The Problem with Christian Film
I received this in my e-mail and thought you might appreciate it.

HOLLYWOOD JESUS
NEWSLETTER #43
Pop Culture From A Spiritual Point of View
December 4, 2002
Greetings from David Bruce, Web Master

___________________________________

Main Topic:
THE PROBLEM WITH "CHRISTIAN" FILMS
Thoughts from Brian Godawa
and Dan Dunkelberger

SUB TOPIC:
TO END ALL WARS

Contents:
1. Introducing Brian Godawa
2. "Christian Movies" So-called
3. Listen to the History of Christian Films
4. TO END ALL WARS Comes to Los Angeles
5. A Book Worth Giving

*************************
1. INTRODUCING BRIAN GODAWA
*************************
Recently it was my good fortune to meet Brian Godawa.
He is a screenwriter living in Southern California.
He wrote the screenplay for the feature film To End All Wars.
And he is the author of the book,
Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Movies With Discernment (Intervarsity Press), which I highly recommend.


He has some interesting views that I think need to be shared!
Below I are some of his views of "Christian" movies.
I think this may lead to a lively discussion.

*************************
2. "CHRISTIAN MOVIES" --SO CALLED.
*************************

“Christian” Movies When it comes to a meaningful portrayal of Christianity, one has to ask why is it that so-called secular movies do a better job of it (when they so rarely do) than so-called “Christian movies?” Why are Christian movies at the theater mostly rejected as unbelievable and contrived propaganda? Part of the problem is that they tend to be narrowly focused, which reduces the message to clichés. And clichés do not ring true.

CLICHÉS
There always seems to be a priest or pastor or “religious” character who is the wise man or the voice of conscience. There tends to be a “salvation scene” where the main character falls to his knees in a church and prays to “accept Jesus into his heart.” And there is often some kind of religious ministry at stake, be it a homeless shelter or kid's ministry. Now, to be fair, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with such clichés. It's just that they have become precisely that—clichés.

SINNER PRAYER APPROACH -IRRELEVANT
There is another tendency in overtly Christian movies to neglect incarnating redemption in the story theme. Rather than accurately portraying the spiritual need of a character and how it is remedied through the story, “accepting Jesus into their heart” is often the prescribed panacea for all their problems. This early twentieth century “altar call” sinner's prayer approach has little relevance for the postmodern human, and is rather suspect itself as a biblical concept. Praying a prayer may be part of regeneration, but it is not the certainty of true and full salvation which comes from a changed life of repentance (Mt 7:21-27; 13:18-23; Lk 8:11-15). And prayer is certainly not the only outward _expression of a changed heart, though one would get that idea from watching more than one “Christian” film.

World Wide Pictures, the film arm of the Billy Graham Ministry, suffers from this weakness. Since they are required to have a Billy Graham (now Franklin Graham) crusade in every film, the stories suffer from heavy-handed proselytization which immediately alienates most sophisticated viewers. And this alienation is not necessarily from the audience's rebellious sinful natures.

A PREACHY MESSAGE IS A TURN OFF
Any movie with a “preachy” message, be it Christianity, environmentalism, political positions, or what have you, turns away people because rather than letting the audience figure out for themselves what the meaning is, they are told exactly what they ought to think and usually in terms of slogans and buzz words. This is the nature of propaganda, a one-sidedness that ignores the ambiguities and difficulties of reality. The Billy Graham Association is undoubtedly sincere in their desire to have meaningful drama, but what is sometimes missed is that the power of drama lies not in placing cure-all messages on top of their stories but in incarnating the redemption into the story and its theme.

BAD WRITING, BAD ACTING
Having said all this about the need to transcend preachiness, most of the time it's just simply bad writing, bad acting, and bad directing that ruins “Christian” films. Recycled television plots, distinctly unscary villains trying to sound scary, contrived “sinner's prayer” conversions (Mercy Streets, 2000), and even Christians trying a bit too hard to act like movie superstars themselves (Carmen: The Champion, 2000).

RETREAT FROM CULTURE
Why are the standards of excellence so neglected in “Christian” art? Perhaps this is the terminal legacy of those who consider “the message” as “more important” than the medium (of storytelling), rather than seeing the medium itself as part of the message and created by God as valuable in and of itself. Perhaps we are still bearing the fruit of the pietist and fundamentalist retreat from all things cultural as evil. We seem to feel that the rest of the “stuff “ is just not as important as putting in that “altar call” scene.

ENDTIME MADNESS
Another detrimental aspect of “Christian” films is the obsession that many of them have with the end of the world. One would think the book of Revelation is the only unique element of Christianity because we seem to make so many movies about it. It all started back in 1972 with A Thief in the Night and those scenes of the big bad One- World government chasing after Christians in One-World government vans, and soon grew to monstrous Blob-like proportions with A Distant Thunder (1978), Image of the Beast (1981), The Prodigal Planet (1983), and more recently Revelation (1996), Apocalypse: Caught in the Eye of the Storm (1998), Revelation (1999), Apocalypse IV: Judgment (2001), Tribulation (2000), The Omega Code (1999), Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 (2001), and the granddaddy End-Times marketing phenomenon of all time, Left Behind: The Movie (2001). This adaptation of the mega-million best-selling series that began as a trilogy and soon mutated into a 12-book series (not to mention the myriad of other rip-offs for children and others) has brought the book of Revelation to the forefront of popular interest—and with it a host of problems.



*************************
3. AUDIO HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN FILM
With Daniel Dunkelberger on RealPlayer
*************************

One of the most encouraging people that I know is Daniel Dunkelberger. He is an expert in the history of film by Christian filmmakers. Above is an amazing speech he gave in 1999 at a Men's Breakfast in California.





*************************
4. TO END ALL WARS IN LOS ANGELES
*************************

The film, TO END ALL WARS opens in Los Angeles for a one week exclusive engagement this coming Friday, December 6-12 at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood. It's future distribution depends on it's success here, so if you live in Southern California, would you please try to go? If you don't live there, but know someone who does, would you please contact them and try to persuade them to go? You could notify all your friends who live in Southern California through email. It is important that it does well during the week, not merely the weekend, so please consider going during the week and bringing some friends with.

You will not be disappointed with this strongly redemptive movie. You can see the web site at: www.toendallwars.com with a trailer and all! It is the story of Allied prisoners of war in a Japanese concentration camp during WW2. As they suffer under their captors’ cruelty, they find redemption in learning to love their neighbor and ultimately what it means to love their enemy. The Veterans of Foreign Wars gave the movie a medal of distinction and honor because of its accurate portrayal. It's like Shawshank Redemption meets Saving Private Ryan.


Here is the info:
Arclight Cinemas
6360 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood
(between Vine and Ivar)
TEL: 1-323-464-1478 for show times



*************************
5. A BOOK WORTH GIVING
Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Movies With Discernment
*************************

Brian Godawa who wrote the screenplay for TO END ALL WARS has also written an incredible book Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Movies With Discernment published by InterVarsity Press. This book will open your eyes to the various philosophies behind some of the biggest hits to come out of Hollywood. I know of several groups that have used this book in their weekly discussion groups. Click this link and read what others are saying about this book. I strongly recommend it in your Christmas gift considerations. Click here for book info.

Post Your Thoughts Here

God bless you.
Warmly,
David Bruce
Web Master, HollywoodJesus.com