New Christian movies must avoid the mistakes of 2014
The booming voice of Charlton Heston declaring the glory of God in “The Ten Commandments” characterizes one of the few times audiences were wowed by the scope of a biblical film — and that was in 1956. Since then, many biblical films have followed, but have had trouble in the mainstream matching the epic nature of Cecil B. DeMille’s masterpiece. That is, until last year.
Andrew Jenson
In 2014, biblical movies returned to the mainstream. “Noah,” “Exodus: Gods and Kings” and “Son of God” allowed audiences to see big name Hollywood talent bring the Bible to the silver screen after a decade of zilch, while “God’s Not Dead” and “Heaven is for Real” continued in the tradition of films like “Courageous” and “Fireproof,” but on a slightly larger scale.
It was incredible to see so many big Christian films released in one year. Trouble is, all of these movies were worse than the 10 plagues of Egypt.
They left much to be desired — and not just as religious films, but as films in general. From the barely developed relationship between Moses and Rameses in “Exodus: Gods and Kings” to the ridiculous story and characters in “God’s Not Dead,” not one of these pictures worked successfully as films.
Even acclaimed director Darren Aronofsky failed to deliver a good film in “Noah,” with its melodramatic tone and strange character motivations.
Theologically, the films fell into one of two categories: shallow and elementary, as with “Son of God,” or repugnant — as with “Noah.”
And now, through the likes of Lionsgate and Sony Pictures, Hollywood will continue to produce Christian films into 2015. The ghosts of the Christian films past leaves some doubt that these films will meet with greater success.
With this Christian-inspired movie trend continuing via projects like “Mary,” “Clavius” and “The Redemption of Cain,” the filmmakers behind these movies need to get their act together and avoid the ways of last year’s biblical epics. If they don’t, it would be preferable for Hollywood studios to discontinue production of any more biblical movies for a while.
This isn’t to say that filmmakers should be restricted from making the films they want. However, if they wish to make their films resemble the likes of “Noah” and “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” they need to make this clear to their audience.
I remember watching “Noah” trailers and being excited about seeing this incredible story in theaters. But, it turned out the film wasn’t really for me or any other Christian. It used the Noah angle to get religious fans in seats, only to present Aronofsky’s unscriptural interpretation of the account.
No one who is even remotely familiar with the Bible expected CGI rock monsters in a biblical epic. No longer was the story about the salvation of the righteous by the hand of God, but about the crazed antics of a religious lunatic and his family.
The feeling of betrayal is comparable to if “The Passion of the Christ” was actually a remake of Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ,” but still advertised itself as a true-to-Scripture film about Christ’s passion. Or imagine if “The Avengers” was actually about the Justice League, even though the previews promised a story about the Avengers. That’s what it felt like to watch these 2014 releases.
If Hollywood wants to capture the Christian market, they need to make more films like “The Ten Commandments,” “The Nativity Story,” “The Robe,” “Ben-Hur,” “Martin Luther” and “The Passion of the Christ.” All of these movies revered the source material, respected their audience and understood what they were dealing with.
Even though they have their flaws, the films told a tale that generally didn’t water down the basics or reinterpret Scripture — and thus were largely successful and lovingly remembered by the target audience.
If Hollywood is going to continue producing these Christian films into 2015 and beyond, they need to make them right or simply be honest about their contents. And if they can’t do that, they shouldn’t bother with anymore films.
Andrew Jenson can be reached at [email protected]