I’m not even religious, I just want to know.
The Ten Commandments was good for it’s Era. The original Ben Hur as well. These days conservative targeting films pander too hard and general audiences don’t like them.
Was coming here to basically say this, that religious epics were once a source of great filmmaking in classic Hollywood.
Some of the veggitales bits were legit funny. I never saw passion of the Christ but I’ve heard people say it was well done at least.
The Passion of Christ is basically gore and I hated it. The hyper focus on Jesus’s suffering instead of focusing on his message is a huge problem in Christianity in my opinion. It’s had this bizarre tendency to normalize abuse in the name of one of the most loving human beings ever to walk the planet.
I 100% understand an emphasis on the suffer of Christ as a personal meditation on the nature of suffering and how we relate to God in our suffering. But the kind of glorification of the torture of Jesus that is common in a lot of Christianity is really twisted.
Yeah it’s a real extreme-Catholic/Orthodox thing to focus on the blood and pain I think. Catholic art, especially those little wax icons tends to show more of the blood running from the wounds on the cross. Mel Gibson is one of those extremists, hence his barely concealed antisemitism.
That shit is rampant among American evangelicals as well. Just Calvinism and puritanism at their worst
Huh, maybe it’s all Christians then… I don’t know I started to get the feeling like I wanted to explore more about faith (I’m a permanently wavering agnostic) and started reading the New Testament. And very early on in Matthew Jesus says something along the lines of don’t pray in front of all the others in the temple to show off how holy you are but do it in private. And that line of thinking inevitably leads to questioning the need for a church
Of course it was St Paul and not Jesus who formalised things a bit more.
Dogma is a really good movie with a Christian theme. Good Omens is a great series with Christian themes though it’s more atheist in it’s message than Dogma.
I’ve been reading about the history of early Christianity, before there was an official New Testament and what people believed was a bit more chaotic with a lot more of what we would call takes on Christianity flying about - that’s why I love things like Dogma and Good Omens. To my mind they aren’t being disrespectful, they’re just interpreting what Christianity is and where it comes from, and why it’s important.
That’s why George Carlin’s priest is such an idiot - he’s not interested in belief, he’s interested in golf and his own ego, and becomes a sinner with his whole buddy Christ idol anyway (which is one of the funniest things Smith ever created!)
I’d definitely have to add Life Of Brian to the trinity of comedies that handle religious themes respectfully but well. So many underrated lines - “he is the real Messiah, and I should know, I’ve followed a few!”
Oh yeah definitely Life of Brian too, good eye.
It was hilarious that Kevin Smith protested his own movie.
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Spotlight
To add a more recent film to those on the list, Silence (2016). It deals with Catholic missionaries in Japan during the years of the Shogunate. It asks questions about the moral dilemmas of faith and sacrifice, and is pretty dark, both in theme and cinematography (the colour palette of the movie is very very grey) which isn’t something a lot of modern Christian films ask or do.
Some great performances from Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson and Adam Driver.
Star wars is pretty good, even if it’s for kids
Hah. Gotem.
Seriously tho there are Christian religious references in tons of movies. The matrix trilogy could be considered Christian if we push enough.
Even more explicit is the original Tron movie. You have a created world where the programs (created beings) exist only to serve their users (gods). A rebel program (the MCP - a fallen angel/Satan) is taking over and denying the existence or users, but some remain faithful. The scene where Tron gets to an I/O port is a prayer in a temple. The MCP is only defeated when Flynn, the User, becomes incarnated in that world and lays down his “life” for the sake of all the faithful programs.
Is that myrrh you’re smelling
Passion of the Christ was the first thing that came to mind. Surprised no one else mentioned it. Is it not considered good?
Just gonna copy/paste my response to another comment in this thread:
The Passion of Christ is basically gore and I hated it. The hyper focus on Jesus’s suffering instead of focusing on his message is a huge problem in Christianity in my opinion. It’s had this bizarre tendency to normalize abuse in the name of one of the most loving human beings ever to walk the planet.
I 100% understand an emphasis on the suffer of Christ as a personal meditation on the nature of suffering and how we relate to God in our suffering. But the kind of glorification of the torture of Jesus that is common in a lot of Christianity is really twisted.
And I’m a film buff. I love art house shit and I hated that movie
Well, let me ask you: is it good? Is it? Good?
“Hey guys, let’s put on a movie!”
“Sure! What should we watch?”
“I don’t know. Something good.”
“Say no more…”
I mean… I personally didn’t care for it, but then I usually have the exact opposite taste in films as the film buffs so…
I think Dude Where’s My Car is a good movie. I think Citizen Kane is boring as fuck. See what I mean here? lol
Not sure if it counts but Kingdom of Heaven is a fantastic movie. But I think it fits the letter of your question, but not the spirit.
The Last Temptation of Christ is probably the best I’ve seen. 1988, directed by Martin Scorsese with Willem Dafoe as Christ as Harvey Keitel as Judas. It was nominated for Best Director at the Oscars.
Be warned - it’s not your standard Christian film, and is R rated for a reason.
Details on the film, and here are details on the novel that inspired it by Nikos Kazantzakis.
Yep, it’s not “canon”, but it’s an interesting take.
Damn, Willem Dafoe went deep.
Probably the best performance of his career, IMHO.
The Exorcist holds up pretty well
My wife has seen more so here’s her recommendations for Christian movies that are good movies.
“Joseph, king of dreams” is pretty good for a Christian movie.
“Fireproof” made her cry, not specifically a kids movie, she says it was a great romantic movie.
She’s seen a bunch and those are the only two (three, with Prince of Egypt) she’d actually recommend to people, although she hasn’t seen all of them.
I love the song Joseph sings while in prison in “King of Dreams”.
I haven’t seen Fireproof. Will have to check it out.
Try King David with Richard Gere — yes it’s Old Testament, but an interesting take on the story.
Jesus Christ Superstar is a nice riff on the story of Christ, believe it or not. The 1972 movie is very well done and captures the time when it was made.
And for a nice allegory about Christ, try Jesus of Montreal.
Ben Hur is an obvious choice? Why has nobody said this one? It’s one of the most famous movies of all time and overtly religious.
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This is a really good movie by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The life of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of Matthew. Pasolini shows Christ as a Marxist avant-la-lettre and therefore uses half of the text of Matthew. Il vangelo secondo Matteo
