Do heathens make the best Christian films?

[Sojourner]

Here's a fascinating article from [url="http://www.godspy.com/culture/Why-Do-Heathens-Make-the-Best-Christian-Films-by-Thom-Parham.cfm"]Godspy[/url] on the topic of Christian-themed films made by non-Christians. It's a long article, so I'll pull a few quotes for discussion's sake. Still a little long ... but I know you can do it.
[quote]The idea that Christians will go see films targeted at them has not been borne out by the marketplace. Christians, it turns out, see the same films as everyone else.[/quote]
[quote]Christian filmmakers seem to believe that they do not have to compete in the mainstream market. Thus, storytelling and production values end up taking a backseat to the movie's message. The films are merely bait to lure viewers to a homily or altar call, and this only ensures their failure.

Even with the built-in distributions system of Christian bookstores, the Christian music and publishing industries figured out after a few years that they had to develop products that were just as good as mainstream books and music in order to succeed. Christian filmmakers will have to do this and more. To compete in the mainstream market, they will have to appeal not only to Christians but also to mainstream audiences.[/quote]
[quote]Though Places in the Heart is a metaphor for the kingdom of heaven, nowhere is this notion communicated overtly. It is suggested through the film's system of metaphors and reinforced by its enigmatic ending. This is yet another reason non-Christians make the best Christian films: they understand that cinema is an art form of symbol and metaphor. ... As long as people of faith are more concerned with messages than metaphors, they are doomed to make bad films.
[/quote]
[quote]In our post-modern, relativistic world, non-Christians often deny the existence of good and evil and the notion of sin. Yet, non-Christians are often more successful than Christians at representing sin in film.

This may be true because non-Christians are more likely to acknowledge the void within the human soul. French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ." C. S. Lewis used the German word Sehnsucht to describe a deep, inner longing for the "other." Even such disparate sources as Jean-Paul Sartre and twelve-step recovery programs acknowledge this "God-shaped hole" in our hearts.

We Christians believe this void is the result of original sin, the rift in our union with God, and that our yearning for completion is a sign of our need for redemption, or reunification with God. Yet we are reticent to show this on screen. Our protagonists must be better than good; they are flawless, and inhumanly so. We are afraid that merely depicting sin is an endorsement of sin.[/quote]
[quote]There is one exception to my argument that non-Christians make the best Christian films. A particular group of Christians has excelled in its craft during the past century of cinema. This fraternity includes Frank Capra, Francis Ford Coppola, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Andrei Tarkovsky, Lars Von Trier, and Krzysztof Kieslowski. All operate (or operated) in the mainstream rather than sequestering themselves in a subculture, and all came from a Roman Catholic background.

Three tenets of Catholicism informed their craft and equipped them to excel. First, an intuitive understanding of iconography gave them a strong foundation for crafting visual images. Next, they seemed to grasp the incarnational function of art, which allowed them to give tangible form to intangible concepts. Finally, their understanding of the sacramental nature of life helped them relate divine patterns through everyday minutiae. For these reasons, even lapsed Catholic filmmakers, such as Brian De Palma or Federico Fellini, tend to be better equipped to focus on religious themes than practicing evangelicals. This isn't to say that non-Catholic Christian filmmakers are at a complete disadvantage when creating cinema. But the Protestant evangelical emphasis on the primacy of "word" has not allowed us to fully realize our ability to translate the image of God (imago Dei) into moving pictures.[/quote]

[philothea]

[quote name='Sojourner' date='Nov 11 2005, 12:24 PM']Here's a fascinating article from Godspy on the topic of Christian-themed films made by non-Christians. It's a long article, so I'll pull a few quotes for discussion's sake. Still a little long ... but I know you can do it.
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Fabulous article. The falsity in Christian movies is also rampant in Christian music and books. Even if they do have a guaranteed audience, and thus sales, a lot of that stuff is still soulless, dishonest carp.

I'd say more but the artice said everything I've thought!

[Sojourner]

[quote name='philothea' date='Nov 11 2005, 01:28 PM']Fabulous article.  The falsity in Christian movies is also rampant in Christian music and books.  Even if they do have a guaranteed audience, and thus sales, a lot of that stuff is still soulless, dishonest carp.

I'd say more but the artice said everything I've thought!
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That's been my experience too. I grew up hearing that Christian books/music/etc. are "good," but then when I discovered stuff that really [i]was[/i] good, I felt pretty betrayed by all the church folk who'd tried to tell me that it's the moral content of a film that makes or breaks it.

Now I can't walk into a Christian bookstore without getting the heebie-jeebies.

[photosynthesis]

[quote]Christians, however, did make these films:

Gospa (1995)
Entertaining Angels (1996)
The Omega Code (1999)
The Joyriders (1999)
Left Behind.. The Movie (2000)
Carman: The Champion (2001)
Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 (2001)
Mercy Streets (2001)
To End All Wars (2001)
Hometown Legend (2002)
Joshua (2002)
Left Behind II:' Tribulation Force (2002)
Luther (2003)
Finding Home (2003)
Therese (2004)

Overall, these films are unwatchable. There are only a handful of good scenes among them. None had success with critics or at the box office. (What does it say about Christian filmmakers that one of their best-received movies features computer-generated vegetables who sing and dance?)
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Carman: The Champion?? ::shudder:: that DOES sound unwatchable. I'm going to have nightmares about that!!! make it stop!!!

there certainly is an art to subtlety... perhaps if good Christian filmmakers learned this art their films would be more watchable...

[1337 k4th0l1x0r]

This article should also apply to most Christian music. There are so many 'popular' Christian artists who truly make terrible music. I try to listen to the Christian radio station here in town, but they have the same 5 songs that are listenable and the rest are painful. That and they have a policy that they only play artists who sing exclusively uplifting Christian music, which rules out groups like Creed.

[Lil Red]

i love Godspy! i just finished reading this article yesterday and it is spot-on!

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Lil Red' date='Nov 11 2005, 02:54 PM']i love Godspy! i just finished reading this article yesterday and it is spot-on!
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I've never read Godspy before, but ran across it through a link about another article in this same issue, which was also very well done. Did you read the piece on Lourdes? Beautifully done.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='photosynthesis' date='Nov 11 2005, 02:12 PM']Carman: The Champion??  ::shudder::  that DOES sound unwatchable.  I'm going to have nightmares about that!!!  make it stop!!!

there certainly is an art to subtlety...  perhaps if good Christian filmmakers learned this art their films would be more watchable...
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I'm so glad you quoted that section. I cut it because of length, but my favorite line from the article is: What does it say about Christian filmmakers that one of their best-received movies features computer-generated vegetables who sing and dance?





[quote name='1337 k4th0l1x0r' date='Nov 11 2005, 02:38 PM']This article should also apply to most Christian music.  There are so many 'popular' Christian artists who truly make terrible music.  I try to listen to the Christian radio station here in town, but they have the same 5 songs that are listenable and the rest are painful.  That and they have a policy that they only play artists who sing exclusively uplifting Christian music, which rules out groups like Creed.
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I totally agree. I was a DJ for a year when I was in college, and since it was a Christian campus, we were only allowed to play Christian songs. Most of the stuff was AWFUL and I found myself playing the same stuff over and over because I could hardly stand most of the drivel that passes as music. My senior year, we finally convinced the administration to allow us to play secular music, and I served on the "music approval board" to review lyrics and be sure they were acceptable.

I just think it's sad that Christians are so quick to settle for mediocrity.

[homeschoolmom]

yep.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Sojourner' date='Nov 11 2005, 01:56 PM']I've never read Godspy before, but ran across it through a link about another article in this same issue, which was also very well done. Did you read the piece on Lourdes? Beautifully done.
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very well done...Godspy has been one of my bookmarks since BLAZEr recommended it to me. they have many thought-provoking articles (even though sometimes i don't agree) on the site.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Lil Red' date='Nov 11 2005, 03:17 PM']very well done...Godspy has been one of my bookmarks since BLAZEr recommended it to me. they have many thought-provoking articles (even though sometimes i don't agree) on the site.
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Yay for BLAZEr!

[1337 k4th0l1x0r]

Sometimes Christians seem to get in a tizzy over immorality in movies and seem to miss the point of the imorality in the film. A protagonist who has an affair and must face the consequences of having an affair isn't an endorsement for adultery, but rather shows the true nature of the sin. Yet so often Christians condemn a film for 'implied extramarital sex' when the film itself condemns the activity. The Catholic filmmakers on the list make such good films because they aren't afraid to show how depraved men really can be. One of the best scenes of all time, in my opinion, is the baptism scene from the Godfather. Most non-Catholic Christian filmmakers wouldn't dare go there, but it exposes a religious issue.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='1337 k4th0l1x0r' date='Nov 11 2005, 03:45 PM']Sometimes Christians seem to get in a tizzy over immorality in movies and seem to miss the point of the imorality in the film. A protagonist who has an affair and must face the consequences of having an affair isn't an endorsement for adultery, but rather shows the true nature of the sin. Yet so often Christians condemn a film for 'implied extramarital sex' when the film itself condemns the activity.  The Catholic filmmakers on the list make such good films because they aren't afraid to show how depraved men really can be.  One of the best scenes of all time, in my opinion, is the baptism scene from the Godfather.  Most non-Catholic Christian filmmakers wouldn't dare go there, but it exposes a religious issue.
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I totally agree with you. There's this sense that if we just don't talk about sin or acknowledge its existence, somehow it will just "disappear." It's this dream world that's only believable if you want, more than anything else, to believe that it can exist. But you only fool yourself.

I think, at some level, that it was a disillusionment with this dreamy picture of the world that ended up driving me toward Catholicism. Not that Catholics don't do it ... but once I figured out how deep the tentacles of sin and suffering go in the world, my faith was really shaken. The Catholic church's teachings on redemptive suffering were really instrumental in bringing me into the fold.

[photosynthesis]

[quote name='1337 k4th0l1x0r' date='Nov 11 2005, 02:38 PM']This article should also apply to most Christian music.  There are so many 'popular' Christian artists who truly make terrible music.  I try to listen to the Christian radio station here in town, but they have the same 5 songs that are listenable and the rest are painful.  That and they have a policy that they only play artists who sing exclusively uplifting Christian music, which rules out groups like Creed.
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yeah, that's how the christian radio station is here... their motto is "uplifting and encouraging music for your whole family" but their music just makes me want to stick a fork in my eye.

[quote name='Sojourner' date='Nov 11 2005, 03:01 PM']I was a DJ for a year when I was in college, and since it was a Christian campus, we were only allowed to play Christian songs. Most of the stuff was AWFUL and I found myself playing the same stuff over and over because I could hardly stand most of the drivel that passes as music. My senior year, we finally convinced the administration to allow us to play secular music, and I served on the "music approval board" to review lyrics and be sure they were acceptable.

I just think it's sad that Christians are so quick to settle for mediocrity.
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that's so sad!!! I hope they didn't make you play Carman

[quote name='Lil Red' date='Nov 11 2005, 03:17 PM']very well done...Godspy has been one of my bookmarks since BLAZEr recommended it to me. they have many thought-provoking articles (even though sometimes i don't agree) on the site.
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Godspy is one of my favorite sites, although i, too, don't agree with all of their articles.... but they do make me think!

[Sojourner]

[quote name='photosynthesis' date='Nov 11 2005, 04:18 PM']that's so sad!!!  I hope they didn't make you play Carman
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They didn't make me play Carmen. I had lots of discretion as to what I played within the given parameters.

Oddly enough, however, Carmen was the first concert I attended. My parents deemed him "safe".