ve ever seen.

[The Panda]

When it comes to faith based films, I tend to find films that contain subtle themes and don't feel like sermons often play better.  Compare Hacksaw Ridge, a movie highlighting a Christian's values and the man's deeds, with God's Not Dead.  There are many reasons Hacksaw Ridge is a much more effective film, but one of them is that God's Not Dead doesn't treat its audience like intelligent people.  It caricaturizes people of different beliefs and is rather ridiculous in its approach to its arguments, the college classroom and professor character aren't like anything you'd actually see on a campus (and the film was attempting to portray it as realistic event).

 

Then the professor acts completely out of character, and the baptism as he dies kind of takes the cake of being ridiculous in nature.

 

Where in something like Hacksaw Ridge, even the characters with values against that of Doss (thinking he should pick up a gun and fight) are rather fully fleshed, and you understand the point of view they come from.  In fact, there's points where Doss' character seems like he's taking his values to far, until he ultimately proves the effectiveness of sticking to his pacifism.  It's much more natural, believable and doesn't feel like you're being preached a generic sermon.

[SLAM!]

1 hour ago, spaghetti! said:

Have you seen The Prince of Egypt, @slambros? It’s probably telling that I’m hardly religious and loved the heck out of it. Maybe the best movie of a biblical story I’ve ever seen.

 

The Prince of Egypt is an incredible film! You can tell they put their heart into it!

[CoolioD1]

 

[Noctis]

 

 

"In regulation, you shall beseech my next point. I do not tolerate men...I am a lesbian. I am an anti-sperm, pro-ovum candidate! What are your views on gays?"

[Rorschach]

There really isn't much in between for most Christian films I've seen. I either love it (Prince of Egypt, Hacksaw Ridge) or hate it (God's Not Dead 1 and 2, Saving Christmas). It's a pretty big split.

 

Basically, telling a good story is always the thing I look for when grading a film. I'm not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination (I am a deist) but I love films that can include good morals/messages if they are done exceptionally well.

[dudalb]

Back in the 1960's there was a joke that it took a Jewish Director to make a good film about Chiristiantiy ,since the directors of "Quo Vadis" (Mervyn Leroy) "The Nun's Story" (Fred Zinnerman)and "Ben Hur" ( William Wyler) were all Jewish.

 

[dudalb]

18 minutes ago, Rorschach said:

There really isn't much in between for most Christian films I've seen. I either love it (Prince of Egypt, Hacksaw Ridge) or hate it (God's Not Dead 1 and 2, Saving Christmas). It's a pretty big split.

 

Basically, telling a good story is always the thing I look for when grading a film. I'm not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination (I am a deist) but I love films that can include good morals/messages if they are done exceptionally well.

Uh, Prince of  Egypt is as much a Jewish film as Christian film..........

Moses is pretty damn popular in Judaism.....

Edited November 14, 2017 by dudalb

[Rorschach]

1 minute ago, dudalb said:

Uh, Prince of  Egypt is as much a Jewish film as Christian film..........

 

Sure if you want to look at it that way. Whatever floats your boat.

4 minutes ago, dudalb said:

Moses is pretty damn popular in Judaism.....

 

That kind of goes without saying.

[Sal]

7 hours ago, Rorschach said:

There really isn't much in between for most Christian films I've seen. I either love it (Prince of Egypt, Hacksaw Ridge) or hate it (God's Not Dead 1 and 2, Saving Christmas). It's a pretty big split.

 

Basically, telling a good story is always the thing I look for when grading a film. I'm not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination (I am a deist) but I love films that can include good morals/messages if they are done exceptionally well.

But please do keep in mind that Prince of Egypt is not specifically Christian.  The creator and many of the creative team are Jewish and it reflects that.   Jeffrey Katzenberg is Jewish and it was one of his motivations for the film.  Also one of my Jewish friends watches this movie every passover.

 

I think it's just safe to say that when it comes to movies based on the Old Testament, that most of them can be enjoyed as much (or more) by Jewish audiences.

 

Worth noting that Muslims share most of this as well, but their rules against prophets being portrayed visually means this movie wouldn't be particularly popular in most Muslim countries.

Edited November 15, 2017 by Sal

[Rorschach]

15 hours ago, Sal said:

But please do keep in mind that Prince of Egypt is not specifically Christian.  The creator and many of the creative team are Jewish and it reflects that.   Jeffrey Katzenberg is Jewish and it was one of his motivations for the film.  Also one of my Jewish friends watches this movie every passover.

 

I think it's just safe to say that when it comes to movies based on the Old Testament, that most of them can be enjoyed as much (or more) by Jewish audiences.

1

Never said it wasn't. I grew up in a Lutheran environment and that's just how I viewed the movie. I'm glad that the movie can be enjoyed from multiple perspectives though. Christian, Jewish, etc. 

[Lordmandeep]

The old bible epics were real crowd pleasures.