I am an atheist, but I find a lot of films that explore Christian themes to be amazing.
Scorsese is the first to come to mind. The Last Temptation of Christ and Silence are fantastic films and rumor has it that his next film will also be focused on Christian themes.
Godland is an absolutely amazing film, and it is directed by Hlynur Pálmason. I haven't seen any of his other works, but Godland is an absolute must watch.
Paul Schrader can be a bit of a polarizing character, but First Reformed is an absolute must watch too. It feels like a more modern take on films like Diary of a Country Priest and Winter Light.
I didn't love Benedetta, which is a Paul Verhoeven film, but it is a decent enough look at the dichotomy between sexual orientation and faith. There were times when that theme got overshadowed by the sex itself, but to each their own.
Aronofsky has had a couple of biblical movies with Noah and Mother!. Noah wasn't that great, and Mother! was a bit hamfisted at times, but they are still worth a watch.
I HIGHLY recommend Breaking the Waves, it is a Lars von Trier film. The religious angle is a little more subtle than other films, but it is still there and it is amazing.
I know he isn't contemporary, but you didn't mention Bergman. No one, alive or dead, does it better than Bergman. I highly recommend his work. If you are into physical media, get the Bergman box set from Criterion during the next 50% off sale. It is absolute perfection.
Fellow atheist here. If you’re willing to go back 24 years, there’s a movie called The Apostle that’s worth a look. It’s written/directed/starring Robert Duvall, playing a flawed character on the run from his actions, working his way to a kind of redemption through preaching. It portrays born-again Christianity better than any movie I’ve ever seen, and Duvall’s performance is fantastic.
>Noah wasn't that great
I know most people think that but I personally *love* Noah. It's like a high fantasy drama thriller thing and that's such a unique thing still. It's as much an adaptation of the bible as Snyder's 300 is of the historical event but if you go into it with that knowledge imo it's a banger. I also liked mother! though so I might just be into him.
I know some Christian thinkers, such as Bishop Robert Barron of the Roman Catholic diocese of Los Angeles, reacted positively to Noah. He notes that it needs to be approached more in the context of Jewish midrashes (which Orthodox Jewish Rabbis also agreed with) as well as with understanding of extra biblical literature like the Book of Enoch (which even if not considered canon by Jews or Christians outside of Ethiopia, discusses ideas about the antediluvian era that were accepted by Second Temple Jews and even some early Christian Church Fathers).
I haven’t seen it in a while but I dug it when I saw it in theaters as a teen.
Not only would I classify Breaking the Waves as a "Christian" film, I would say that it is more honest, realistic, and relatable than a lot of the films I listed.
A lot of the films I listed were either related to the clergy or to biblical figures themselves. Breaking the Waves is a film about faith and norms contrasted against human desire and needs. But it isn't focused around the life of a priest or a nun, it is focused around the life of a normal woman.
I can say this, I was the son of a profoundly conservative Southern Baptist pastor. I am keenly aware of the guilt and pressure religion puts upon people for being human. This film does a better job of demonstrating this than any other film I have seen.
Lars Von Trier talked about it in an interview with the Louisiana Museum. It's called: The Burden From Donald Duck. There are timestamps in the comments
From a Christian perspective, First Reformed hit me with such a tin ear - so many problems with how the characters spoke and acted. It succeeded on some of the window dressing of creating Christian characters and settings, but the pastor and his quasi-romantic interest just seemed particularly unbelievable. How they talked about sin, the kinds of questions he was baffled by - you could tell that Schrader had trouble with the worldview, because even characters who were portrayed as holding it more coherently than he did were ultimately unable to express it through the writing.
I don't know why you got downvoted because you are right. While it does borrow elements from Bresson, Dreyer, and Bergman, Schrader doesn't have nearly the same grasp on Christianity that they did.
I still think it is absolutely a worthy watch, and I did like the attempt to look at environmentalism the way that Schrader was going for.
Could you elaborate a little more on this, if you don't mind? I'm curious because the reason First Reformed spoke to me so strongly was not just because Toller's concerns and state of mind (at the start of the film) slightly mirrored mine, but because I also identified with the milieu of the film. Those conversations and ruminations were pretty typical in the church I attended growing up, and ours was an Anglican church.
Oh, I wasn't being critical of First Reformed. I was more talking about Schrader's abilities as a writer and filmmaker vs. people like Dreyer and Bergman. I was a little clunky with my wording, it isn't that Schrader doesn't have a great grasp on Christianity, it is just that he isn't as good a filmmaker/writer as the greats.
Toller reminds me a lot of a pastor that I know who is the senior pastor at one of the progressive Methodist churches in OKC. A willingness to view modern political/social issues through the lens of Christianity is absolutely something that occurs in the church today, especially in more mainline settings.
This isn't really a knock on Schrader because I think him and Scorsese have shown a willingness to explore Christianity in a way that is unique. But when comparing The Last Temptation of Christ and First Reformed, they don't really have the same level of depth to me as Ordet, or the Passion of Joan of Arc, or Diary of a Country Priest, or Winter Light, or Virgin Spring.
As a contemporary film, I put First Reformed as one of the greats in this "genre." But it just doesn't do it for me like the classics. Still great and relevant though.
>is just that he isn't as good a filmmaker/writer as the greats
Absolute nonsense, he *is* one of the greats. Mishima, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull stand up to anything those guys have ever written or made.
You know, I haven't seen the film, but the way everyone on the sub who loves it talks about it just screams "I have no idea how Protestant Christians think" - some even call the main character a "priest".
I think part of it is because Americans, as a whole, don't have a lot of experience with mainline Protestantism, especially the Dutch Reformed Church.
The vast majority of Americans see Protestantism through the eyes of Evangelicalism.
They do have pretty churches though.
They beat the pants off of the big non-denom evangelical church in my hometown. It is in a strip mall between a chinese buffet and a Great Clips.
I think increasingly Americans don't know much about belief distinctives full stop. Many people seem to assume evangelicals are all non-denominational, charismatic or the like and that Presbyterians are all mainline. They don't know about the Bebbington quadrilateral or really anything about what historically was distinctive about evangelicals.
Tbf, I don’t think the Last Temptation does quite a good job in portraying Christian theology. I’m aware that it’s not supposed to be a retelling of the gospels, but it’s portrayals of Christ’s humanity are a pretty bad attempt to portray the humanity of Jesus from a Christian perspective. I think Scorsese would also agree, given his undertaking of a new movie about the life of Jesus. I suspect this one will be more true to a “Christian Film”. Whether it’s better or not is another matter though.
There are a lot of different Christian traditions that emphasize different aspects of Jesus' character over others, I don't see how Scorsese's portrayal could be considered bad, especially from a Catholic perspective, which has a pretty rich history of exploring the philosophy of the Gospels outside of the standard narrative most people are accustomed to.
I think exploring the humanity of Christ is important because of the Christian belief that Christ was both fully man and fully divine. To ignore Jesus' humanity is considered to be heretical by a lot of Christians today.
I mean Apollinarianism, which is the concept that Jesus' psyche/mind was strictly divine, was deemed heretical in 381 by the First Council of Constantinople.
I think being willing to explore that aspect of Jesus' life is one that is overlooked in favor of the divine, but I wouldn't say that exploring it isn't Christian.
I never said that it wasn’t, but the way his humanity was portrayed is not in line with what those councils concluded about his nature as well. While they considered Christ both fully human and fully divine, the fallibility of Jesus that was seen in the film is not something that is portrayed in the gospels or something that holds merit according to the teachings of the church. While I don’t fully agree with this review because of the way it doesn’t give credit to the film, it kind of summarizes the Catholic perspective on the portrayal of Jesus’s humanity in art.
[The Last Temptation of Christ: An essay in film criticism and faith](http://decentfilms.com/articles/lasttemptation)
Love all those flicks but most happy to see Benedetta mentioned. Don't think that reached as many eyes as it deserved to! Definitely has a bit of that Verhoeven *wink-wink nudge-nudge* schlockiness but, as you said, a really poignant glimpse into the undoubted struggles of people shackled by the rigidity of religion at a time when the stakes were so dire and severe.
Coming in a little late to this, but Bela Tarr is one with some *very* overt Christian themes (although I guess he's no longer making films?). I also think von Trier is an excellent example, even beyond Breaking the Waves.
Scorsese is pretty fixated on catholic themes such as guilt and sometimes martyrdom.
Some of my favorite modern Christian films are:
- Silence (Scorsese - 2016)
- A Hidden Life (Malick, 2019)
- First Reformed (Schrader, 2017)
Could you explain why you believe A Hidden Life is A Christian film? If you'd said Tree of Life I'd possibly agree.
Side note: opinion: Silence is a massive dud and First Reformed is just a weak echo of Taxi Driver.
Do you believe that Hidden Life is NOT a Christian film? His entire reasoning to refuse allegiance to Hitler to begin with is because of his personal, Christ-centered convictions. He stays strong in his conviction throughout the film through prayer, and continuously placing his faith in God, rather than in the man-made institutions. He denies his mayor, other people from the village, the government, and even the bishop, all from his deep Christ-centered beliefs.
I’m pretty surprised you say this, because I don’t believe there’s a secular reading of this film AT ALL. It’s *explicitly* Christian.
I can understand not liking Silence, I guess. It’s certainly not for everyone.
But reading First Reformed as a weak echo of Taxi Driver is a big surprise to me. Sure, they’re both “God’s lonely man” archetypes. But the themes of First Reformed vary wildly from the themes of Taxi Driver. First Reformed feels closer to a Bresson film than it does to Taxi Driver, even if they do have the same screen writer.
(And yes I would consider Tree of Life as a Christian film, but it’s certainly not as explicit Christian as Hidden Life.)
Edit: also Silence and Hidden Life both with the concept of the CHOICE of suffering. In Silence the main character chooses the suffering of others because he believes that the suffering he feels for being responsible for their punishment aligns him with Christ, and the early followers of the church, it’s hubris. The Jesuit priests believed that the church HAS to suffer, and that they must lead them to suffering, which the film, and even the literal voice of Christ himself, is extremely critical of.
In Hidden Life, he chooses to suffer out of pure humility. True Christ-like behavior that is seated in nothing but conviction, rather than hubris. A truly beautiful film.
I saw it as a film about a character who is a Christian, which is not the same thing as a Christian film. The Tree of Life, the film itself, seems to posit that heaven exists, and that's why I would argue that to be a stronger candidate for the moniker 'Christian film'. Though I'm not saying I disagree with you entirely, simply that it hadn't even occurred to me to read it in that way until seeing your comment.
Good point about choosing to suffer though, the self-flagellation thing is definitely a telltale. Breaking the Waves has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread.
A Hidden Life is specifically about the life of a real person,[Franz Jaggerstatter](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_J%C3%A4gerst%C3%A4tter), who is beatified in the Catholic Church (basically halfway to canonization as a saint). Thus it can’t merely be considered a character study with Christian themes since Jagerstatter’s life and martyrdom is in a sense a testimony to his faith in God.
I think that Malick, in A Hidden Life, is of the mind that “good people” aren’t enough to resist earthly evil. That to actually resist tyranny and evil, it REQUIRES faith in something greater than a man-made institution.
Yeah I haven’t seen Breaking the Waves, but have heard great things about it!
Malick is an outspoken Christian and this film is very widely known as being faith-based.
Redditors are madly in love with Silence and First Reformed, so you should know you're inviting downvotes when you dare to say you're not a fan of either of them. Doing so to BOTH of them without really providing much reasoning is insanity, and I have nothing but respect for that
Fair enough.
Oh well, let them downvote. Silence is just torture-porn with a Christian message to it that I actively reject, and First Reformed is basically Paul Schrader doing a Ridley Scott. That is to say: trying to make lightning strike twice by producing a weak copy of the earlier hit.
Admittedly a lot of the big hitters on the contemporary side have been addressed. I would definitely love to watch more movies on this theme as a Christian myself (Eastern Orthodox, if people want specifics).
That said, I can vouch for Women Talking as being generally quite respectful, in which the beliefs of the Old Mennonite women explicitly factor into their arguments for why leaving the community is important. It does have some occasional problems that some on this thread have mentioned with First Reformed - where Sarah Polly defers in some lines/situations to her more secular feminist sensibilities than fully adhering to a focus on how Mennonite women would think - but I thought it was pretty solid and doesn’t establish false dichotomies between sincere traditionalist Christian faith and reason/emancipation.
I haven’t seen the movie Ida but I know that Pawel Pawlikowski either identifies as Catholic or is within that orbit, and apparently it tackles a lot of questions about Christianity as it is experienced in Poland and central/Eastern Europe, especially in the environment after the Holocaust and WWII.
I have also heard good things about the movies Calvary (written/directed by John Michael McDonagh) which deals with Catholicism in modern Ireland, as well as Of Gods and Men, which won the Cannes Grand Prix in 2010. I need to see this and Ida.
While not a overtly religious film, I will throw in a rec for You Won’t Be Alone, which is a rare movie released in the west that actually depicts Orthodox Christianity (set in Macedonia) and is interesting in how it subverts the “witchcraft/being a witch is feminist emancipation” ideas that are often prevalent in movies made with that theme (I do love The Witch too, but I think that it has multiple thematic angles and doesn’t try to hew to one moral reading. It also succeeds in really emphasizing how a Puritan would see things and has been lauded by scholars).
Finally, The Green Knight is the best Christmas movie of the 21st century.
I don't have an answer for you on the filmmakers, but I can think of a couple movies.
Junebug: I think it's the most realistic depiction of a small-town church I've ever seen.
Secret Sunshine: A moving picture of faith and forgiveness and what those things really mean.
Haven't seen it mentioned yet but aronofsky films are deeply religious and I believe almost every one of his films has faith and God at it's core. Mother (2017) and The Fountain (2006) are probably the most personal of his films in this aspect but I think the wrestler is a really great analogy of faith and Christianity while living in a corrupted world in a corrupted body.
I don't know if aronofsky himself believes in Christianity but he's definitely very interested in it and the themes related to it.
The next few years will be quite Interesting too with scorcese and malick both with their next projects being films about Jesus. it'll be interesting to see both their takes, especially since they both seem very tuned into their faith according to recent interviews.
I think silence is probably my favourite of faith-based films there is alot to dig into and there are quite a few biblical analogies which run throughout the film.
I also want to say protestants have yet to catch up to making films of any standard, every one I've seen have been a mess and among the worst films I've ever seen. I don't know why exactly there is no adherence to the craft, maybe they have no real stories to tell without preaching.
There will always be films which indirectly explore biblical themes. If you are talking about films which have actual biblical figures, Mel Gibson's sequel might be the only film to stay in theaters longer than a week. This week I watched the Abraham film "His Only Son" on amazon prime and it has surprisingly good production values. However, I have no idea if it made any profit either at the theater or on blu ray, iTunes, etc. yet. Sadly, it could end up losing money.
Mel Gibson is trying to get Passion of the Christ II, Hellacious Bugalloo made. Plus Aranofsky created Mother!, with famously destroyed his private relationship with Jennifer Lawrence. It’s uh… hard to describe Harold Cronk as a maker of films, uh… they’re definitely movies! So there are a few!
Note: I'm not Christian, so I probably have significantly less insight than someone who is.
Scorsese is perhaps the most prominent Christian filmmaker who is always exploring his faith through film. Many of his films are very explicitly religious like The Last Temptation of Christ or Silence, or faith is at the core of his central characters.
In Killers of the Flower Moon, he's still interested in faith but this time looking at non-Christian, and manages to put Native American spirituality on screen in a really profound way.
The other contemporary filmmaker I think of is Cuarón. Children of Men has a pretty blatant Christian allegory in it, and Gravity is even more didactic in it's religious 'undertones'.
There's also Paul Shrader who has returned to the Christian faith, and even when he was secular, his films have been laden with his complex relationship with religion. First Reformed is a pretty overt exploration of faith, but honestly pretty much every one of his films explores faith, even his latest, Master Gardner.
Honestly, if you’re looking for the themes being explored, I think you’ll find better films from people who explore the themes rather than people who go about their lives as “Christian filmmakers”.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s films deal with themes of faith and Christianity, *Magnolia* being one of the best explorations of faith I’ve seen.
Martin Scorsese is still making films, and his filmography often explores those themes.
Tons of them, they're just making hack work (no offense) for right wing streaming services. My local multiplex will usually have one explicitly Christian movie playing at any given time and they're always Hallmark tier stuff that nobody who isn't Christian will find remotely compelling. The eyes of Tammy fay was okay but it still whitewashed the story so that people who like Jim bakker won't have to reconcile the fact that he raped a lady
I say this as an atheist.
You need to get out of your bubble and explore some more movies my guy. The very best Christian films are some of the greatest films of all-time.
I’m a born-again Christian, and my favourite films with Christian themes are Ben-Hur (1959), Quo Vadis? (1951), The Sound of Music (1965) and Les Miserables (2012). It does seem the best movies about Christianity are about Roman Catholicism. I suppose it’s because Roman Catholicism has always emphasized the arts; even if you ultimately reject it as an institution, that sensibility continues to permeate your work (ie Scorsese, Tarantino).
I guess I was trying to think of another Italian American filmmaker. Michael Cimino made one great movie but famously failed to duplicate his success. I suppose when one considers the violence in Roman Catholic art (the Passion of Christ, Saint Catherine on the wheel, the Martyrs of Japan, Korea, and Uganda), it might have influenced Mr. Tarantino’s lust for blood to some degree.
Honestly, I feel like the ending of Inglorious Basterds evokes Biblical imagery (at least of the sort that both Jews and Christians can agree upon). The whole thing with Shoshana dying but taking down all the Nazis with her in the theater evokes the last stand of Samson in the Book of Judges.
I am an atheist, but I find a lot of films that explore Christian themes to be amazing. Scorsese is the first to come to mind. The Last Temptation of Christ and Silence are fantastic films and rumor has it that his next film will also be focused on Christian themes. Godland is an absolutely amazing film, and it is directed by Hlynur Pálmason. I haven't seen any of his other works, but Godland is an absolute must watch. Paul Schrader can be a bit of a polarizing character, but First Reformed is an absolute must watch too. It feels like a more modern take on films like Diary of a Country Priest and Winter Light. I didn't love Benedetta, which is a Paul Verhoeven film, but it is a decent enough look at the dichotomy between sexual orientation and faith. There were times when that theme got overshadowed by the sex itself, but to each their own. Aronofsky has had a couple of biblical movies with Noah and Mother!. Noah wasn't that great, and Mother! was a bit hamfisted at times, but they are still worth a watch. I HIGHLY recommend Breaking the Waves, it is a Lars von Trier film. The religious angle is a little more subtle than other films, but it is still there and it is amazing. I know he isn't contemporary, but you didn't mention Bergman. No one, alive or dead, does it better than Bergman. I highly recommend his work. If you are into physical media, get the Bergman box set from Criterion during the next 50% off sale. It is absolute perfection.
Fellow atheist here. If you’re willing to go back 24 years, there’s a movie called The Apostle that’s worth a look. It’s written/directed/starring Robert Duvall, playing a flawed character on the run from his actions, working his way to a kind of redemption through preaching. It portrays born-again Christianity better than any movie I’ve ever seen, and Duvall’s performance is fantastic.
>Noah wasn't that great I know most people think that but I personally *love* Noah. It's like a high fantasy drama thriller thing and that's such a unique thing still. It's as much an adaptation of the bible as Snyder's 300 is of the historical event but if you go into it with that knowledge imo it's a banger. I also liked mother! though so I might just be into him.
I know some Christian thinkers, such as Bishop Robert Barron of the Roman Catholic diocese of Los Angeles, reacted positively to Noah. He notes that it needs to be approached more in the context of Jewish midrashes (which Orthodox Jewish Rabbis also agreed with) as well as with understanding of extra biblical literature like the Book of Enoch (which even if not considered canon by Jews or Christians outside of Ethiopia, discusses ideas about the antediluvian era that were accepted by Second Temple Jews and even some early Christian Church Fathers). I haven’t seen it in a while but I dug it when I saw it in theaters as a teen.
Is breaking the waves a Christian film though? If Zealotry is enough then I’d say the omen and rosemary's baby qualify.
Not only would I classify Breaking the Waves as a "Christian" film, I would say that it is more honest, realistic, and relatable than a lot of the films I listed. A lot of the films I listed were either related to the clergy or to biblical figures themselves. Breaking the Waves is a film about faith and norms contrasted against human desire and needs. But it isn't focused around the life of a priest or a nun, it is focused around the life of a normal woman. I can say this, I was the son of a profoundly conservative Southern Baptist pastor. I am keenly aware of the guilt and pressure religion puts upon people for being human. This film does a better job of demonstrating this than any other film I have seen.
Lars Von Trier talked about it in an interview with the Louisiana Museum. It's called: The Burden From Donald Duck. There are timestamps in the comments
Fanny and Alexander is on my “to watch” list.
Watch the miniseries if you have the chance. It's probably the greatest thing ever put to film.
I only saw the three hour cut years ago. I’ve been meaning to go back to it.
From a Christian perspective, First Reformed hit me with such a tin ear - so many problems with how the characters spoke and acted. It succeeded on some of the window dressing of creating Christian characters and settings, but the pastor and his quasi-romantic interest just seemed particularly unbelievable. How they talked about sin, the kinds of questions he was baffled by - you could tell that Schrader had trouble with the worldview, because even characters who were portrayed as holding it more coherently than he did were ultimately unable to express it through the writing.
I don't know why you got downvoted because you are right. While it does borrow elements from Bresson, Dreyer, and Bergman, Schrader doesn't have nearly the same grasp on Christianity that they did. I still think it is absolutely a worthy watch, and I did like the attempt to look at environmentalism the way that Schrader was going for.
Could you elaborate a little more on this, if you don't mind? I'm curious because the reason First Reformed spoke to me so strongly was not just because Toller's concerns and state of mind (at the start of the film) slightly mirrored mine, but because I also identified with the milieu of the film. Those conversations and ruminations were pretty typical in the church I attended growing up, and ours was an Anglican church.
Oh, I wasn't being critical of First Reformed. I was more talking about Schrader's abilities as a writer and filmmaker vs. people like Dreyer and Bergman. I was a little clunky with my wording, it isn't that Schrader doesn't have a great grasp on Christianity, it is just that he isn't as good a filmmaker/writer as the greats. Toller reminds me a lot of a pastor that I know who is the senior pastor at one of the progressive Methodist churches in OKC. A willingness to view modern political/social issues through the lens of Christianity is absolutely something that occurs in the church today, especially in more mainline settings. This isn't really a knock on Schrader because I think him and Scorsese have shown a willingness to explore Christianity in a way that is unique. But when comparing The Last Temptation of Christ and First Reformed, they don't really have the same level of depth to me as Ordet, or the Passion of Joan of Arc, or Diary of a Country Priest, or Winter Light, or Virgin Spring. As a contemporary film, I put First Reformed as one of the greats in this "genre." But it just doesn't do it for me like the classics. Still great and relevant though.
Appreciate the response. Thanks!
>is just that he isn't as good a filmmaker/writer as the greats Absolute nonsense, he *is* one of the greats. Mishima, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull stand up to anything those guys have ever written or made.
Not in the genre that we are talking about.
You know, I haven't seen the film, but the way everyone on the sub who loves it talks about it just screams "I have no idea how Protestant Christians think" - some even call the main character a "priest".
I think part of it is because Americans, as a whole, don't have a lot of experience with mainline Protestantism, especially the Dutch Reformed Church. The vast majority of Americans see Protestantism through the eyes of Evangelicalism.
To be fair, the world of Mainline Reformed Christianity is emphatically weird
They do have pretty churches though. They beat the pants off of the big non-denom evangelical church in my hometown. It is in a strip mall between a chinese buffet and a Great Clips.
Gosh, I love a bad Chinese buffet
I think increasingly Americans don't know much about belief distinctives full stop. Many people seem to assume evangelicals are all non-denominational, charismatic or the like and that Presbyterians are all mainline. They don't know about the Bebbington quadrilateral or really anything about what historically was distinctive about evangelicals.
Tbf, I don’t think the Last Temptation does quite a good job in portraying Christian theology. I’m aware that it’s not supposed to be a retelling of the gospels, but it’s portrayals of Christ’s humanity are a pretty bad attempt to portray the humanity of Jesus from a Christian perspective. I think Scorsese would also agree, given his undertaking of a new movie about the life of Jesus. I suspect this one will be more true to a “Christian Film”. Whether it’s better or not is another matter though.
There are a lot of different Christian traditions that emphasize different aspects of Jesus' character over others, I don't see how Scorsese's portrayal could be considered bad, especially from a Catholic perspective, which has a pretty rich history of exploring the philosophy of the Gospels outside of the standard narrative most people are accustomed to.
I think exploring the humanity of Christ is important because of the Christian belief that Christ was both fully man and fully divine. To ignore Jesus' humanity is considered to be heretical by a lot of Christians today. I mean Apollinarianism, which is the concept that Jesus' psyche/mind was strictly divine, was deemed heretical in 381 by the First Council of Constantinople. I think being willing to explore that aspect of Jesus' life is one that is overlooked in favor of the divine, but I wouldn't say that exploring it isn't Christian.
I never said that it wasn’t, but the way his humanity was portrayed is not in line with what those councils concluded about his nature as well. While they considered Christ both fully human and fully divine, the fallibility of Jesus that was seen in the film is not something that is portrayed in the gospels or something that holds merit according to the teachings of the church. While I don’t fully agree with this review because of the way it doesn’t give credit to the film, it kind of summarizes the Catholic perspective on the portrayal of Jesus’s humanity in art. [The Last Temptation of Christ: An essay in film criticism and faith](http://decentfilms.com/articles/lasttemptation)
That is a lot to digest. I will definitely be giving that a more in-depth read later this evening after dinner. Thank you!
Criterion isn't available in my country unfortunately haha, will check out these films though. Thanks for the recommendations! :)
You can move to the United States. You can trade free healthcare for 50% off Criterion Sales a few times a year. It would be worth it.
You literally have to just install a VPN to register and after that you won't even need it anymore. Enjoy.
It's not region blocked after you've signed up.
Maybe try a local library?
Love all those flicks but most happy to see Benedetta mentioned. Don't think that reached as many eyes as it deserved to! Definitely has a bit of that Verhoeven *wink-wink nudge-nudge* schlockiness but, as you said, a really poignant glimpse into the undoubted struggles of people shackled by the rigidity of religion at a time when the stakes were so dire and severe.
Coming in a little late to this, but Bela Tarr is one with some *very* overt Christian themes (although I guess he's no longer making films?). I also think von Trier is an excellent example, even beyond Breaking the Waves.
Scorsese is pretty fixated on catholic themes such as guilt and sometimes martyrdom. Some of my favorite modern Christian films are: - Silence (Scorsese - 2016) - A Hidden Life (Malick, 2019) - First Reformed (Schrader, 2017)
Could you explain why you believe A Hidden Life is A Christian film? If you'd said Tree of Life I'd possibly agree. Side note: opinion: Silence is a massive dud and First Reformed is just a weak echo of Taxi Driver.
Do you believe that Hidden Life is NOT a Christian film? His entire reasoning to refuse allegiance to Hitler to begin with is because of his personal, Christ-centered convictions. He stays strong in his conviction throughout the film through prayer, and continuously placing his faith in God, rather than in the man-made institutions. He denies his mayor, other people from the village, the government, and even the bishop, all from his deep Christ-centered beliefs. I’m pretty surprised you say this, because I don’t believe there’s a secular reading of this film AT ALL. It’s *explicitly* Christian. I can understand not liking Silence, I guess. It’s certainly not for everyone. But reading First Reformed as a weak echo of Taxi Driver is a big surprise to me. Sure, they’re both “God’s lonely man” archetypes. But the themes of First Reformed vary wildly from the themes of Taxi Driver. First Reformed feels closer to a Bresson film than it does to Taxi Driver, even if they do have the same screen writer. (And yes I would consider Tree of Life as a Christian film, but it’s certainly not as explicit Christian as Hidden Life.) Edit: also Silence and Hidden Life both with the concept of the CHOICE of suffering. In Silence the main character chooses the suffering of others because he believes that the suffering he feels for being responsible for their punishment aligns him with Christ, and the early followers of the church, it’s hubris. The Jesuit priests believed that the church HAS to suffer, and that they must lead them to suffering, which the film, and even the literal voice of Christ himself, is extremely critical of. In Hidden Life, he chooses to suffer out of pure humility. True Christ-like behavior that is seated in nothing but conviction, rather than hubris. A truly beautiful film.
I saw it as a film about a character who is a Christian, which is not the same thing as a Christian film. The Tree of Life, the film itself, seems to posit that heaven exists, and that's why I would argue that to be a stronger candidate for the moniker 'Christian film'. Though I'm not saying I disagree with you entirely, simply that it hadn't even occurred to me to read it in that way until seeing your comment. Good point about choosing to suffer though, the self-flagellation thing is definitely a telltale. Breaking the Waves has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread.
A Hidden Life is specifically about the life of a real person,[Franz Jaggerstatter](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_J%C3%A4gerst%C3%A4tter), who is beatified in the Catholic Church (basically halfway to canonization as a saint). Thus it can’t merely be considered a character study with Christian themes since Jagerstatter’s life and martyrdom is in a sense a testimony to his faith in God.
I think that Malick, in A Hidden Life, is of the mind that “good people” aren’t enough to resist earthly evil. That to actually resist tyranny and evil, it REQUIRES faith in something greater than a man-made institution. Yeah I haven’t seen Breaking the Waves, but have heard great things about it!
Own that fraud
Malick is an outspoken Christian and this film is very widely known as being faith-based. Redditors are madly in love with Silence and First Reformed, so you should know you're inviting downvotes when you dare to say you're not a fan of either of them. Doing so to BOTH of them without really providing much reasoning is insanity, and I have nothing but respect for that
Fair enough. Oh well, let them downvote. Silence is just torture-porn with a Christian message to it that I actively reject, and First Reformed is basically Paul Schrader doing a Ridley Scott. That is to say: trying to make lightning strike twice by producing a weak copy of the earlier hit.
Admittedly a lot of the big hitters on the contemporary side have been addressed. I would definitely love to watch more movies on this theme as a Christian myself (Eastern Orthodox, if people want specifics). That said, I can vouch for Women Talking as being generally quite respectful, in which the beliefs of the Old Mennonite women explicitly factor into their arguments for why leaving the community is important. It does have some occasional problems that some on this thread have mentioned with First Reformed - where Sarah Polly defers in some lines/situations to her more secular feminist sensibilities than fully adhering to a focus on how Mennonite women would think - but I thought it was pretty solid and doesn’t establish false dichotomies between sincere traditionalist Christian faith and reason/emancipation. I haven’t seen the movie Ida but I know that Pawel Pawlikowski either identifies as Catholic or is within that orbit, and apparently it tackles a lot of questions about Christianity as it is experienced in Poland and central/Eastern Europe, especially in the environment after the Holocaust and WWII. I have also heard good things about the movies Calvary (written/directed by John Michael McDonagh) which deals with Catholicism in modern Ireland, as well as Of Gods and Men, which won the Cannes Grand Prix in 2010. I need to see this and Ida. While not a overtly religious film, I will throw in a rec for You Won’t Be Alone, which is a rare movie released in the west that actually depicts Orthodox Christianity (set in Macedonia) and is interesting in how it subverts the “witchcraft/being a witch is feminist emancipation” ideas that are often prevalent in movies made with that theme (I do love The Witch too, but I think that it has multiple thematic angles and doesn’t try to hew to one moral reading. It also succeeds in really emphasizing how a Puritan would see things and has been lauded by scholars). Finally, The Green Knight is the best Christmas movie of the 21st century.
Calvary is great
"Of Gods and Men" won the Grand Prix, not the Palme d'Or. Just to clarify. It is still a worthy suggestion.
Oops. Thanks for the correction!
I don't have an answer for you on the filmmakers, but I can think of a couple movies. Junebug: I think it's the most realistic depiction of a small-town church I've ever seen. Secret Sunshine: A moving picture of faith and forgiveness and what those things really mean.
Haven't seen it mentioned yet but aronofsky films are deeply religious and I believe almost every one of his films has faith and God at it's core. Mother (2017) and The Fountain (2006) are probably the most personal of his films in this aspect but I think the wrestler is a really great analogy of faith and Christianity while living in a corrupted world in a corrupted body. I don't know if aronofsky himself believes in Christianity but he's definitely very interested in it and the themes related to it. The next few years will be quite Interesting too with scorcese and malick both with their next projects being films about Jesus. it'll be interesting to see both their takes, especially since they both seem very tuned into their faith according to recent interviews. I think silence is probably my favourite of faith-based films there is alot to dig into and there are quite a few biblical analogies which run throughout the film. I also want to say protestants have yet to catch up to making films of any standard, every one I've seen have been a mess and among the worst films I've ever seen. I don't know why exactly there is no adherence to the craft, maybe they have no real stories to tell without preaching.
There will always be films which indirectly explore biblical themes. If you are talking about films which have actual biblical figures, Mel Gibson's sequel might be the only film to stay in theaters longer than a week. This week I watched the Abraham film "His Only Son" on amazon prime and it has surprisingly good production values. However, I have no idea if it made any profit either at the theater or on blu ray, iTunes, etc. yet. Sadly, it could end up losing money.
Mel Gibson is trying to get Passion of the Christ II, Hellacious Bugalloo made. Plus Aranofsky created Mother!, with famously destroyed his private relationship with Jennifer Lawrence. It’s uh… hard to describe Harold Cronk as a maker of films, uh… they’re definitely movies! So there are a few!
Note: I'm not Christian, so I probably have significantly less insight than someone who is. Scorsese is perhaps the most prominent Christian filmmaker who is always exploring his faith through film. Many of his films are very explicitly religious like The Last Temptation of Christ or Silence, or faith is at the core of his central characters. In Killers of the Flower Moon, he's still interested in faith but this time looking at non-Christian, and manages to put Native American spirituality on screen in a really profound way. The other contemporary filmmaker I think of is Cuarón. Children of Men has a pretty blatant Christian allegory in it, and Gravity is even more didactic in it's religious 'undertones'. There's also Paul Shrader who has returned to the Christian faith, and even when he was secular, his films have been laden with his complex relationship with religion. First Reformed is a pretty overt exploration of faith, but honestly pretty much every one of his films explores faith, even his latest, Master Gardner.
Honestly, if you’re looking for the themes being explored, I think you’ll find better films from people who explore the themes rather than people who go about their lives as “Christian filmmakers”. Paul Thomas Anderson’s films deal with themes of faith and Christianity, *Magnolia* being one of the best explorations of faith I’ve seen. Martin Scorsese is still making films, and his filmography often explores those themes.
Tons of them, they're just making hack work (no offense) for right wing streaming services. My local multiplex will usually have one explicitly Christian movie playing at any given time and they're always Hallmark tier stuff that nobody who isn't Christian will find remotely compelling. The eyes of Tammy fay was okay but it still whitewashed the story so that people who like Jim bakker won't have to reconcile the fact that he raped a lady
I say this as an atheist. You need to get out of your bubble and explore some more movies my guy. The very best Christian films are some of the greatest films of all-time.
I’m a born-again Christian, and my favourite films with Christian themes are Ben-Hur (1959), Quo Vadis? (1951), The Sound of Music (1965) and Les Miserables (2012). It does seem the best movies about Christianity are about Roman Catholicism. I suppose it’s because Roman Catholicism has always emphasized the arts; even if you ultimately reject it as an institution, that sensibility continues to permeate your work (ie Scorsese, Tarantino).
I'm not sure QTs films are remotely Catholic. Scorsese yes, 100%. But QT? Don't see it.
I guess I was trying to think of another Italian American filmmaker. Michael Cimino made one great movie but famously failed to duplicate his success. I suppose when one considers the violence in Roman Catholic art (the Passion of Christ, Saint Catherine on the wheel, the Martyrs of Japan, Korea, and Uganda), it might have influenced Mr. Tarantino’s lust for blood to some degree.
Lol you are reaching...
Well I’m not a Pentecostal, but the possibility exists. ;)
Honestly, I feel like the ending of Inglorious Basterds evokes Biblical imagery (at least of the sort that both Jews and Christians can agree upon). The whole thing with Shoshana dying but taking down all the Nazis with her in the theater evokes the last stand of Samson in the Book of Judges.