It's tough to blog when you don't have motivation. You don't want to lose your audience so you force out a post... and it usually sucks. So what's worse: losing your audience to a lack of posting? or losing your audience to bad posting?
Who cares... cuz I have something to write about today...
Ultimately, we're going to talk about Religious movies in mainstream media... but let's back up a bit.
There's a new movie in theaters that my mother wants me to go see; One Night with the King. It chronicles the life of the young Jewish girl, Hadassah, who goes on to become the Biblical Esther, the Queen of Persia, and saves the Jewish nation from annihilation at the hands of its arch enemy while winning the heart of the fiercely handsome King Xerxes.
Let's back up: Esther is a book of the bible. It tells some of this story through scripture.
Let's back up: The bible is a religious text written by many people and compiled together as the word of God.
Let's back up: Religion is when a lot of people try to explain things that they cannot figure out.
Let's back up: People are organisms that...
um.. I think I've gone too far with this one. Let's go forward again. (insert going-forward music)
Where was I? Oh right. My mother wanted me to see this movie. I have a religious past, and a love of movies, so this wasn't a horrible prospect. However, as I looked at reviews of this movie (to convince J-Love that we should go see it) I noticed a trend. Basically, people didn't like the movie. The biggest complaint was that the script was poorly written and the director couldn't pull together a convoluted storyline well enough to properly engage the audience. In the end, I decided to wait for this to come out on DVD.
Now, while all of this was taking place, I had J-Love on the phone. We started talking about how this movie may have had some great potential but fell short. Then we started talking about religious movies in general.
Ok, it took a long time to get here... but this is my point. Why can't we make a good well-written, nicely cast, big budget, blockbuster religious movie? Think about it. The bible is full of love, hate, war, deception, redemption, miracles, etc. It seems like prime material for some great screen plays.
I feel like we should bring up some good/bad religious movies as examples here. I categorize them in two ways: movies that are about the bible, and movies that are heavily religious.
Some movies that are about the bible: Obviously there is the Passion of the Christ, the Last temptation of Christ, the 10 Commandments, and more.
Some movies that are religious: Stygmata, the Apostle, Left Behind, Dogma, to name a few.
Specifically, I'd like to talk about two of them.
First, we have the Passion of the Christ. There isn't much to say here. Their goal was to show the audience what it was like to be Jesus in his last 24 hours alive. Since the entire religion is based on his sacrifice at this time, they wanted us to see that it was no small feat. They didn't try to shove the bible down anyone's throats. They just wanted to tell a story. And they did a pretty good job of it.
Second, let's talk about a complete flop. If one piece of the bible stands out as prime material for a movie, it's the book of revelation. The end of the world. The rising of the anti-Christ, the mark of the beast, the fight for redemption. But instead of an incredible movie about all of this, we got Kirk Cameron starring in a preachy movie with a horrible script. Yes, we got Left Behind. It had so much potential but fell so short.
Ok, this blog has rambled long enough. So feel free to chime in. can you think of any religious movies that have been particularly good or bad? Have any movies you'd like to see made?
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Jesus Christ: Movie Star?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Jesus Christ Superstar was pretty good, if you're into that sorta thing.
if you took the bible out of the 10 commandments, i would still really really really like that movie as a movie. it's an epic, a classic, and before Charlie H became a dick.
MARY MAGDELENE WAS NOT A HOOKER!!!! Why does every woman in the bible have to be "one of sin" it's not even offensive anymore b/c it's so overdone, it's just pathetic and really friggin annoying. TELL THE TRUTH!!!!!!
Um, iirc she was never specifically cited for prostitution, but this was in the Bronze Age Middle East, where people didn't really care what your particular vice was. If it fell on the 'you're a bad person' list, you were assumed to have all the other vices. That held true for men as well as women, but the lists were different. What I think the bible was trying to point out is that Christ really couldn't care less about any of those lists, that everyone, from the holiest of saints to the most depraved of sinners, is human and therefore deserving of a chance at redemption.
Um, ok, I didn't hit 'post a comment' meaning to go there, it just kinda slipped out.
That said, "Left Behind" was, iirc, a movie based on a series of (fairly preachy) books based on Revelations, not a movie directly based on Revelations. Not surprising it wasn't terribly good and was terribly preachy. I would have been surprised had it not been.
I think part of the reason you don't see good movies based on Biblical stories is that most really good movies don't have saintly good guys or infernal bad guys, they're stories about how life pushes flawed people into overcoming or giving in to their flaws. There are stories like that in the Bible, but they tend to give an impression that the people in the Bible were, well, human beings. Also, in some of the good old testament Bible stories, Jehovah often comes out looking to modern eyes like someone you wouldn't want watching your pets, let alone responsible for your eternal soul.
Which, in my opinion, would make for some great movies, but movies take money, and people with money willing to spend it on movies have a tendency to fall into two groups: Those who shy away from truly religious themed movies and those who see the movie screen as a really big pulpit.
Hence it's a pretty rare occasion when the really good stories get turned into really good movies.
Right off the top of my head? Samson and Delilah. Saul and David. The story of the creation and fall of Man would make a really cool sci-fi/fantasy flavored film, and could be done with two actors, two voiceovers, and some special effects.
I would love an mp3 of going-forward music, please.
1. Trish, you need therapy. seriously.
2. I know left Behind was a book. I read some of it back in college. My point was that they could have taken a preachy book that was based off of a great idea... and adapted that in to a mainstream good movie that may attract more people towards faith. Instead they made a bad movie that was probably only watched by christians. Someone along that chain made a bad decision.
Post a Comment