The Associated Baptist Press has an interesting piece by Robert Dilday entitled “Finding Christ in Popular Culture.” In it, he discusses the Academy’s nomination of The Tree of Life, Sherwood Baptist Church’s latest movie, Courageous, and what makes a movie “explicitly Christian.”
He discusses the line between authenticity and vulgarity, whether all movies with Christian themes should be “family friendly,” and whether “detecting Christian themes in Hollywood’s products” is worthwhile.
If you’ve read my column, you’ll probably infer where I stand on all of these issues–and, yes, I do think it worthwhile to affirm truth, beauty, and goodness where we find it. The article mentions the importance of context, and as evidenced by one of my first columns for CaPC, I think critically discerning context is vitally important when interacting with stories.
And, if you want a movie that is authentically Christian while avoiding manipulative evangelistic techniques, you need to watch Lucky Life, which is available on Hulu for free.
Thanks for pointing me to it, I left a comment, feel free to leave one as well. :)
I was hoping that this would end with “If you want a movie that is authentically Christian…watch Tree of Life,” because that is the most authentically Christian movie I’ve seen since Passion of the Christ.
Tree of Life is Christian mass as film.
It is the poetic nature of the Old Testament.
It appears open-ended the same way a mass appears open-ended.
It uses the same form of storytelling that Jesus’s parables used.
Like I mentioned in my comment, I guess we live in an age where poetry is dead. Even the kind of poetry used in the Bible.
God at Play,
Preaching to the choir, my friend! I totally agree with you on THE TREE OF LIFE. Personally, I think TOL is explicitly Christian. Furthermore, I think THE MILL AND THE CROSS has a more affecting Crucifixion scene than PASSION’s blunt realism.
Cheers,
Nick
I’ve been wanting to watch that… It seems very videogame-like to me. Painting as simulated world as film.
Also nice Oscar nominee post. :)
Thanks! Yeah, you need to check out THE MILL AND THE CROSS. It’s excellent–visually stunning.
Also, you should check out LUCKY LIFE–It’s not as grandiose, but very similar to TREE thematically.
Thanks for the suggestions :)
Really must watch this movie….