The last four movies that I saw all had a God component in them. Some of them hit you over the head with their God-ness, others showed the aftereffects of a God-less society, and one showed you how God has a sense of humor and will kill you with an icicle.
Before I go any further, I have no problem in believing in God—nor do I have problems with those who choose not to believe in a God. I like going to church—even as a gay man who isn’t welcomed in the particular faith of which I am a member. I have read the Bible (in its entirety—twice) but I couldn’t quote you any particular scripture other than “Jesus wept.” I don’t have the books of the Bible memorized—I still have to look at the Table of Contents to get where I want when looking up a reference. I like religion—it’s just that I don’t like many of the organized religions. I try to live by the Golden Rule and don’t believe that how I worship, or not, is anyone’s business but mine (and my God).
Having said that—I will have to say that I was taken aback by how heavy handed God was treated in these four disparate movies. SOILER ALERTS FOLLOW.
The first movie I saw was The Book of Eli with Denzel Washington. I usually like his movies but I was a little shocked that he would do this movie because it was an action based movie and it was so religious in its implications (I don’t know if he is a religious man, though). The movie is another in the apocalyptic genre of movies. It shows the aftermath of a lawless and Godless society (the movie’s explanation) and follows Eli along his quest to go West with his “book.” He gets beat up, messed up, and played along the way as he makes his pilgrimage. More importantly, he fails his mission (sort of) but keeps on going West because the voices tell him to.
The second God movie was a little more disquieting in that Heaven was filled with these sappy, happy, cartoon-like visions. Yet, this wasn’t actually heaven because you are stuck in the in-between until you forgive your killer (or at least help your family try and get him arrested). The movie was “Lovely Bones.” To be quite honest, I had no intention of seeing this movie until I realized that one of the actors is a heavily made-up Stanley Tucci. I will drop everything to see Stanley Tucci—one of the most underrated actors in the business. While he doesn’t have a lot of dialogue in the movie, he provides a primer in physical acting throughout—simply amazing. In the end, the protagonist escapes his past transgressions and moves on to kill another victim until a vengeful God strikes him down with a Golden and glittering icicle as he tries to pick up his next victim.
The third God movie, Legion, was somewhat expected because I knew the premise of the movie: a guardian angel is sent from heaven to help people on Earth. This premise was fine until God turns the people of Earth into zombie-like creatures in order to wreck havoc and seal the fate of all of the non-believers of the world. Enter Apocalyptic movie #2. The modern day Joseph and Mary story in an apocalyptic world is fine but the whole premise seemed designed so that the humans, as guided by the fallen angel, get to blow everyone up. It simply seemed an excuse to use a whole lot of special effects—including wings that would saw through human flesh. The only reason I went to see this movie because the picture of the angel (Paul Betthany) in the movie poster was absolutely hot, dirtied up and bare-chested and wearing leather pants. So there—I said it. I did keep on thinking though, does God ever use any fat angels? Would God put wings on Jack Black and send him to Earth to save the people?
The last movie is the one that frustrated me the most—To Save A Life. Either I didn’t do my research well enough or looked in the wrong places, but nowhere did I find that it was a faith-based movie. For those not in the know, a faith-based movie is made by religious groups as a way to proselytize young people to religion via a movie format. The thought process behind the venture is that it will address religion via a medium that young people would be more apt to view. The whole problem with this approach is that a viewer who doesn’t know that it is a faith-based movie feels duped. In a theater of 40 people watching the film (a 5:20pm showing in midtown Manhattan)—eighteen people walked out during the show when “the preaching” become more pronounced. The difficulty for me was that I would have seen the movie anyway because it dealt with a topic of which I am acutely aware—teen suicide. The depiction of high school life is very spot on in this movie. The pressures, angst, and desires (both good and bad) are faithfully (no pun intended) depicted—warts and all. Anyone with kids in high school and junior high should see this movie—you can take the preaching and proselytizing with a grain of salt (as to your own wishes and desires) but it is definitely a movie that should be seen (for both non-believers and believers).
In closing, four movies in five days with God in the background. If only He could have helped with the stomach pangs from all of that Diet Coke and popcorn.
Before I go any further, I have no problem in believing in God—nor do I have problems with those who choose not to believe in a God. I like going to church—even as a gay man who isn’t welcomed in the particular faith of which I am a member. I have read the Bible (in its entirety—twice) but I couldn’t quote you any particular scripture other than “Jesus wept.” I don’t have the books of the Bible memorized—I still have to look at the Table of Contents to get where I want when looking up a reference. I like religion—it’s just that I don’t like many of the organized religions. I try to live by the Golden Rule and don’t believe that how I worship, or not, is anyone’s business but mine (and my God).
Having said that—I will have to say that I was taken aback by how heavy handed God was treated in these four disparate movies. SOILER ALERTS FOLLOW.
The first movie I saw was The Book of Eli with Denzel Washington. I usually like his movies but I was a little shocked that he would do this movie because it was an action based movie and it was so religious in its implications (I don’t know if he is a religious man, though). The movie is another in the apocalyptic genre of movies. It shows the aftermath of a lawless and Godless society (the movie’s explanation) and follows Eli along his quest to go West with his “book.” He gets beat up, messed up, and played along the way as he makes his pilgrimage. More importantly, he fails his mission (sort of) but keeps on going West because the voices tell him to.
The second God movie was a little more disquieting in that Heaven was filled with these sappy, happy, cartoon-like visions. Yet, this wasn’t actually heaven because you are stuck in the in-between until you forgive your killer (or at least help your family try and get him arrested). The movie was “Lovely Bones.” To be quite honest, I had no intention of seeing this movie until I realized that one of the actors is a heavily made-up Stanley Tucci. I will drop everything to see Stanley Tucci—one of the most underrated actors in the business. While he doesn’t have a lot of dialogue in the movie, he provides a primer in physical acting throughout—simply amazing. In the end, the protagonist escapes his past transgressions and moves on to kill another victim until a vengeful God strikes him down with a Golden and glittering icicle as he tries to pick up his next victim.
The third God movie, Legion, was somewhat expected because I knew the premise of the movie: a guardian angel is sent from heaven to help people on Earth. This premise was fine until God turns the people of Earth into zombie-like creatures in order to wreck havoc and seal the fate of all of the non-believers of the world. Enter Apocalyptic movie #2. The modern day Joseph and Mary story in an apocalyptic world is fine but the whole premise seemed designed so that the humans, as guided by the fallen angel, get to blow everyone up. It simply seemed an excuse to use a whole lot of special effects—including wings that would saw through human flesh. The only reason I went to see this movie because the picture of the angel (Paul Betthany) in the movie poster was absolutely hot, dirtied up and bare-chested and wearing leather pants. So there—I said it. I did keep on thinking though, does God ever use any fat angels? Would God put wings on Jack Black and send him to Earth to save the people?
The last movie is the one that frustrated me the most—To Save A Life. Either I didn’t do my research well enough or looked in the wrong places, but nowhere did I find that it was a faith-based movie. For those not in the know, a faith-based movie is made by religious groups as a way to proselytize young people to religion via a movie format. The thought process behind the venture is that it will address religion via a medium that young people would be more apt to view. The whole problem with this approach is that a viewer who doesn’t know that it is a faith-based movie feels duped. In a theater of 40 people watching the film (a 5:20pm showing in midtown Manhattan)—eighteen people walked out during the show when “the preaching” become more pronounced. The difficulty for me was that I would have seen the movie anyway because it dealt with a topic of which I am acutely aware—teen suicide. The depiction of high school life is very spot on in this movie. The pressures, angst, and desires (both good and bad) are faithfully (no pun intended) depicted—warts and all. Anyone with kids in high school and junior high should see this movie—you can take the preaching and proselytizing with a grain of salt (as to your own wishes and desires) but it is definitely a movie that should be seen (for both non-believers and believers).
In closing, four movies in five days with God in the background. If only He could have helped with the stomach pangs from all of that Diet Coke and popcorn.
I have seen Lovely Bones recently and I thought it was extremely well made and directed. The film makers get kudos for building tension throughout the film and the climax was nail biting. The Director Peter Jackson put the Lord of The Rings poster in the shopping mall window. I honestly thought this would be shitty movie about a girl navigating her way through a maze of CGI. But I was surprised.
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